13 June, 2006
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums in war to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, they will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, they will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
I need not remind anyone that our Constitution was written for, and accepted by the American people, on the basic premise of severely limited government powers. Our founding fathers were quite well aware of the dangers of a totalitarian state, and how easily one can be created. With that knowledge, most police powers were specifically denied the federal government. Since that time we have fought some rather costly wars in opposition to totalitarianism. Now, after more than two-hundred years as a free people, do we really trust our politicians so much that we want to give them those same totalitarian powers? Numerous federal officials have repeatedly stated that they would never use Patriot Act powers against the American people. Perhaps, perhaps not. But can they speak for their successors?
Think for a moment, just who is a terrorist? The wording of the Patriot Act leaves that rather ambiguous. Is a terrorist some nut that tries to land an airliner on the side of a skyscraper? Or is he merely a political opponent? A militant ecologist? A Christian fundamentalist perhaps? All of the above? The Patriot Act allows the government to arrest anybody “they” view as a terrorist, and hold them indefinitely without formal charges for as long as they wish, wherever they wish, and they don’t even have to say what became of that person. They don’t even have to tell anyone that they’ve got that person! He just “disappears”! The Nazis called that practice “Nacht und Nebbel” (“Night and Fog”), and made extensive use of it in crushing political opposition. Articles IV, V, and VI of our Bill of Rights very clearly state just what legal procedure will be followed in this country when prosecuting a criminal case. And, after all, terrorism can hardly be considered an act of war. Do we now throw away the Bill of Rights in the name of “protecting ourselves” from a few extremists in search of 72 virgins!? We have faced far greater threats than that in our history, without giving up our rights or our freedoms. The United States is a Republic after all, ruled by law. We are not, and were never intended to be, a police state in which government officials or agents rule by decree, or just do as they darn well wish.
I’m not particularly afraid of a few disgruntled Islamic fundamentalists with a bad attitude. The US Armed Forces are quite capable of handling that problem. I am however, totally terrified by the idea of the United States government (or any government for that matter), having unrestricted police powers that would make Hitler’s Gestapo turn green with envy! We are a free people under the law, according to our Constitution, we do not live in a parody of Orwell’s “1984”, and we certainly do not need yet another federal police agency having the powers granted by the Patriot Act! Throughout history the greatest threat to any peoples freedom has been their own governments security apparatus run amok.
Nor does the government need these “added tools” to do its job, the necessary tools are and have been in place for decades, along with the civil protection provided by reasonable limitations and oversight! Our federal government needs to be concerned with the growing problem of interagency “turf” wars, not in creating another layer of bureaucracy and a Praetorian Guard with KGB like authority!
For the most part I support President Bush, and the “War on Terror”. Still, beware the loss of your rights, for once lost they are very hard to regain. While I certainly applaud the efforts of Senator Craig, and the Democratic Party, to restrict governmental police powers, I urge them all, in the strongest possible terms, to call for the immediate repeal of this so called “Patriot Act” in its entirety.
Think for a moment, just who is a terrorist? The wording of the Patriot Act leaves that rather ambiguous. Is a terrorist some nut that tries to land an airliner on the side of a skyscraper? Or is he merely a political opponent? A militant ecologist? A Christian fundamentalist perhaps? All of the above? The Patriot Act allows the government to arrest anybody “they” view as a terrorist, and hold them indefinitely without formal charges for as long as they wish, wherever they wish, and they don’t even have to say what became of that person. They don’t even have to tell anyone that they’ve got that person! He just “disappears”! The Nazis called that practice “Nacht und Nebbel” (“Night and Fog”), and made extensive use of it in crushing political opposition. Articles IV, V, and VI of our Bill of Rights very clearly state just what legal procedure will be followed in this country when prosecuting a criminal case. And, after all, terrorism can hardly be considered an act of war. Do we now throw away the Bill of Rights in the name of “protecting ourselves” from a few extremists in search of 72 virgins!? We have faced far greater threats than that in our history, without giving up our rights or our freedoms. The United States is a Republic after all, ruled by law. We are not, and were never intended to be, a police state in which government officials or agents rule by decree, or just do as they darn well wish.
I’m not particularly afraid of a few disgruntled Islamic fundamentalists with a bad attitude. The US Armed Forces are quite capable of handling that problem. I am however, totally terrified by the idea of the United States government (or any government for that matter), having unrestricted police powers that would make Hitler’s Gestapo turn green with envy! We are a free people under the law, according to our Constitution, we do not live in a parody of Orwell’s “1984”, and we certainly do not need yet another federal police agency having the powers granted by the Patriot Act! Throughout history the greatest threat to any peoples freedom has been their own governments security apparatus run amok.
Nor does the government need these “added tools” to do its job, the necessary tools are and have been in place for decades, along with the civil protection provided by reasonable limitations and oversight! Our federal government needs to be concerned with the growing problem of interagency “turf” wars, not in creating another layer of bureaucracy and a Praetorian Guard with KGB like authority!
For the most part I support President Bush, and the “War on Terror”. Still, beware the loss of your rights, for once lost they are very hard to regain. While I certainly applaud the efforts of Senator Craig, and the Democratic Party, to restrict governmental police powers, I urge them all, in the strongest possible terms, to call for the immediate repeal of this so called “Patriot Act” in its entirety.
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