The Supreme Court ruled a year ago that detainees at Gitmo (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) have the right to challenge their detention. A year later, not one person has seen a lawyer. Many have been prisoners without representation or legal status for years. Isn't this how the Soviet Union did business?
"Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it." - Henry David Thoreau
The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of two prominent American journalists facing jail terms on contempt charges for refusing to name their sources in an investigation of a leak of a CIA agent's name. The right of the Fourth Estate to report news while protecting their sources from retaliation has been one of the sacred rights that have kept this nation free.
"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." - Thomas Jefferson
And the Supreme Court just ruled that cities can confiscate private property to be used by other private entities, namely developers, to build "for profit" enterprises. In layman's terms, the right of large developers to pursue millions and billions in profits trumps the right of the individual to own their home.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini
The Patriot Act, by most accounts, threatens to weaken the constitutional protections that are the bulwark of our freedoms. The Bush administration is pushing hard for amendments that would further erode those freedoms, including electronic surveillance that gives the feds more powerful tools to monitor email, phone calls and even Web surfing.
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." - Thomas Sowell
A woman's right to decide how her body is used is under attack from the Right. The conservatives are pushing state and federal amendments to make it unconstitutional for gays to marry, calling for constitutional amendments that define life and marriage according to one religious ideology.
"When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we, in essence, accept that the state owns our bodies." - U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas)
The Republican conservatives want a "litmus" test for judicial appointments, guaranteeing that we will live under their version of a Christian democracy for the next 20 years or more, rather than a democracy ruled by Constitutional law.
"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries." - James Madison
President Bush and his minions led us into an Iraq war under false pretenses, costing the lives of thousands of people, with no end in site. While spending billions on this war, he and the Republican led Congress are gutting programs that help the poor, the sick and our veterans.
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
And we, the American people, seem oblivious to what is going on. We continue to watch our TV reality shows, drive our SUVs and pursue our pleasures as if there were nothing going on. The malaise that President Carter spoke of many years ago carries with it a great deal of risk.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be." - Thomas Jefferson
President Bush is fond of referring to Sept. 11 as a challenge to America's freedom as well as an attack on all we stand for. While the terrorists are a very real threat that has to be dealt with, I would suggest that an occasional plane flown into a building, or even a suicide bomber blowing himself up in a public place - a horrendous event to be sure - carries less threat to our Constitution, to our freedoms, to our security and to our way of life, than a president and Congress driven by religious fundamentalism and radicalism, and who seem willing to go to any lengths, and tell any lie, to achieve their very narrow and oppressive ends.
"Somewhere between apathy and anarchy lies the thinking human being." - Rod Serling
Mike Davis is a freelance writer living in Magnolia. Write him at mageditor@nwlink.com.
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