What is America without Freedom?the writings of Norma Sherry |
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The Day Democracy Was Put on Hold For the greater majority of the world, we remember the exact moment when John F. Kennedy was shot, when Challenger blew up in the Florida sky, when Martin Luther King was assassinated, and how the strike on Pearl Harbor instigated the United States into joining France and England in fighting against the evil totalitarian regimes of the world. These are days, historic and momentous events that have forever changed our world. On that, I offer with a sense of certainty, most of us would agree. But, dear readers, fellow citizens, there is another date, of just a mere moment ago, that I would offer with as much certainty, the great number of us have no recollection or knowledge. It was the day our civil liberties were put on hold. Actually, to be more literal and in absolute correctness - it was the day our civil liberties and all that we hold dear - were obliterated. The date you may ask, was October 26th, 2001. The day our representatives, the very ones we voted into office to safe guard our principles, minus one, signed the historic document that will forevermore alter our freedoms: The U.S. Patriot Act. (Is the acronym for: Uniting and strengthening America by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism.) The U.S. Patriot Act, named thusly I suggest, to reinforce the notion that anyone who speaks ill of this document will be thought of as anything but a patriot. Nay, you say. You completely misunderstand, you say. The Patriot Act was created to protect us from terrorism. "Don't you understand", I'm told, "that in times such as this we have to be willing to give up a little to be safe." This is not a new stance. It has been told many times in our past.
But nothing, dear reader, in our complete history offers a more clear and present danger to our personal well-being, then that which is stipulated in The U.S. Patriot Act. An Act unread by our esteemed representatives and passed without a scintilla of discussion, or dare I say, debate. Permit me, if you will, an opportunity to share some of the more horrific and frightening new conditions of life in these United States under the auspices of The Patriot Act. Surveillance and spying on its citizenry is at a new accelerated hysteria. From here on in, take it for granted that our government, yours and mine, may spy on our every move. If you search the Internet or use the World Wide Web for research our government can now opt to watch our every move; our every keystroke. It matters not if you're not a terrorist, or even a terrorist at heart, or a subversive, or not. From the moment of commencing The Patriot Act law of the land, the mere question of ones voracity makes them subject to being spied upon. One doesn't even to be the target of the investigation. All that needs to take place in order to have your personal movements monitored is the suggestion that the monitoring may be relevant to an investigation.any investigation, my friends. Okay, you say, that doesn't apply to me, I don't have a computer. Well, perhaps this will give you pause. The United States government, under the law of The Patriot Act, can now wiretap your home phone. In fact, they can now get a roving wire tap on any individual deemed relevant to an investigation. Roving, for those of you questioning, is any phone you may use be it a cell phone, a public phone, a neighbors phone, a friend's phone. No longer is there query into what is being looked for, listened to, or recorded, or for how long they will be listening. Search warrants, Miranda rights, attorney/client protection, all rights we fought for and have been amended to our Constitution have become null and void within the342 pages of The U.S. Patriot Act. If you happen to be so unlucky as to gain the attention of our government, and this attention is unflattering, at least, or questionable, at best, you could find yourself housed in a government stockade without access to legal representation or family counsel for an undisclosed period of time, even indefinitely. No one, not your spouse, or anyone you know will be apprised of your incarceration. When, and if, you are permitted to seek legal guidance, your lawyer client relationship is no longer sanctified. No longer is your right to know or question your arrest viable. Your home, my home, any one's home, can be searched without a warrant with little less than a guess, and there is no end or beginning to when and how this search or searches take place. Our bank accounts and credit card accounts can be examined without our knowing it is so. Even what one chooses to watch on their cable television can be scrutinized. Court orders, probable cause, and justification are words no longer viewed appropriate in our new world order. Librarians are now demanded to turn over a list of books verifying an individuals reading history upon request. Business records are no longer private and are subject to examination upon demand. Shades of Big Brother come to my mind. So do the words of warning of Nostradamus, H.G. Wells, and George Orwell. The prophetic writings of scholars past, of storytellers of long ago, and even the biblical proffering of the New Testament come screeching to my mind. How is it possible that we find ourselves stripped of our 1st, 4th, and 6th Amendment rights? Is this America; the home of democracy; the republic the world wishes to emulate? Where are our legislators? As I write this, with the full intent of sharing my fearful understanding of what we have lost, and knowing full well that this is just the beginning, I can't help being afraid that Attorney General Ashcroft will deem me a subversive. I can't help fearing I'll be detained the next flight I take; that my home will no longer be my sanctuary; that my friends may be frightened when my government implies that my patriotism is questionable; that I may find myself in a stockade; that no one, not my husband, nor my family will know where I am. For the first time in my life, I am afraid.and it's not the terrorist that scares me. © Norma Sherry by permission of the author. Freedom is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose There is a fear welling in the belly of our country. A fear that we never thought - in our wildest imaginings - we'd actually ever experience. For those of us older than thirty, we remember being told, "Never again" and "History has a way of repeating itself". But of course, we never gave it much heed, chalked it up to over-reactive elders; spinners of woe and fear. Never did we imagine, even for a millisecond, that we could actually see the demise of democracy.here in the land of the free, home of the brave.America. But there's a new threat to our freedom; to the rights we thought were our birthright. It is with horror and a heavy heart that I tell you that this threat comes from within; from the very ones we thought were our protectors; the very men and women held in esteem and regard; learned men and women; men and women we, the American public voted into office. On October 26th, 2001 this esteemed body of men and women signed a document that