Hello Darkness My Old Friend, Pt. I

Habeas corpus, in layman's terms, means you have the right to know what crime you're charged with. Why you're being held. We don't have that right anymore, because of the evil pictured here. As of today, you can now legally be held for any reason, for any length of time, anywhere so long as it might have to do with comforting the enemy. You can be tortured, and if you aren't, someone will be. If you think the Military Commissions Act isn't going to fundamentally change what it means to live in the United States of America, you're wrong. It's not going to take long to see what it means. Under the law, your mayor can be held as an enemy combatant. So can a Senator. And you? Me? In the view of a paranoid and repressive government, we're all consumer-insurgents. I bet Guantanamo will take credit cards soon.

This country was founded by men and women of great intellect who contemplated long and hard on nature, particularly human nature. It's now being run by people of great determination who deny nature, especially human nature. Our former government was intentionally structured so "it could be run by Devils" and still bear good fruit more often than not. But the Devils were never happy with their due, so after they were thwarted one too many times, they set out to break democracy's messy codes of pluralism, to pick out all its locks and install a unitary system. They have reduced the system to one key, which they hold. "It's ok," they say, "because our intentions are above reproach and we can do our job of protecting you better this way."

Devils, yes, and good intentions. A myth has long circulated in Christendom that before God sent his spirit children to gain bodies on the earth, there was a war in heaven. The war was over how earth would be run. God called for ideas, and two main plans emerged. First was Christ's plan, which called the spirits to take on mortal bodies and to have human agency and freedom of choice. Of course, choice meant sin. Christ's plan ensured unique experiences in which faith would be tested, and everyone would later be judged according to their situation and opportunities. When asked what to do about the huge amounts of sin his plan would generate, Christ said he would go down and take the sins upon himself from anyone who repented. Lucifer, Son of Morning, saw a terrible flaw in Christ's plan in that many of God's children would fail a test of faith, and so would never make their way back to him. Lucifer proposed a plan which ensured not one soul would be lost, and he would safeguard god's children by taking on himself their human agency and freedom of choice. In exchange, Lucifer demanded the full power and glory of God be given to him, in order that each choice he made on the angels' behalf would be the right one, so they would return free of sin. This is the equivalent of when Cheney says, "Our way of life is not negotiable, we will protect it for you," and then demands all power and glory be granted to the Office of the Presidency.

God rejected Lucifer's plan because he saw it as a power-grab dressed up as idealism, just as even the Washington Post's editors saw through the Cheney plan. They finally let the following story by Andrew Cohen run today about the loss of habeus corpus:

"Enormous and unchecked new power now has been given to a White House whose officials at first called Zacarias Moussaoui the "20th hijacker" but were wrong; who at first called Jose Padilla the "dirty bomber" but were wrong; who at first called Yaser Hamdi such a threat to national security that he could not even be allowed to talk to his attorney -- until they decided to set him free. Freedom from judicial review now has been given to the same administration officials who allowed Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen whom we now know that they knew was not a terrorist, to be transferred to Syria for torture. Vague or narrow definitions of torture now have been given to the executive branch operatives who are responsible for Abu Ghraib. New powers have been given to the people who brought us the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, the one that some legal experts say violates both federal law and the Constitution."

There's a lot we already know about this man above us, this Cardinal Richeliu we're full subjects to. You know he controls Halliburton. You know he headed the search committee for a Vice President, only to choose himself. You know he headed the US National Energy Policy Development Group, and that he went hunting with a Supreme Court Justice to keep its records secret. You know he shot someone in the face and his victim apologized. You know he's obsessively secretive, so there's a lot we don't know about him, too, but from what we see, we can guess there's probably much that needs concealing. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "Men, in order to do great evil, must first believe that what they are doing is good." They don't just believe it. They're certain of it. Now you and I are in their clutches.

Dick Cheney does not believe in America. He doesn't believe we can pass a test of faith. He's trying to rig the oil game for us, stain us with a terrible brush, and in the process exalt himself. Like the Son of Morning he thinks, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:14) He will fail, but if we do not resist, we will be marked forever with the tyrant's brand. And I mean forever, if there be one. Whatever you wish to call your God or intuit from deep within you as the universal laws his personifications would uphold, you know together they surely hold usurpers and their followers in contempt. In the story of the War in Heaven, a third of the angels backed Christ, a third backed Lucifer, and while they fought a third sat on the fence. When it was over, Lucifer was cast down and became Satan, the devil, the father of all lies sent to deceive and to blind men and lead them captive at his will, even as many as will not hear God's voice, and his angels became the demons who dwell in the netherworld.

It is God's voice which invites all to come to him and share in goodness; he turns none who is sincere away, whether white or brown, black or yellow, man or woman, believing or not, free or slave. As the Founders understood so well, the sharpest point they won in private and fought for with their lives in public, we are all equal in the eyes of God.