“They hate our freedoms”

By Dr. Phoebe Godfrey

The beauty of a genuine democracy is that we as citizens can organize to not only limit the power of the state but to educate our leaders as to the meaning of the very same words they abuse.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin, 1759

In response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, George W. Bush announced that the motivation of the attackers was that "they hate our freedoms." Yet on Oct. 26, 2002 Bush proceeded to sign into law the USA Patriot Act (an acronym of Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) -- a bill that threatens those very same infamous freedoms. That is at least on the part of citizens and legal immigrants, although it increases the freedom of the state to engage in surveillance, to gather intelligence, and to suppress opposition. In other words, under the Patriot Act many of the civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights have been weakened (see summary at the end) and as a result, our rights as citizens and those of legal immigrants can be, have been, and may well continue to be violated if none of us have the courage to exercise the first and most important of those freedoms -- the right to express dissent.
So what are these changes in our legal rights thought to be necessary in the name of "national security"? Though the actual bill is over 300 pages long, the main changes that should concern any who were not born here in the USA are that immigrants, including legal permanent residents, can be arrested without the right to legal counsel, to a trial by jury, and to due process of law. In fact, there are currently over 1,100 immigrants from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and even Central and Latin America who have been arrested since 9/11 without having their whereabouts, their names, or their crimes divulged. These are people for whom the sanctity of "innocent until proven guilty" conveniently does not apply because they have been labeled as "enemies of the state" in the war against "terrorism." Yet we should ask, is not being arrested and put in solitary confinement, without access to legal counsel or the ability to notify family and loved ones an act of terrorism? This is by no means to belittle "terrorism," nor to say that it should not be stopped, but can terrorism be fought with terrorism and who exactly is being given this role as the one "good" enough to confront "evil"? None other than the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, the INS, and other branches of the federal government, whose records are anything but commendable when it comes to respecting the rights of citizens domestically and the rights of others internationally.
Few may know the extent to which these agencies have been involved in dirty play, but suffice it to mention here just two examples. In 1973 the US backed the overthrow of the democratically elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, and supported the vicious dictator Augusto Pinochet, as well as the infiltration, frame-up and destruction of the Black Panther Party by the CIA and FBI program known as COINTEL in the 1970s. My point is that sadly most Americans seem to feel at ease with increasing the power of the state in the name of the "war on terror." This is no doubt because they are not only unaware of what our state is capable of doing, but also they have no idea what our state has done.
Another more recent example involves the arrest, detention, and interrogation of amateur photographer Mike Maginnis, who made the mistake of taking a photo of a hotel in Denver where Vice President Dick Cheney was staying. The upshot of the whole incident is that under the USA-Patriot Act Maginnis was framed as a potential terrorist, or to be more exact, an SS agent called him a "raghead collaborator," and even more cuttingly, a "dirty pinko faggot." He did not get his camera back, nor did he get an arrest report or an explanation. When his lawyer later called the Denver police station the whole incident was denied. According to the authorities it never happened. So much for those acclaimed "freedoms."
The question thus remains, what we as citizens and legal immigrants can do to reclaim, and therefore give legitimacy to, the notion that this is in fact the land of the free? For there is nothing more dangerous than believing in words when the evidence shows that those same words have no content. That is in essence the definition of propaganda -- words uttered by those in authority to merely placate the masses. But we do not want to be placated, and certainly those who languish at this very moment in our prisons without so much as having been yet accused of any crime do not want us to settle for the platitudes uttered by political pundits, even as their actions make mockery of all who would believe them.
The answer is to follow the lead of over 18 US cities and towns that have passed resolutions to repeal those parts of the USA Patriot Act and Executive Order that infringe on our Constitutional Rights. Considering the location of Laredo and the high percentage of legal immigrants and permanent residents, such a resolution could only reemphasize the essential values and rights for which America stands. That is if her constitution is not tampered with by those in power who lack the wisdom to fully understand the letter and the heart of the law. But the beauty of a genuine democracy is that we as citizens can organize to not only limit the power of the state but to educate our leaders as to the meaning of the very same words they abuse. If we are to be hated for our freedoms, at least let it be true that we have them and use them, and who knows, we may even get a healthy dose of that hatred from the one who first made this claim. After all, to dissent is patriotic.

For more information on the USA Patriot Act and on the movement to repeal parts of it, see The Bill of Rights Defense Committee at www.bordc.org. Also, why not write to Laredo’s City Council and ask them to protect and restore "our freedoms" by passing a resolution against the US Patriot Act.
In addition, for information on those over 1,000 immigrants who are currently in prison in the US and the Blue Triangle campaign to raise public awareness, see www.laresistencia.org.

(Dr. Phoebe Godfrey is a professor of Sociology at Texas A&M International University.)