annihilated and abolished with a single pen stroke all that we held dear; all that our forefathers and our fathers and our father's fathers believed they had bestowed upon us forever. That document was The Patriot Act, now known as Patriot Act I. One, defining that there was yet more to come. The document that now nearly every representative said in their regret of signing it, that in their rush to invoke it into law, they hadn't read it. Wow! Is that even comprehensible? Now we have learned Patriot Act II is waiting to be enacted. Secretly it had been sequestered, hidden from all eyes, even those eyes that again would be called upon to sign it. Luckily a freedom-loving American exposed the document to The Center for Public Integrity and now we have a small window; a tiny speck of space with which to save our democracy. It is in our hands brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, fellow citizens. We are the power. It is up to us to take it back. On that fateful day in October, within the 342 pages that comprised US Patriot Act I, we lost our right to due process, to client/attorney confidentiality, to privacy and protection in our own homes, to surf freely on the worldwide Web, to have telephone conversations without fear of being spied upon, to choose our friends, even if they happen to be Arab or even Arab-looking. Trailing close behind is its successor, US Patriot Act II. Soon it will add its 120 pages to our diminishing liberties. Within this far-reaching document if any of us were suspected of the possibility of being a terrorist, we could not only find ourselves in a stockade somewhere where no one would know, without the right to legal representation, nor any loved ones being notified of our detainment, but our records would be sealed. Access denied. Freedom of information null and void. If we were so unlucky as to be deemed unacceptable we would be stripped of our citizenship and deported. Where is unknown, especially if we were born and raised here, in America, but that little consequence holds little meaning anymore. If my concern beguiles you because, you say, "well terrorists should be treated thusly", allow me to elucidate further. The fear dear reader is the loosely defined term, terrorist. The new defining is so broad that even a vandal could be deemed a terrorist, so too anyone exercising their heretofore right of civil disobedience. Under our new life in the United States and under the auspices of Attorney General Ashcroft, our neighbors, our deliverymen, the truck drivers, our plumbers and electricians, nearly anyone that could deliver a service, or a nosey, albeit it, nasty neighbor who perhaps hates you because your dog does his business on their lawn, could place an anonymous phone call to the FBI, or even the local police department.and voila', you are now a suspected terrorist. That's it folks. That's all it takes anymore in this the land of the free, home of the brave. Under this expansive Act, there is the potential that our DNA could be in a national data bank. To be precise, if one is a suspected terrorist, or belongs to a group that is suspected of terrorist activity, or is in any way associated with a group, however loosely, that is considered or suspected to be associated with terrorism, then that person's DNA would be in this data bank. Again you say, "What's wrong with that?" As it is with any law, you have to examine and think outside of the box. It is not what is being said, but what is being inferred and the extent with which the law can be manipulated. Let's take a for instance. Your daughter has joined a new group formed by her girlfriends in school. Their mission is to help the elderly cross the street and do all manner of good deeds. They will occasionally sell cookies for prize trips. They will wear a brown uniform and earn buttons and pins. However, somehow this little group has come under scrutiny and has been deemed suspicious. Their pow-wows seem ulterior in motive; the FBI has added them to their list of "Groups of Suspicious Activity". No longer is the standard probable cause. Guilty by association is the new rule. Now their DNA is legally permitted to be gathered and recorded. What this may mean later, we can only guess, but I suggest, it is reminiscent of categorizing undesirables as have other countries not so very long ago. Again, it is the defining that is at question. If any of us were to join a group or parade with a collection of like-minded individuals we risk being labeled un-American or civilly disobedient and as such, a terrorist. Guilt by association. It is that simple and that frightening. This new law of the land will also put strenuous restrictions on future court injunctions, the notion of bail will be rescinded, and there will not be any restrictions of our individual police departments or our national law enforcement agencies to profile any groups of individuals it so desires. The only prerequisite is the determination of suspicion of terrorist activity. Again, the caveat is suspicion and the loosely defining of terrorist. On September 11th, 2001, we were subjected to a horrendous assault. However, in spite of our collective sorrow and the usual tortoise pace of our congressional leaders, in a record-breaking forty-five days later the US Patriot Act I became law. From that moment on church, political and social activities could be monitored without knowledge; private phones in private homes, cell phones, public phones can be tapped and no one know; business owners must release their private business documents upon demand; librarians must respond to requests of reader's book selections and if they dare to inform the individual in question they risk imprisonment. Our homes can be searched without a warrant; our bodies subjected to searches without any warning; we could be arrested and denied legal counsel or family refuge. We are on the threshold of becoming that which we detest. Friends whisper in fear of their fear of being overheard. The fanatical far-right fringe deems anyone who questions subversive. So does Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and the leader of our land, the President of these United States of America. Remember, "You're either with us or against us." Dear reader, dear friends, dear fellow-Americans, do you not have the fear welling within your belly? Do you not question what has become of the land of the free, the home of the brave? We are on the precipice of the demise of all that we hold dear. If we do not make our voices heard, if we do not become freedom loving citizens than we are destined to be no longer free. It is time, for time is running out. Speak up dear reader. Shout out dear friends. Be mad as hell fellow Americans .and refuse to take this anymore.for there is a fear welling deep within the belly of our land. ©Norma Sherry 2003 by permission of the author. norma@togetherforeverchanging.org Norma Sherry is V.P. of Together Forever Changing. http://www.togetherforeverchanging.org/ She is also an award-winning writer/producer. Together Forever Changing, Inc. is anon-profit organization and all donations or contributions are tax deductible.
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