Reflection on Precarious Life

While I was reading the chapters of Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence by Judith Butler, I came across two quotes that I found most interesting to read and think about. The two quotes that I decided to reflect on were about people in America not being able to speak their mind on whether America should go to war with Iraq or not. The author writes, “The voicing of critical perspectives against the war has become difficult to do, not only because mainstream media enterprises will not publish them (most of them appear in the progressive or alternative print media or on the internet), but because to voice them is to risk hystericization and censorship,” (page 2). Also, in addition to this she writes, “In a strong sense, the binarism that Bush proposes in which only two positions are possible---“Either you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists”--- makes it untenable to hold a position in which one opposes both and queries the terms in which the opposition is framed,” (page 2). I read these two quotes and it really made me think about American people and their right to freedom of speech. I thought to myself that there was no reason why Americans shouldn’t have been able to speak their own opinions on anything they wanted including if America should go to war with Iraq or not. People such as Bush should not have put Americans into the mindset of being put into two separate groups as of being either on America’s side or on the terrorist’s side. It is completely unfair and immoral to do something like that. I guess it was this way because there was so much fear at the time with the twin towers being shot down by Muslim terrorists in two airplanes on September 11, 2001 that we started to panic and lived in fear of what to say regarding going to war with Iraq and of other attacks by these terrorists in the future. I guess it is hard to think clearly and speak your mind when your country has been under attack and needs to decide what the next step would be to secure our country from being attacked again. I know that it was a major tragedy in our history but it should not stop people from having a voice in society. This relates to my service learning with St. Vincent de Paul for I have heard stories of people in need that felt that they didn’t have a voice in society and were afraid or unable to speak up for themselves to get the help they needed because of their condition and the situation they were in. It is very difficult for me to hear stories about people who are afraid or unable to speak freely about things they want or need to say in order to help benefit them so they can have a better future.