|
|
|
|
WAKE UP AMERICA!
Remember when a young Congressman shouted out those words and added, "They are trying to impeach your President." The words of Robert Wexler D, from the 19th Congressional District of Florida fell on mostly deaf ears. The Rychus-ones impeached our President. Now they are circumventing the Constitution and unraveling our civil rights.
We need to wake up and hear the faint voices that are beginning to pierce the nearly impenetrable propaganda-curtain of the present administration. Since taking office, the Cheny/Bush administration has instituted a secrecy policy that now has extended to a nullification of The Freedom of Information Act.
Questioning voices must be heard or we
will end up like the frog that ignored the "nature" of the scorpion.
We quoted this Bush warning way back in 1999-019.
One day a Scorpion asked a Frog to carry him across a stream
on its back. "Oh, no," replied the Frog for you will surely sting
me and I will die.
Yes, we knew his nature and the nature of his cabinet
appointments. It came out during the confirmation hearings of other religious
intolerants like Ashcroft. He seemed to have too many prejudices and was
intolerant of all civil rights outside of his religious beliefs. Cases
in point, his opposition to a black judicial and a gay ambassadorial nominee,
abortion rights and his defense of slave owners and confederate generals.
"I won't sting you," promised the
Scorpion. "Think! I would only drown myself if I killed you."
So the Frog agreed and halfway across the steam,
the Scorpion stung the Frog. As the Frog was dying, it said, "You
promised not to sting me."
"Yes I did," replied the Scorpion,
"but it's my nature and YOU KNEW WHAT I WAS WHEN YOU AGREED TO CARRY
ME."
Now they have launched an onslaught against
our Constitution. Columnist Ellen Ratnor cites the refusal of the Bush
Administration to release information on more than 1,000 people already
rounded up and stripped of their civil rights, based solely on ethnicity.
That is just like when the Japanese were interred in WW2 and we
as a Nation were shamed and declared it would never happen again.
Military tribunals Kangaroo Courts -- which are held in secrete
will replace a trial by peers as the government listens in on hither-to-for
sacred lawyer-client conversations. Ratnor observes: "Since
Sept. 11, the kinds of words that used to be coupled in the same sentence
with "Third Reich," "Gulag" and "Pinochet"
have actually crept into the mouths of mainstream talking heads torture,
secret trials, military tribunals and anonymous detentions." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25427
There
is so much fear in this country. It is being fanned by the injudicious
comments of a captured media that continually broadcasts the administration's
spin. In Starwars, Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace, Jedi Master, Yoda,
said:
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."We must stop this vicious circle before we destroy others, ourselves and the very spirit of America. In a speech in 1987, Justice William Brennan observed that the United States had repeatedly failed to preserve civil liberties during times of national crisis -- from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II -- only to later realize "remorsefully... that the abrogation of civil liberties was unnecessary."
It is essential that our Country pay attention to what we are doing now because it contradicts what we say we believe. We have condemned Kangaroo Courts in other Countries - how can we then defend it in ours now? We also must be sensitive to the values of other Countries. Right now, Spain will not extradite suspected terrorists to our Country in part because of Dubya's juvenile boast: "wanted dead or alive."
Molly Ivins warns us that "liberty
shouldn't be the first victim of fear" and asks that we consider just
how we might prevent terrorist attacks by changing our Constitution. If
civil liberties had been suspended before Sept. 11, would law enforcement
have noticed Mohamed Atta? Would the FBI have opened an investigation of
Zacarias Massoui, as Minneapolis agents wanted to do? The CIA had several
of the 9-11 actors on its lists of suspected terrorists. Exactly what civil
liberty prevented it from doing anything about it? In the case of a suspected
terrorist, the government already had the right to search, wiretap, intercept,
detain, examine computer and financial records, and do anything else it
needed to do. There's a special court it goes to for subpoenas and warrants.
As it happens, the feds didn't do it. http://web.star-telegram.com/content/fortworth/columnist/molly_ivins.htm
We
have in the Taliban a living reminder of the horrible dangers of a religious
theocracy. We certainly do not want religion in our government to replace
the current democracy that strictly demands the separation of church and
state.
Ashcroft recently overruled a "Death with Dignity" state law because of his religious beliefs. He will prosecute Oregon doctors who comply with Oregon's law. How can anyone ignore his religious agenda? http://www.dwd.org/
Ashcroft had been ignoring the many women's groups and publications that demanded that he do something about the anthrax threats against their clinics. Finally he has responded and we learn there is a suspect. The problem is, he was in custody but escaped in February. Now Justice is interested because of the anthrax scares following 9/11.
Dubya with Ashcroft are imposing their religion on the whole country in the matter of the cloning for the production of stem cells. We do not think there will be much effort toward assuring the safety of Women^Òs clinics.
Dubya defends his Draconian assaults on the Constitution by claiming that "Roosevelt did far worse," referring to the interment of Japanese-Americans. He ignores in his ignorance that what Roosevelt did was months into a real war -- a war declared by Congress which gave him special powers. Bush is so oblivious to history that he is not even aware of how greatly Roosevelt later regretted this action.
Author Barbara Kingsolver is and reminds
us of the thoughts of President Roosevelt at the beginning of that great
World War. "At no previous time has American security
been as seriously threatened from without as it is today," he [Roosevelt]
said, as he could have said this day. But instead of invoking fear of outsiders
he embraced their needs as our own and called for defending, not just at
home but on all the earth, what he called the four freedoms: freedom of
speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, freedom
from want. 'Translated into world terms,' he said, the latter meant 'economic
understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life
for its inhabitants.' He warned that it was immature and untrue 'to brag
that America, single-handed and with one hand tied behind its back, can
hold off the whole world' and that any such 'dictator's peace' could not
be capable of international generosity or returning the world to any true
independence. 'Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.' " http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1123-01.htm
To
paraphrase Lloyd Benson: "We knew President Roosevelt and George Bush
is no President Roosevelt."
