As reported in Editor and Publisher, a nurse at a VA hospital in New Mexico has been accused of sedition for criticizing the government’s handling of the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina.
My goodness, the gummint must be panicked if it needs to start slopping around terms such as sedition–“an insurrection against constituted authority : a tumult caused by dissension, partisan hatred, or discontent”–in order to try to shut up the masses. They’re also going to have to build a pretty large jail cell.
Given that the VA will bear the brunt of this foolish war for decades to come, maintaining the broken bodies of young people who were mangled on behalf of the sins of the current administration, you’d think that the VA might encourage a few tart and well-informed comments from VA insiders. Foot, gun, shoot.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Random Acts of Trendness - 2011
- Nancy Kranich on Why Filters Don't Work - 2004
- Lesbians Marry in San Francisco - 2004
When do they begin coming for us veterans?
Sedition? It looks to me like she was advocating legal means of changing our government. We are allowed to bring criminal charges against those persons who constitute our government. How is this supposed to be sedition? I certainly agree with your they’re “going to have to build a pretty large jail cell” and with your “the gummint must be panicked” comment.
Where does it stop?
I see this harassment of a VA nurse much like how we find fault with the victims [ http://tinyurl.com/chhbu ]; it is a form of blaming the messenger.
All your points are excellent Karen. But remember, in today’s brave new world, what this nurse and countless others like her see every day and will continue to for decades is not to be spoken of. Give it not name and it has no power over you (or your “reality”).
Thank you for alerting me to this. I have said things much like Ms. Berg said here in my blog. Seditious? I should think not.
Well, it hasn’t been a banner day for the Administration in the whole “Foot, gun, shoot” department, either. 🙂 Seems VP Cheney can’t tell the difference between a quail (a very small bird!) and a 78-yr.-old lawyer. Obviously when he gave that speech for the NRA they neglected to see if he’d ever taken any hunter safety courses, or even basic range safety….
At least he’s consistent–whether it’s on foreign policy or quail hunting, he’s trigger-happy, doesn’t look to see who might get caught in the crossfire, or what the flesh-and-blood consequences of his actions might be…
As a Vietman era veteran and as the son of a man who served in World War II and was a Pearl Harbor Survivor. My heart and prayers are with those who are in the military especially those overseas fighting a war (that we had no business starting in the first place) and dying and coming home wounded. You know what sedition is? Sedition is the fact that these young men and women are coming home wounded from a war that has cost us billions so far and that the administration continues to pump money into while at the same time cutting funding to the Veteran’s Administration that are going to have to be taking care of these wounded soldiers. As for the nurse, what happened to free speech? Where are her constitutional rights. As someone who is taking care of these broken bodies, she probably has more right than anyone to speak out against this war. It’s time to impeach Bush and get him out of office.
I think that if it’s gone so far when they involve nurses into it they must be already very weak.