Julian Assange being carried out of the Ecuadorian embassy by UK law enforcement, claiming Assange skipped bail.
Photo courtesy of euronews, © 2019.
I’m going to do something different here. This blog is basically a poetry repository for things I may or may not publish in the future. It’s a great outlet for a great art, but not all that I am limited to. I am working on what may be considered a “dark fantasy” novel, a “Chicken Soup for The Soul” type book which is under rewrite, a literary fiction work(s) on my time as a truck driver and have published numerous articles as both a ghost writer and myself on everything from ghost hunting accessories to Schedule I laws to women’s rights in the workplace and small business arena. If ever I gain some notoriety for my writings, hopefully the most used adjective will be “prolific.”
Yeah, my ego rolls like that. :-D
So, I was raised in a First Amendment household; my father worked in the circulation side of the newspaper industry for the better part of his life. We didn’t agree on much politically, but the one thing we had in common is the firm understanding that the fifth estate is an institution that should always be kept inviolate by the US federal government and any and all threats, domestic and foreign. No being nor entity is higher than the law of the land, our US Constitution. Imperfect a document as it may be, the precepts of the laws contained therein are a form of purity that should always be protected; the very second we lay aside the meaning in those words on that fateful document, be it we stole this continent, enslaved its occupants or visited countless horrors on humans world wide- that is the very moment we release any integrity as a form of government we seemingly all agree upon as our way of making place in the world we share. Please remember that good, great things have also been created in our country.
What I’m trying to say is, we are NOT a lie. A pack of maniacs to be sure, but not a fucking lie.
In this, we have value. My purpose in writing a series on tumblr, is to follow the arrest and possible (if not likely) extradition of Julian Assange to the US, to possibly being convicted for hacking and/or treason against the United States. Many of you know the man’s history, including that of coming into his current notoriety as the publisher of Wikileaks, was as a known and convicted hacker. He is not a hero, he’s a grown up kid with a computer that used to break into government and bank computers. That’s my way of saying if you think Julian is a nice guy being framed, you are historically and categorically wrong.
Unless the US federal government proves with transparency (meaning for the public’s eye to see) that Assange did conspire to hack the documents provided to the publishing company, then what they are doing is setting a precedent for the US federal government to arrest, convict and possibly even kill (yes, espionage is still punishable by death in the US) ANY publisher of documents related to or about the government and both it’s public servants and private citizens. Prosecuting a whistle blower is one thing, but indicting a publisher for doing what a publisher does, publish, is against the very law that makes this country, and quite possibly many governments of the world, something of value. Something that goes way beyond whatever side of the political spectrum you reside (or reside out of, like me), petty discourses on who’s team you should be playing on or whether or not you even like or hate the current administration in charge of supposedly running the government is completely irrelevant and will not be addressed here. Period.
Where that value goes is right to the truth.
However this case turns out, it doesn’t matter, ultimately, whether or not Assange is convicted. What really matters is that we, the American public are given the whole, transparent, ugly fucking truth.
Why, you may ask? Because it is up to us to not only discern just what that truth is, but to deal with the results of that truth and act freely upon it. If we do not have the freedom to discern what that truth is by seeing the information given, then the idea of having the freedom of free speech is a lie.
Which then means, our nation is a lie. People like me, journalists, should be the guarantors against that ever happening.
THAT is why I am breaking form and publishing here.
