November 10, 2007
by Steve Osborn
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I wrote the following to my two Senators this morning. I imagine I'll receive no answer yet again.
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Dear Senator,
This letter primarily concerns "Senate Bill 1959: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007" This is the Senate version of the House Bill - HR 1955, that was passed in the House of Representatives on 10-23-07.
It has already passed the House and I had never even heard of it. Read the fine print. If this passes, citizens, and even Congressmen and Senators' right to demonstrate or protest against government policy, your right to write and publish, may become a thing of the past.
Code Pink, MoveOn, Common Cause, Veterans for Common Sense, CommonDreams and many others could become "Violent Radicalizers and Homegrown Terrorists." At the very least, Bush's new executive order that allows the government to seize the assets of anybody interfering with government policy, i.e., the war, or the imposition of martial law, could be used against any individual or organization that gets classified as the above.
I read yesterday that identifiable members of Code Pink are barred from entering the Capitol buildings. Perhaps that is what you folks want, for protest to stop, or be carried out only in "Free Speech Zones" far away behind wire with no press present?
We the People want our Constitution and Bill of Rights returned, intact and functioning, to the Halls of Government. With that in place, there is no crisis we cannot overcome. Without them, we become no more than a particularly dangerous banana republic dictatorship.
The Cheney/Bush Gang has done its best to destroy the Constitution, with the mis-named PATRIOT Act, the Military Tribunals Act, the FISA modernization Act, the destruction of habeas corpus, and other Acts; to criminalize the populace with secret no-fly lists and border crossing lists that no one can find out why they are on, (National Security) but cannot get removed from, either. To wiretap and spy on individuals with no checks and balances.
I am an historian and have studied what happened to Germany in the thirties. We are following the same path, with the same arguments. We all know where that led.
And, of course, never forget the no-bid Halliburton Concentration Camps.
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Please, vote NO on S. 1959: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 and any other of this type of draconian legislation that is brought up. This is too important and great a nation to go down the tubes to feed Cheney/Bush's ambitions and the War Machine's bottom line.
I have sent you dozens of e-mails regarding the erosion of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and requesting their return. This seems to be the one thing that I never receive an answer to. If you have valid and solid reasons for ignoring your oath of office to "protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC," I'd like to hear them. Perhaps you can convince us that a fascist state is the way to go, but I doubt it.
Yours for peace and sanity in our time,
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I wonder if I'll get an answer this time? I won't hold my breath.
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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.
