While watching
Enemy of the State last night, the brilliant and eerily prophetic movie starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman, I came to the conclusion that maybe this country finally gets it.
Gets it that the NSA and the enemies of privacy have actually realized their goal...to invade everyone's homes and bedrooms and lives. And I don't think this country is going to take it any more.
For ABC to play this 1998 movie in prime time on a night where there is only reruns going on says a lot. It says that this issue should be front and center every night. If you have a friend who thinks that they have nothing to hide and warrantless spying is OK in the name of national security, spend $19.99 and buy them this CD. Don't tell them it has a political purpose, just tell them it's another Will Smith action flick that you wanted them to see.
You see, in the movie Will Smith is an ordinary American. OK, he was a labor lawyer fighting the mob and his wife was an
ACLU attorney obsessed with government spying. But anyway, he had an ordinary life...a good job, house, son, dog, etc. Will got caught up in something not of his making, and through secret warrantless spying by a shadowy organization headed by a corrupt Congressman, his life was flipped around. At one point, his credit cards wouldn't work, he lost his job, and his wife kicked him out of the house because she thought he was having an affair with his ex-girlfriend who eventually gets killed by the bad guys.
The bad guys accomplished all of this by bugging and spying and tapping and following Will into his home. His most sacred hangout. His refuge. But they violated that. Without a warrant. For no good reason. And the likeable Will had done nothing!!
People relate to that. It became infinitely clear to everyone watching this movie last night that it was prophetic. That what is going on now with the NSA was predicted IN A MOVIE made in 1998. That concerns a lot of people.
On top of that, one of my best friends, Susan Hill was violated in her home and neighborhood yesterday afternoon as well.
You see, Susan is head of a company that owns and operates 5 abortion clinics. A crazed anti-abortion extremist, Flip Benham, decided to bring a group into her neighborhood to picket her house and hand out flyers to her neighbors telling them about what she does for a living. All in the hopes of turning her neighbors against her.
Little did he know that Susan had prepared her neighbors for possible activity, and has been a good neighbor and friend for over 15 years. Well, this quiet community was not daunted by the "news" of Susan's affiliations, but they were activated by the hate and wrath shown by the "Flipper" and his cohorts.
The police came in masses to protect hometown girl Susan from the invading outsider who wanted to disrupt her neighborhood and the sanctity of her house.
Throughout the afternoon, Susan got calls from virtually all of her neighbors who were appalled at this crazed out-of-town "Street Preacher" with the vicious, vacant eyes. They were instantly activated to understand the type of harassment that she's had to endure over the past 30 years which includes: 18 firebombings or arsons, death threats, the death of clinic doctor David Gunn MD, butyric acid attacks, anthrax scares, and other acts of violence. She even had to wear a bulletproof vest to work for a year during the height of the violence.
The neighbors got just a smidgen of this and they were appalled and scared for her and this country.
They finally got it. They knew what she did all along, but didn't realize the enormity of the problem until it was slammed in their face, on their street, at their door.
A Republican NRA friend and neighbor offered to train her on weapon use immediately and said: "These people are crazy and dangerous."
The 5-year old next door neighbor was thrilled because he got to see the inside of a police car.
The gay guys down the street expressed solidarity and volunteered to come protect Susan.
The visiting college student daughter of a neighbor said she had been on the fence with this issue until she saw these crazed fanatics up close. She now wants nothing to do with them or their party.
Progressives and Democrats alike need to realize that Americans value their privacy. They want their homes to be sacred refuges from any intrusion. They will not sacrifice this to appease the fearmongers who want us to worry endlessly about the boogeyman terrorist who might attack us next.
"Protection of Privacy" should be the mantra of the Democratic Party and "Invasion of Privacy" is the mantra of the Republican Party, and especially this Republican administration.
The invasions of people's homes and neighborhoods, their only refuge from the outside world, whether by tapping their phone, checking their bank accounts, selling their IRS information, spying on the neighbors or allowing outsiders in to harrass you and your neighbors, is totally unacceptable to most Americans.
This is not a new phenomenon. 25 years ago abortion rights groups warned the American public that the right wing wanted to get into your most personal business such as contraception and abortion. Then, the gay rights community tried to warn this country that right wingers wanted to nose into who people were sleeping with and to use your choice of lifestyle against you for whatever purpose served them.
Then, these same right wing groups decided to get into Bill Clinton's personal life in such an exaggerated way that misdirected priorities and put everyone's privacy at risk.
Then, they compromised your vote in 2000, your most prized American privilege, until they got the robotic leader they needed to allow the total invasion of anything that any American citizen ever does, writes, or says.
This movement is at its pinnacle as evidenced by the current White House who believes it has no limits and that American citizens have lost all privacy rights in the name of "national security".
If the price of getting a false sense of "security" is your total loss of your privacy, the Founding Fathers would be appalled. And I think the American public is appalled.
As Ben Franklin so aptly put it:
"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety."
NOTE: AnnRose will be heading up the Abortion Roundtable at Yearly Kos. Susan Hill will be there too. Come join us for a lively discussion.