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When Will Our Country Return to the Land of the Free?

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Mary MacElveen

I was heartened to see that Pres. Bush's poll numbers did not get a bump prior, during and now preceding the second anniversary of September 11th, 2001, a day where one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's quotes, "A day that will live in infamy" concerning another attack upon us called Pearl Harbor, also pertains to our most recent attack. Presently, Pres. Bush's polling numbers within various polls such as Zogby and Gallup are holding steady at the low fifty range. Numbers such as these were a reflection of how America rated his administration and leadership prior to September 11th, 2001. Then again, most will say polling numbers do not mean a thing, but to most Americans they still do. They see it as a snap shot in time of how they are being lead and go from there. But what America is not seeing is the invasion into our freedoms or the shredding of them. Those are freedoms that past and present patriot blood was and is spilled for her.

From time to time I read the quote below as a reminder to myself of how we have reacted after September 11th, 2001 and with the passage of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. In my opinion this law is strikingly similar to the Enabling Act that Hitler put forth during the Third Reich. Yet, in the mainstream press, you never see the two held up to each other for all to see just how similar they are. I really wish that they would, because in my opinion, America would have rejected or now demand the rescinding of this law. How we can pass such a law that is remotely similar to a law of Nazi Germany is beyond me. Speaking of Hitler and the Third Reich below is the quote that I am referring to.

"When they came for the gypsies, I did not speak, for I am not a gypsy. When they came for the Jews, I did not speak, because I wasn't a Jew. When they came for the Catholics, I did not speak, for I am not a Catholic. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak." -On the Wall at the Holocaust Museum in Washington

These are chilling words that no one seems to be paying attention to or, out of fear, are all to complicit to rounding up people who most likely did not have a damn thing to do with the attacks that befell our nation. For example, do we really know who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, which is also known as Camp X-Ray? No, we are told by this administration that this is a secret. I always thought open democracies did not have secrets. Especially when it came to holding people against their will. Where is due process? Something that our founding fathers put forth in order to form a more perfect union. When the former KGB of the former Soviet Republic held people in secret and without due process, we as a country railed against that. The Soviets called them enemies of the state and we attacked them for that process. Yet, here we are doing the same exact thing.

We think that the U.S.A. Patriot Act is mainly targeted towards those of Arab persuasion, yet in our fear of terrorism we are rounding up even Irish Catholics and deporting them for no good reason. Remember part of that quote above where it states, "When they came for the Catholics, I did not speak"? Well have you spoken up? Or have you remained complicit out of fear and terror promulgated by this administration? We are now rounding up the Irish, as you will see below. Which group of people are next, Mr. Ashcroft and President Bush?

I will give you a prime example of what I mean. As I was reading a column yesterday written by Jimmy Breslin in Newsday titled "Fascism In The Name Of Security" he recounted in this column the story of an Irish Catholic who is now deported and separated from his loving wife who is a naturalized citizen and their American children. The reason for this deportation and separation given in this column is this, "he was said to have been involved in a shooting of a policeman yet someone else was convicted. According to British police, they say, "he must have been guilty." Funny, I always thought one living in a free society was innocent until proven guilty. I am also reminded of the infamous O.J. Simpson trial where Johnnie Cochran stated, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" Well clearly the British government could not make it fit; yet they threw him in jail anyway. Clearly this man was never convicted.

Also according to this wonderful article "They took Bernadette Devlin out of a line in Chicago, where she was changing planes to get to New York for a public speaking appearance, and sent her home. They said at 5-1 and in her 50s, she was a threat to America." So, a short middle-aged woman is a threat to America? I am still trying to wrap my brain around that one, folks. Are you? Maybe if she is going through menopause she might be.

But this is the most eye-opening line in Jimmy Breslin's column that I want every Irish American to pay close attention to where he states," The Irish-Americans, who come up dumb again, cheer Ashcroft. He harms their kind and they like him. The Irish even think the FBI is great." Being an Irish American myself, thankfully I see where these acts do harm my own kind. Do I like the FBI? In most cases I do. It is where they drop the ball in distributing memos pre September 11th that is where I dislike them. I even wrote an article shortly after the U.S.A. Patriot Act was signed into law, which was titled, "The U.S.A. Patriot Act, An Act that Targets the Wrong People." So, out of fear we target groups of people, instead of targeting what I think was the biggest security failure in recent history. Instead of fixing what was and, perhaps, is still broken, we pass such a heinous law; create a budget busting Homeland Security Agency, instead of fixing what was broken. My dad always taught me, if something is broken, you fix it. These are wise words coming from a very wise man.

But, if Jimmy Breslin's column did not make my blood boil and rage against this administration, another column was written and published in the New York Times, "Bush Seeks to Expand Access to Private Data". This brazened President wants our federal government to be able to access this information without a judge's sign off? When did George W. Bush get his law degree? He probably got his law degree when he was AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. We are still, I think, a nation of laws. I think warrants are still issued with probable cause. Aren't they? He wants this done under the expansion of the U.S.A. Patriots Act called, CAPS II. This, in my opinion, is a further erosion of our freedoms.

I still remember, shortly after the September 11th attacks, where he stated, "They hate us for our freedoms." What freedoms, George? You are slowly, but surely taking them away from us. You fly onto a naval vessel where many of those service men and women serve to protect the very freedoms you are taking away from them and us. You dishonor them by doing so. No alleged Commander in Chief has the right to put on any military uniform while he is shredding our Constitution. Many wearing that uniform to protect our most sacred document spilled too much blood. This sacred document was born when those who signed it decided they wanted to establish a land of the free and a home of the brave. No one should cower in the face of adversity to undermine it.

Our message is clear to those who are charged with leading this country that good law and laws that promote our freedoms are signed when they are well thought out and where they are actually read. Laws that rip away at our very freedoms such as the U.S.A. Patriot Act are signed when the reverse happens and where legislators sign them due to pressure or out of fear.

Will America ever return to being the land of the free? In my opinion, that can happen, but only if we reject this administration and ones that may come down the road in the future and try to relive this history.

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY

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Source Links:

Fascism In The Name Of Security [LINK]

Bush Seeks to Expand Access to Private Data [LINK]