One year ago, the Bush administration made great fanfare of turning over power in Iraq to the so called provisional government. After having dropped the rouse of attacking a sovereign nation in order to uncover weapons of mass destruction, President Bush expended much breath in proclaiming that the real reason for the U.S. military's invasion was to bring freedom and democracy to an oppressed people. But right now, democracy is being systematically suppressed in America. I know this firsthand, because in February I was arrested for criticizing the Bush Administration; I wasexercising my right to freedom of speech, which is a fundamental right of any democratic society.
Actually, long before my arrest, and before this current period of backsliding from the foundation of justice upon which America was created, the political duopoly that effectively shuts out any views not sanctioned by the two major parties has kept the United States from truly embracing the democracy. In recent years, this guise has been more blatant as U.S. citizens have allowed our own sovereignty to be taken away from us bit by bit. The election of 2000 was the first obvious step toward erasing the notion that our government is "of the People"; the U.S. Supreme Court committed the ultimate act of judicial legislation when they ordered the counting of votes in Florida to cease. Since then, the American government's trend of taking power away from it's citizens has continued at an alarming rate. The passage of the Patriot act officially rendered the Bill of Rights moot as Constitutionally protected freedoms were taken away in exchange for the illusion of security. Our elected officials then further betrayed their constituents when they gave the president an unprecedented ability to wage preemptive war at his sole discretion. Finally, the 2004 presidential election showed that democracy in America is truly dead; among other things, citizen's were indiscrimantly detained for exercising their rights to freedom of speech and assembly, minor party candidates were arrested for attemting to take part in the St. Louis presidential debate, and computer voting machines with no way to ensure their accuracy were allowed to be used.
Personally, I saw the death of democracy unfolding before my eyes while attempting to participate in my own government. After watching my Congressman, majority whip Roy Blunt, spend three and a half million dollars to buy another term in which to represent his numerous corporate contributors, I decided that I could no longer stay silent in the face of such injustice. I went to Washington D.C. to represent myself. Spending much of my time in vigil at the White House, I was witness to many incidents in which law enforcment officers lied about regulations in order to disuade demonstrators.
The misrepresentation of the law is standard policy on Pennsylvania Avenue, and it is applied to both conservative and liberal views alike. I fully realized this upon seeing an individual who was advocating for the life of Terri Schaivo, forced to move across the street by the Secret Service after being told she could not hold her sign on the sidewalk adjacent to the White House grounds. For the record, courts have upheld that demonstrating on that sidewalk, within certain guidelines, is allowed.
I can further testify to the supression of free speech in regard to my own experience of being arrested for peacefully kneeling on the lower steps of the Supreme Court. On February 9th of this year, a week after the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales to U.S. Attorney General, I participated in a protest that brought attention to the role he played in sanctioning the circumvention of the Geneva Conventions in order to justify torture at Abu Grahib prison and at the Guatanamo Bay detention facility.
Three concerned citizens, David Barrows, Peter Perry and I, were taken into custody after we refused to leave the steps. We wanted to remind Americans that our Supreme Court has a responsibility to uphold the 8th amendment to the Constitution prohibiting "cruel and unusual punishment."
In light of recent comments made by America's leaders, it is appalling that we were detained for practicing our basic freedoms. In her Senate confirmation hearing of January 19th, Secretary of State Condoleezea Rice boldly stated, "If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment and physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, and we cannot rest until every person living in a fear society has finally won their freedom." The very next day in his Inauguration speech, President Bush proclaimed, "Rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators... ...they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed."
The policies of the Bush administration do not hold true to the Rhetoric they would have us believe. President Bush must stop saying he loves democracy and freedom of speech with one hand and suppressing it with the other. It is ironic that the three of us who were arrested for simply stating our beliefs will return to D.C. Superior Court on June 30th to recieve a judgment in our case. On the anniversary of Iraq's democratic rebirth, we will see if any shred of democracy is yet alive in the United States of America.