The fascist state of America

How would you like to live in a country where the government, with no judicial oversight, can read your e-mails, tap your phones, authorize secret arrests, create a DNA database of suspected terrorists, create new death penalties and take away American citizenship from people who belong to or support disfavored political groups? All this and more could happen if Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department get their way.

This past Friday the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity (www.publicintegrity.org) posted a draft of a bill called the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 that was drawn up by Ashcroft’s staff. This is the rumored follow-up to The USA Patriot Act, signed into law Oct. 26, 2001, which according to the Web site, gave law enforcement officials broader authority to conduct electronic surveillance and wiretaps. It also gives the president the authority, when the nation is under attack, to confiscate any property within U.S. jurisdiction of anyone believed to be engaging in such attacks.

The measure also tightened oversight of financial activities to prevent money laundering and diminish bank secrecy in an effort to disrupt terrorist finances. The Act also allowed the FBI to share information gathered in terrorism investigations under the “foreign intelligence” standard with local law enforcement agencies, in essence nullifying the higher standard of oversight that applied to domestic investigations.

The new bill would give law enforcement and intelligence agencies more power than they have had since the 1960s. Many people don’t remember before the reforms of the 1970s the police and the FBI ran roughshod over the Constitution going after persons and groups who were considered against the government.

People’s lives were ruined and the police and FBI were not held accountable for their actions. If a bill like this were passed it would give these agencies the ability to keep certain arrests secret until an indictment is found. Never in our history have we allowed secret arrests.

It was already scary to me how easily and without question the Patriot Act got passed by Congress. Most people seemed to feel “Well I am not a terrorist, it doesn’t affect me.” That is a poor excuse. Whenever anyone’s rights in this country are taken away it affects you. It is time for the American people to make sure this current administration does not take away more of their rights.

You need to stay aware of what is going on and write, fax or e-mail your senator or congressperson when you don’t agree with a bill or decision. I am more afraid of my own government than of being attacked by a terrorist. I refuse to let mine or anyone else’s constitutional rights be violated all in the name of “false” security that will be used to put down anyone who doesn’t agree with the government.

There is a quote by anti-Nazi activist Pastor Martin Niemoller that sums up best what happens when you don’t stand up for your and your fellow man’s rights.

“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time, there was no one left to speak up for me.”