Apr 2019, Week 3
In the Reader-Submitted issue of The Lee Camp Ledger we highlight the opinions and stories of the community. If you want us to publish a short opinion of yours or an explanation of something in the news that you think is important then send an email with a few paragraphs and a link to LeeCampLedger@protonmail.com.
Please read previous submissions to get an idea of what we’re looking for. We will edit your writing, but only up to a point.
All submissions are the opinions/content of the submitter, not mine.
G. Marcus, Julian Assange Represents More Than We Think
The arrest of Julian Assange, and his likely extradition to the United States for trial brings up vital concerns for me. Because Julian Assange, as a journalist, has only released factual or truthful information, re-circulated by the Washington Post and New York Times (among others) and because he has embarrassed our government, revealing the corruption in both parties, he has created many enemies in powerful positions. They have used their power and wealth to remove a journalist from the Ecuadorian Embassy in a foreign country and arrest Assange. If anything Assange has done, he has revealed the truth about our government and made it more transparent for us. It is why the arrest of Julian Assange poses a direct threat to all journalists, who expose the truth; and in turn, this threatens our democracy.
I think it now becomes clear to most of us the connection between the re-arrest of Chelsea Manning and the arrest of Julian Assange. It is also clear why President Moreno of Ecuador gave permission for British authorities to enter the embassy and make the arrest. Moreno is now personally, $10 billion dollars richer for his cooperation.
Wealth and power--if not corruption--seem to have won again. It makes me ask, what I believe all Americans should be asking: Why have the perpetrators of war crimes, which Wikileaks exposed, not been arrested, and instead been rewarded with high positions in government, and been turned into TV icons on our news stations (Paul Bremer)? And why have whistleblowers of those war crimes, some of them journalists like Assange, who have reported nothing but facts and truth, been turned into criminals and punished with long prison sentences? This is the question ALL Americans should be asking themselves.
Why? Because we should also be asking what will happen to our Fourth Estate, our Free Press, when journalists are punished for reporting the truth? What happens when the truth is a criminal, and the criminals go free? We end up with a corrupt government rewarded for their crimes, as well as an uninformed public that cowers to power, and becomes good Germans who passively go along with corruption because we simply know no better. If we did, there would be 10 million of us in front of Bush and Cheney's estates right now, demanding their arrests.
So what we also should be asking ourselves: What will happen to our democracy if we no longer have reporters willing to take the risk of detention, torture, and long prison sentences, simply for exposing crimes of government? In other words, what will happen to our "democracy" without a free press? Will we go the way of the good Germans of the 1930s? Will we, as a country, create endless wars to achieve what Hitler wanted to do, "conquer the world?" Our own sinister policies in government dictate "Full Spectrum Dominance." Is there any difference between the two? And what reporter will dare to report it? And what will we be as a country, as a People, if there is no truth?
J. Koeslag, Prime Minister Trudeau
We should have paid attention to David Suzuki (renowned environmentalist) when he said he could not endorse Trudeau due to fundamental differences with regards to the environment prior to the election. Now Trudeau remorselessly is trying to build a pipeline through the mountains from the Alberta Tar Sands (the worst environmental disaster that we have now in this country and most expensive way to get "dirty" oil in the world) to the Pacific with a company he bought on behalf of the Canadian people, many of whom thought this was crazy when support for oil is falling to support for environmentally friendly energy, where money and support should be going. Now he doesn't brook disagreement in his caucus and dismisses members who do and by many reports supports big business and the ruling elite... One wonders what he and Trump actually talked about on their summit talks awhile ago. Trudeau is a huge disappointment.