Inch by Inch

September 11, 2002 12:07 AM

AP put together a list of the significant changes to an American citizen's rights in the past year:

• Freedom of Association: Government may monitor religious and political institutions without suspecting criminal activity to assist terror investigation.
  
• Freedom of Information: Government has closed once-public immigration hearings, has secretly detained hundreds of people without charges, and has encouraged bureaucrats to resist public records requests.
  
• Freedom of Speech: Government may prosecute librarians or keepers of any other records if they tell anyone that the government subpoenaed information related to a terror investigation.
  
• Right to Legal Representation: Government may monitor federal prison jailhouse conversations between attorneys and clients, and deny lawyers to Americans accused of crimes.
  
• Freedom from Unreasonable Searches: Government may search and seize Americans' papers and effects without probable cause to assist terror investigation.
  
• Right to a Speedy and Public Trial: Government may jail Americans indefinitely without a trial.
  
• Right to Liberty: Americans may be jailed without being charged or being able to confront witnesses against them.
  

We are rapidly becoming a fascist nation, and we're doing nothing for fear of looking unpatriotic and supportive of terrorists. Want to know where the terrorists are, the ones that really do have nukes? 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. They've taken the act of a small radical fundamentalist group as license to wage war on anyone they want, including us. They've already killed more innocent people than bin Laden's cronies. And they're doing it in our name, with our support, with our money, and with our friends and children.

We cannot let this continue. Not In Our Name.

Here's a famous passage from Pastor Martin Niemöller:

First They Came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Inch by Inch (09.11.2002)

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