The Outrage Outage

There seems to be a lot of outrage these days.  We’re outraged mostly at the TSA this week.  There was some outrage when Ahmed Ghailani was found ‘not guilty’ on all counts except one that could only be described as “aggravated vandalism.”  There was almost outrage over the stealth movements on Net Neutrality and the Farm Safety bill, both of which would radically impinge on basic liberties.

How are we expressing this outrage?  I mean, besides in the prerequisite ALL CAPS in the usual forums. The TSA outrage has generated a lot of angry letters to elected officials and plenty of shocking news coverage.  This week has been a gift to the cable news networks.  There have been a few courageous souls who have bared more than their anger at the checkpoints just to make their point.  A lot of people, who weren’t going to fly anywhere, said they weren’t going to fly anywhere as long as those TSA people were up to their shenanigans.

But why is anyone flying at all?  Or is our outrage just a lot of all-caps?  We used to be good at outrage, it used to go places.  We used to get really worked up when people stomped all over our Constitutional rights. We used to climb onto ships and throw their cargo into the bay.  We used to line up to volunteer to go overseas and fight evil on its own doorstep.  We used to lock arms and march into fire hoses and growling dogs.  American outrage used to have some teeth.

Is the problem that our Constitutional rights aren’t as important to us anymore?  Why don’t we value them as much as we used to?  Is it that we didn’t pay enough for them?  Our forefathers did.  They paid heavily for those freedoms.  They paid in dreams when they set everything aside to fight the threat to liberty.  They paid in fortunes when the cause of freedom didn’t pay the bills.  They paid in blood when those who would destroy liberty raged in violence against its defenders.  What have we paid?

What have you paid?  What value have your actions placed on your liberties?  There have been some victories recently.  The cause of freedom has made some strides.  But it is only a beginning.  The real fight is yet to come.  If we aren’t ready to sacrifice our dreams, fortunes and possibly our lives, will we be truly able to win that battle?

If our outrage doesn’t motivate us to sacrifice enough to conquer tyranny and re-establish a Constitutional and free country, will the resulting victory be total enough to be more than just a dragging out of the Liberal’s agenda?  If we don’t pay for our freedoms, will our children ever know to be outraged at their loss?