From the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, the notion of "safe and free" has eluded we Americans. To a great degree, this is something that we will sadly never recover. Our collective naiveté was thrown back in our faces with incredible force that day. Some would say that we learned a valuable though tragic lesson on September 11, 2001. Some would say that we have learned nothing.
(It can also be argued that we took the first step down this slippery slope the moment that the Supreme Court ruled against the Florida recount in 2000, but that is a subject for another day.)
Here is a partial list of concessions that this administration has made to the people that they ironically and eloquently (if not accurately) call Freedom-Haters. (This group also allegedly harbors Suiciders and Evildoers.)
The First Concession: The USA PATRIOT Act
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks (45 days later) Congress hastily passed the USA PATRIOT Act with virtually no debate. The FBI no longer has to show probable cause or obtain a warrant in order to gain access to your medical files, student files or other personal files. They have the same access to the records of the books that you borrow from the library (kudos to the American Library Association for refusing to comply) or buy from the bookstore. They have the freedom to access the server logs that will tell them about your surfing habits...where you go and what you access. Secret searches allow them the same freedom to enter your home when you are away, you know, just to see what you might be up to nowadays. You will not be informed when they have been taking a look into any of this.
Judicial oversight and probable cause are not part of the equation here. These investigations can be brought into action by the books you read, the editorials you write, the rally you attend or even the web sites you visit. The FBI has access to this information whether you are a suspected terrorist or not. Modifications to the Fourth Amendment have been made in order to give them these freedoms. Who is watching out for your freedoms? (Give to the ACLU. Become a member of the ALA.)
To date, information gathered using the powers that the USA PATRIOT Act bestowed upon the government has not affected the threat from terrorists. The government has always had enough power, they just weren't using it correctly.
NOTE: Concession 1.5 was the official bastardization of the word "patriot" when Congress passed this act. Oh yeah... and get ready for PATRIOT II, now with rescinded citizenships for civil disobedience. Yummy!
My silences have not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. - Audre Lorde
Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both. - Abraham Lincoln
When injustice is law, resistance is duty.
The Second Concession: Stifling Dissent
Part of the fallout of the USA PATRIOT Act is the fear that it will be implemented against those that choose to exercise the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. If you don't think that this has stifled dissent, go ask an American Muslim how (s)he feels.
The incredible fear that many Americans felt immediately following the horrors of 9/11 has also given way to a new definition of the word Patriot. In coffee shops and around the water-cooler, in churches and mosques, in campuses and libraries, in newsrooms and on the movie lot, people are more afraid to speak their minds than ever. The notion that "dissent is patriotic" has given way to the notion that "unquestioning support of the president" is patriotic. Livelihoods have been lost over this issue.
"Free-Speech Zones" allow protestors to be herded out of sight or earshot of anywhere the president appears, including motorcade routes, so that their voices are heard neither by the public nor the objects of their discontent. People are being arrested for not standing in the right place.
Voices that need to be heard, now more than ever, have been squelched for fear of retribution. (This can include the loss of a friend, rescinded citizenship, and/or a secret, all-expenses paid trip for XXX days and XXX nights to Guantanamo, Cuba, depending on the level of your paranoia.)
Is it okay if I skip over CBS for now? I'm getting tired... and depressed.
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. - Theodore Roosevelt
As long as someone else controls your history, the truth shall remain just a mystery. - Ben Harper
The Third Concession: Crippling Democracy
Everyone here at kos is well aware of the fact that George W. Bush gets his "news" from a few neocon lapdogs that hang around his office. He's admitted this proudly (along with a lot of other embarrassing stuff.) He's also made a point to let us know that he ignores polls and goes along with whatever that little voice in his head tells him to do. (When I close my eyes, I can almost see Dick Cheney and Carl Rove kneeling beside the sleeping Prince... whispering in his ear.) He's made no attempt to hide his disdain for the American people.
Who is this ignorant, arrogant little man that deems our voices unworthy to be heard? These days, exercising the rights bestowed upon us by the First Amendment is tantamount so screaming into a hurricane wind. Well, the FBI may be listening, but you know what I'm getting at.
What country are we living in? America? You've got to be kidding.
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them. That is the essence of inhumanity. - George Bernard Shaw
The Fourth Concession: Cultivating the Threat
Are we safer now than we were yesterday? What about a year ago? The answer to these questions are both obvious and immaterial. The more important question is, does the current administration want us to be safer? If you take a good look at this administration, you will see that it has much to be gained by keeping us in harm's way, and little to be gained in protecting us.
The messages that are relayed to us through Bush's bootlicking media engender fear in many Americans. Much more worrisome is the fact that the actions of the administration continue to propagate the actual threat of more terrorism. Whether this is by stupidity or design is up to you to decide. Knowingly or not, BushCo is aiding the terrorists by uniting them, cementing their resolve, and giving them real reasons to hate us.
If human equality is to be forever averted... if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently... then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity. - George Orwell, "1984"
Such as it is, the press has become the greatest power within the Western World, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and judiciary. One would like to ask; by whom has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Fifth Concession: Turning World Opinion Against Us
No one can argue the fact that most of the rest of the world no longer likes us. Much has been said about Bush's unfortunate and unparalleled squandering of an enormous amount of world-wide goodwill toward the U.S. If we ever needed our friends, it is now.
What fools we must look, with our leader "prancing around in a flight suit", as Democratic contender Wesley Clark has said. For someone who professes to follow the teachings of Jesus, Bush sure has a hard time being humble. (The lying and killing seem to pose problems for him as well.)
Many Americans feel that "going it alone" is the American Way. What they don't understand, or refuse to acknowledge, is that the world is a tiny, ever-shrinking place. If a little ass-kissing is too much to ask for, we can at least try to avoid acting like imperious jerks bent on destruction. As it turns out, the French don't have a patent on arrogance.
Alienating ourselves from the rest of the world is short-sighted, to say the least.
Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world. - E.O. Wilson
The Sixth Concession: Weakening the Military
For every 17-year-old American that decides not to join the service this year, twenty 17-year-old radical fundamentalists bent on destroying us will be unleashed upon the world. Where did I get this statistic? I made it up. The point is, Bush's actions have thus far made them stronger and us weaker. Where will we be in ten years? The horrific rumblings that this administration may possibly reinstate the draft raises the hairs on the back of my neck. This is not how to strengthen the military... not in the long run. When Bush wakes up each morning, does he ask himself "How can I make the situation worse today?"
Our military is stretched thin. Superior weaponry is difficult to implement without a naïve kid on the joystick. (Not all military people are naïve kids, so don't flame me.) The "coalition" that we have cobbled together in Iraq is a sad joke. A strong defense and a prepared military are necessities in today's world, though wingnuts might be surprised to hear we liberals say this out loud.
I have no catchy quotes for this section. - theoria
The Reality of These Concessions
Today, freedom and democracy exist only as crude, fragmented, tattered and altogether illusory counterfeits, along with the notion of safety that is foisted upon us by George W. Bush.
In a misguided and artificial effort to protect us, our leaders have ensured that the 9/11 hijackers did not die in vain. The freedom-haters have succeeded in destroying much of what it means to be free in America. The terrorists have succeeded in creating an enduring fear among us.
American democracy is falling upon its own sword. Our president is complicit in this crime.
If you tremble with indignation at every injustice... then you are a comrade of mine. - Ernesto Che Guevera
Democracy [is] when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers. - Aristotle
He who knows not is a fool, but he who knows and says not, a criminal. - Bertoldt Brecht
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. - George Orwell