Two interesting stories of note this weekend:

Ira Glass and This American Life spent the entire show this weekend focusing on examples of how the current executive branch of the US Government essentially decides that it doesn’t have to follow the law whenever it doesn’t feel like following the law.  These aren’t stories of “big” issues like getting into a war under false pretenses or about struggles between congress and the President, but stories of how the executive branch screws up the lives of every day Americans in some kind of twisted power grab. And the fact that you have probably not heard about these low-level things makes it all the more hideous.

Then…

60 Minutes told the story of Murat Kurnaz, a German citizen of Turkish decent who picked the wrong time to learn more about his religion as he was taken into custody (kidnapped by the US really) in Pakistan and held for 5 years in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Continually interregated and tortured….even as the US and Germany knew for years that he was innocent.  A high power request from the German Chancellor is what it took to finally get him free…and the US denies that anything bad happened to him while in custody and continues to consider him a threat to all our safety. Kurnaz has written a book about his experience that has just been released in English (”Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo” Amazon). I’m hoping to get my hands on a copy soon to read more about his story.

I’m just an average guy. I like to think I’m firmly in the middle of the road on most things. I’m not surprised or outraged at the government. Not that I don’t think that some things are going horribly, horribly wrong, but anybody who knows anything about history knows that people in power will almost always act in increasingly desperate measures to maintain and expand their power. It’s one of the sad truths about the human animal.

But what I am building up an increasing amount of outrage about is the absence of a large scale outbreak of  rage of the people? Why aren’t we standing up and demanding for what is right? And most especially, why am I not standing up for what is right? Why am I not in the streets screaming for justice and demanding that we live by the moral standards that our leaders say they pledge to uphold? I’m torn and I’m sick to my stomach and feeling completely helpless to do anything.

And then this morning, Henry M. Paulson, Jr. announces his plan for the government to increase their regulation of the financial market. I’m torn about this as well. On one hand something has to be done to reign in the lesser angels of our nature. The drive that the people with the power and the money have to gorge themselves on the profits they earn by ripping off people without power and money. On the other hand, we are in the middle of the crisis now. This is not a good time to blindly give any governmental body a blank check to increase their control. In many ways, this is very much a parallel to the days and weeks after September 11, 2001, when we as a people demanded that the government do something to protect us…and look what happened…the stories I heard this weekend and a great big yawn…no not even a yawn…nothing but silence from the population.

You might read this and place me firmly in the revolutionary left of the political spectrum. But I’m not. You’ll find out as time goes on that all sides of the political spectrum piss me off. My basic philosophy is that we need government to set some basic rules of fair play and then referee the game, blowing the whistle at a foul every now and then. But, on the other hand…if you give the governing body too much power, then suddenly we the people will find ourselves with none.

The question is…where is that line?

I don’t have the answer today. Maybe that’s why I’m not out screaming in the street at this horrible, horrible injustices. I just pray that I’m not going to hell for my inaction and indecision.