Friday, January 29, 2010

IS IT TRUE THAT WHAT I SAY IS TREASON?


I guess I have been warned and am probably on a list. But we've seen this before

The poster says:

Be wide awake! These days
The walls do even listen.
It doesn't take too long
From chattering TO TREASON.

The poster was created by the Russian artist Nina Vatolina in 1941. The plot is similar to the number of western posters, calling for prudence and silence during the rigorous period of the World War II. It should be said that the poster was widespread in the Soviet Union not only in the period of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), but even after, in the witch-hunting atmosphere of the last Stalinist years.

TREASON DEFINED:
trea⋅son
  /ˈtrizən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [tree-zuhn] Show IPA
–noun 1. the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.
2. a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state.
3. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.

Synonyms:
1. Treason, sedition mean disloyalty or treachery to one's country or its government. Treason is any attempt to overthrow the government or impair the well-being of a state to which one owes allegiance; the crime of giving aid or comfort to the enemies of one's government. Sedition is any act, writing, speech, etc., directed unlawfully against state authority, the government, or constitution, or calculated to bring it into contempt or to incite others to hostility, ill will or disaffection; it does not amount to treason and therefore is not a capital offense. 2. See disloyalty.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.

TREASON - This word imports a betraying, treachery, or breach of allegiance.

The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort. This offence is punished with death. By the same article of the Constitution, no person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

AND ON A BRIGHTER NOTE....
My favorite Robert Frost poem using the word treason

Ah, when to the heart of man

Was it ever less than a treason

To go with the drift of things,

To yield with a grace to reason,

And bow and accept the end

Of a love or a season?

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