I would like to take the chance to coin a new
meme. I was driving home in the car today and I heard about a
German man who was wrongfully imprisoned in a secret CIA prison in Europe. Our administration is claiming that the man cannot receive a trial as state secrets are in jeopardy. This sounds like a load of malarkey. Bush has already admitted the existence of the covert prisons. All of a sudden the phrase "Enemies of our Forefathers" popped into mind.
And why not? Consider:
- The Patriot Act, as well as warrantless domestic and international electronic eaves dropping. I am no civil liberty attorney, but this seems to me to be a pretty clear case of illegal search and seizure. Consider Benjamin Franklin's quote, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Guantanamo Bay. The indefinite detention of "enemy combatants" is in breach of our right to a speedy trial, as well as our right to be innocent until proven guilty. Okay, okay, technically the combatants are not citizens of our country and are thusly not protected under our constitution, but we should treat these human beings with the dignity that we would want our own soldiers to be treated with if they were taken prisoner in accordance with the Geneva Convention (a document that is being disregarded by our government). I fear that we our losing our moral authority. This do as we say not as we do attitude is costing us our reputation.
- Separation of Church an State. Freaks like Katherine Harris argue that there should be no line between church and government. While this is sort of a fringe issue (championed by the religious right) and Harris was handily defeated in her bid for re-election, it is still an affront to the very ideals this country was founded upon. The first settlers were here to escape religious persecution in Europe, and the founders of our great democracy saw fit to include a provision separating church and state in the very first amendment in our Bill of Rights. If the sentiment that Christianity and the US should be one and the same becomes popular opinion, God help us all.
- Lastly, Newt Gingrich stated today that Freedom of Speech should be limited in an effort to combat the growing threat of terrorists. What!?! I agree that people should generally speak with civility and sensitivity towards others feelings, but we should not be forced to do so. Printing a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohamed in a negative fashion, or talking in an academic atmosphere about the history of Islam, while tasteless, is a matter of personal ethics and shouldn't be the subject of legislation or mandated censorship.
So for all these reasons and probably more that I couldn't think of, I propose the label "Enemy of our Forefathers," for any individual our group who acts in a way that undermines the principles and ideals that our founding fathers stood for. Our freedom is what makes this country great and should not be disregarded in this troubled time.