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The Land of the Silent and the Home of the
Fearful
By Dave Lindorff
28/08/08 "ICH" -- - I was a speaker last night at an anti-war
event sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of
Monmouth County, Progressive Democrats of America and Democrats
For America in Lincroft, NJ, near the shore. It was a great
group of activist Americans who want to see this country end the
Iraq War, turn away from war as a primary instrument of policy,
and start dealing with the pressing human needs of the country
and the world.
Yet even in this group of committed people, one woman stood
up during the question-and-answer session and said, "I want to
get involved in writing emails to members of Congress urging
them to cut off funding for the war and other things, but if I
do that won't I end up getting put on a "watch list'" or
something?"
I told her the short answer was yes, she probably would. In
George Bush's and Dick Cheney's America, no one is safe from
such spying, and even from harassment, as witness Tom Feeley,
the man behind the website
Information Clearing House, who had
armed men invade his house at night and threaten his wife
complaining about his First Amendment-protected effort to
publicize important stories on the Internet.
But I also told her that it didn't matter. She should defend
her freedom of speech and her right to petition for redress of
grievances, just as she was defending her freedom of assembly by
attending last night's event.
The only demonstrably true statement George Bush has made in
his sorry eight years in office is that the Constitution is
"just a goddamned piece of paper." While it wasn't the point he
was making, when he reportedly shouted this at a couple of
Republican members of Congress who were questioning the
constitutionality of some of his actions, he was right that the
nation's founding document is only worth the parchment and ink
it's composed of, unless people use it and defend it.
There is a remarkable and palpable fear abroad in this
land-not a fear of terrorism, but a fear of speaking up, a fear
of being labeled as "different" or as a "troublemaker."
People will lean over and whisper their opinions, if they
think they are anti-Establishment, as though someone might be
listening. People write me after some of my columns run,
praising me for my "courage," though why it should be perceived
as requiring courage to merely write something in America is
beyond me.
The worst thing is that every time someone says she or he is
afraid, or acts afraid to speak or write what she or he is
thinking, five more acquaintances become equally scared and
silenced.
The corollary, though, is that each time someone forgets or
ignores or rejects that fear, five people gain courage the do
the same thing.
Now I'm not saying that there aren't people monitoring, and
reporting on, what we say. I know our government is busy doing
that. I assume that my Internet activities are being monitored
by the National Security Agency. I assume my phones are tapped.
I assume there was some agent or informant among the fine people
at the church last night. But these Stasi wannabes have no power
if we don't let them frighten us into silence and inaction.
What I find discouraging is the widespread acceptance, even
on the left, of this effort to intimidate us, and the pervasive
attitude of fear that has grown up around us. I spent a year and
a half living in a truly fascistic society in China, where there
are real, concrete threats to life and liberty faced by those
who stand up and say what they are thinking, and yet sometimes I
think that ordinary people I met in China were braver about
stating their minds than many, or even most Americans are. I'm
not talking here about saying things like that you think the
Post Office is dysfunctional, or that you think federal
bureaucrats are corrupt or that taxes are too high. I'm talking
about questioning the system, or challenging the war, or
protesting military spending. Chinese people would tell me all
the time that the Chinese Communist Party was a corrupt gang of
thugs or that you could not get justice in a Chinese court.
Chinese people are closing down factories that short them on
their pay. They have rallied in the thousands and burned down
police stations when corrupt police have raped, killed and then
covered up the death of a young girl. They have marched in
massive impromptu protests at the theft of their homes through
eminent domain.
If you want to see where we're headed here in America, check
out the workplace. There, we Americans have, through years of
collective cowardice and unwillingness to stand together in
organized labor unions, allowed our constitutional freedoms to
be almost completely erased. Today, an American workplace is
more akin to a police state than to a democratic society. Say
what you're thinking on the job, and you're liable to lose it.
Wear a shirt that says something the boss disagrees with, and
you either remove that shirt or you are unemployed. Even that
final refuge of free speech, the bumper sticker, can get workers
in trouble if the wrong one shows up in the company parking lot.
That loss of will and of freedom has in no small way contributed
to the loss of jobs and the decline in living standards of
American workers.
It's time for all of us to put a stop to this creeping
usurpation of our liberties.
The anxious woman who asked her question came up to me after
the meeting and said proudly that she would not be afraid, and
would start signing on to protest letter-writing and emailing
campaigns.
We need lots more like her.
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist
and columnist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment"
(St. Martin's Press, 2006 and now available in paperback
edition). His work is available at
www.thiscantbehappening.net
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