ShadowMonkey welcomes new contributing author antipodesious to the site. Others interested in publishing articles on ShadowMonkey should register on the home page and use the 'Submit Content' link that shows after logging in. -sm
I’m scared to publish this.
Times have changed. It used to be that in America I felt free to write anything that I wanted, at any time. Not so any longer.
E-mails are just letters under another name. They are letters that you have written to your friends, lovers, family or business associates and sealed into an envelope, affixed a stamp and dropped into a mailbox on the street or at the Post Office. Phone calls are just conversations under another name. Phone calls are just private conversations with your friends that you hold over a glass of port after dinner in your dining room -- conversations in which you might express your displeasure over the healthcare initiatives put forth by the last administration or the way they lied to the American people. Or it could be a conversation in your living room in which you rail against the current administration and the way they lied to the American people, their obsession with secret prisons and their right to torture captured people or their right to hold American citizens against their will without charges, or lawyers or judges, for years.
 I honestly fear repercussions for publishing this -- being placed on a
'watch' list, being subject to special attention at the airport, or
worse.... And I can’t believe that we have gotten to a point where I,
or any other citizen, has to worry about that. 
I honestly fear repercussions for publishing this -- being placed on a 'watch' list, being subject to special attention at the airport, or worse.... And I can’t believe that we have gotten to a point where I, or any other citizen, has to worry about that.
The current administration suggests that when we are asked to 'temporarily' give up our civil rights it is only to give the government the tools to fight “the war on terrorism”. They say that is why we should allow them to monitor and record our personal phone calls. They say that is why we should allow them to search us on public transportation such as a subway or to search us on a public street.
They say that the detainees in Guantanamo do not have rights because they did not sign on to the Constitution of the U.S., which grants those rights. (unalienable human rights?) Our government is saying that someone in the world doesn’t have basic human rights, even if they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, because they are not subject to the Constitution. And we the citizens of this country cannot have those basic human rights because of people like those in G-itmo. I would almost say that is faulty circular logic, but I’d be wrong, because there is no logic there.
And of course the founding fathers said that we all had those basic rights naturally and that they are inalienable, just because we are human.
What is terrorism? Isn’t it violent acts to achieve political goals? When in our history have we not had terrorism? Wasn’t it terrorism when Timothy McVeigh blew up half of the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma? Wasn’t the first World Trade Center bombing terrorism? Wasn’t it terrorism when the German’s had U-boats off our shores to sink civilian ships such as the Lusitania? Or when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor? Or when the British marched in our streets and blockaded our ports and burned our Capital? Or when the Tories fought to preserve their beloved Crown’s rule here in America?
Did we suspend our civil liberties at those times? Did we give up our right to free speech at those times? Did we give up our rights to be randomly searched on the street or in the subways? Did our forefathers give up their rights to be secure in their property? Did they consent to have their mail read by the government at its discretion? Did we all agree to have our phone calls monitored by the government?
When they intercept and read your email, even if it is done by some
colossus of a computer, they are steaming open your sealed envelope and
reading your private letter. And that is AGAINST THE LAW. When they intercept and read your email, even if it is done by some colossus of a computer, they are steaming open your sealed envelope and reading your private letter. And that is AGAINST THE LAW.
When they give themselves permission to listen to your phone conversations, they are giving themselves permission to sit in your living room and monitor your conversations with your friends. And they did this without the consent of the governed, and that is AGAINST THE LAW.
I was a soldier once, and was taught that torture was an ineffective tool to get information. Aside from the fact that it was AGAINST THE LAW, one couldn’t trust information that was obtained through torture.
Wasn’t our country built, and our Constitution based, on the belief that all men have certain, unalienable rights as human beings? Did our modern politicians miss that class?
And, by the way, if the government has taken our rights away in order to fight the “war on terrorism," and we have seen that terrorism has been around for a long time, when do we get those rights back? Do they stay gone as long as there are Timothy McVeighs out there who might do something? Do our children get those rights back or our grandchildren? Will they just be taught that they could have had those rights, if it were not for the terrorists? Will they have to at least learn what rights their parents had, so they will know what to ask for when there exist no more terrorists in the whole world?
Perhaps they won’t be taught that they are (were) rights at all, but rather just something that the government gives people when it wants to.
Our civil rights do not exist so that a few criminals can get away with crime, though that does unfortunately happen sometimes. Our civil rights exist to protect the many from the few.
|
FeedBurner Subscribe
