Betsy,
The reason Americans have lost their civil liberties is because they are in
a war situation and are under threat from 'the enemy'.
I believe that the first thing the west must do is to try and resolve the
concerns of the enemy. Their concerns are that western economic values are
over-riding and subjugating their own traditional and cultural values.
It is the nature of the western economic system to over-ride and subjugate
all other values and systems, not necessarily because it is a better system,
but because it is designed and built that way.
If the west and their corporations cannot together re-design the system to
be less insidious, more in tune with the positive side of human nature, and
more tolerant of other systems and values operating within it... then the
alternative is to try and tear the whole thing down to protect their own
values.
It is important to come to terms with the fact that the western economic
system is not perfect. In addition to destroying world heritage in terms of
environment and culture etc., it is apparent that other effects given rise
to include:
- Individuals carrying out acts without due regard to others, or thought to
the broader consequences of their acts
- A general reluctance of individuals to think for themselves, but rather
leave thinking to authority and the media
- An increase in addictive numbing behaviour such as over-eating, solitary
drinking, workaholism, psychiatric disorder etc
- A massive increase in the gap between rich and poor. Both in purely
monetary terms, and in the exaggerated perception of worthiness, status, and
justification of existence bestowed by the amount of wealth possessed
- General apathy towards anything that does not increase ones own monetary
worth or sense of well-being.
.... I also feel it is neccessary for the west to revert to thinking deeply
about the meaning of the words 'freedom' and 'democracy'. These words are
bandied about so frequently that they are beginning to lose their meaning.
'Freedom' must be re-examined using all the knowledge we have gained in all
the sciences over the last 50 years, in terms of what it really means for a
human being to be free, and how that freedom can be best acheived.
'Democracy' must be re-examined in terms of our present technology and
communication systems. For example, the technology exists (feature-rich
information dispersal, discussion, and voting web forums) to give people a
much more direct say in government. However we are using basically the same
systems that were in place after the french revolution! Also, this
technology gives our governments much more power than it did back then!!!
Anyway Betsy, I write this to you because I believe you have the capacity to
understand the fervour with which people will protect their beliefs and
sacred writings or books (whether it is the Bill of Rights, Koran,
Declaration of Independence, Bible, US Constitution, Islamic law etc.).
A person's beliefs must be respected UNTIL those beliefs try to over-ride or
bend someone else's beliefs to their own WILL.
This goes for all the books mentioned above. It is obvious much Islamic and
Koran law breaks this rule. However, looking inwards, it is also obvious
that the statement in your declaration of independence about the pursuit of
happiness is often mis-construed to mean that money=happiness, thus every
American has the right to pursue money with little regard to the effects on
other people.
I realise your declaration of independence is not constitutional, however it
is the most powerful piece of propaganda that exists in your country today.
I admire America very much for all its acheivements. I hope you can overcome
these difficult times. If you've read this far, thanks for your attention.
"Jei" <jei@kosh.hut.fi> wrote in message
news:Pine.OSF.4.50.0307171328370.443571-100000@kosh.hut.fi...
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/071703I.shtml
Grassroots Uprising Fights to Protect Rights and Freedoms
By Betsy Barnum
Common Dreams
Tuesday 15 July 2003
In October 2001, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act setting aside many
of our individual freedoms for the sake of fighting terrorism. Since then,
I've worried about what's happening to democracy.
Do we understand the threat USA PATRIOT poses to our civil liberties? Or
are we willing to give up our rights and freedoms in return for a promise
of safety, and shrug off the danger to democracy from an unaccountable
government?
I'm not worried anymore.
By last week, 132 cities and counties and three states had passed
resolutions stating their intention not to cooperate with some provisions
of USA PATRIOT. Elected office-holders in these communities have publicly
declared that they will not abide by federal laws and orders that would
compel them to accord the people in their jurisdiction less than full
rights and protections guaranteed to all persons in the US Constitution.
These resolutions have happened because of people who care about civil
liberties. Groups of citizens in each of these communities have conducted
public forums, met with elected office-holders, sought endorsements,
drafted resolution language, canvassed neighborhoods getting signatures on
petitions, given countless talks about threats to the Bill of Rights, and
brought out standing-room-only crowds for public hearings and votes.
Who are these people who have convinced so many local lawmaking bodies
to openly oppose federal law?
If they're anything like the Bill of Rights Defense Committees in
Minneapolis and St. Paul, they are folks from all walks of life, all
income levels and all points on the political spectrum.
Teachers. Consultants. Environmentalists. People who voted for George
Bush. People who voted for Ralph Nader. Engineers. Unemployed people.
Civil rights attorneys. Minimum-wage workers. Retired persons. Students.
Supporters of the war on Iraq. People of faith. And a large minority from
the arts community, people to whom freedom of expression is as dear as
life itself.
And many, if not most, are involved for the first time in civil society
political activism.
What they have in common is a conviction that the rights, freedoms and
protections guaranteed in the Constitution are at the very core of what it
means to be an American. They view the Bill of Rights as a precious
heritage from our ancestors who struggled for generations to ensure that
these freedoms would be for all people, not just a certain class. And they
are unwilling to part with these cherished rights and freedoms in return
for an empty promise of safety from terrorism.
As a participant in the Minneapolis Bill of Rights Defense Committee,
which successfully urged the Minneapolis City Council to pass a resolution
in April, I was interviewed for two recent mass-media stories on this
effort, one in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and one on National Public
Radio. In these and all other media coverage I've seen, journalists have
missed the real story by framing it as a contest between proponents and
opponents of USA PATRIOT.
The significance of resistance to USA PATRIOT and similar acts is not
who's 'right' and 'wrong' about how much they erode civil liberties, or
whether that erosion is justifiable.
The real story is that people in communities that now total more 16
million in population have persuaded their city councils to pass, often
unanimously or near-unanimously, resolutions in direct defiance of federal
legislation. And if the other cities and states with active citizen groups
urging similar resolutions also pass them, the total number of people
living in civil rights-protective communities could rise to more than 45
million.
This is the real story -- that the Bush administration's efforts to
launch the most direct assault on individual rights and protections since
the Alien and Sedition Acts in the early days of our nation, have sparked
in response the most open and defiant assertion of local democracy ever
seen.
There's no doubt that as a society we take our freedom for granted. Most
of us likely could not recite all the rights guaranteed in the
Constitution. And there are many who never learned about those rights and
don't value them.
But this grassroots uprising in defense of the Bill of Rights involving
people in hundreds of communities and of all ages, careers and political
persuasions -- and the willingness of local and state elected
office-holders to stand up in opposition to federal efforts to curb civil
liberties -- convinces me that the Bill of Rights is still for many, many
Americans a living heritage worthy of immense effort to protect.
I know of nothing more hopeful than this for the future of democracy and
freedom.
Betsy Barnum is a member of the Minneapolis Bill of Rights Defense
Committee and is also founder and executive director of the Great River
Earth Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She can be contacted at
betsy@greatriv.org.
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