S: Is for Blinding Justice

Our civil liberties are one of our most precious gifts, yet we take them for granted. Most Americans don’t even know what they are. Civil Liberties are what protect the individual from government tyranny. They set limits for our government so that it can not abuse its power and interfere with our lives. In our past they have been revoked and the aftermath is a time in history that blemishes constitutional rights. In the 1950s the Freedom of Information Act allowed the FBI to open files and engaged in a number of illegal practices including burglaries, opening mail and illegal wiretaps. Many on trial were not allowed to cross-examine or know the identities of those who accused them. In many cases they were not even told what they were accused of. It is difficult to estimate the number of victims. The number imprisoned is in the hundreds, and some ten or twelve thousand lost their jobs. In the film industry alone over 300 actors, authors and directors were denied work in the U.S. included in this list Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller, Paul Robeson, Artie Shaw and Orson Welles. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued the relocation and incarceration of thousands of Americans of Japanese descent in camps all over the United States. It wasn’t till three years later that they were allowed to return home. Forced to start their lives from scratch and though they were supposed to be compensated it took till 1988, however, half of the 120,000 incarcerated Japanese-Americans died even before that happened. After the September 11 detention without trial, wire tapping and other criminal acts are being carried out in the guise of protection and we sit in silence. In NY during the Republican Convention Americans were kept in squalor conditions at a Pier, not allowed the mandatory phone call, and for some it was because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Enter the Bush administration and our Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is currently under fire for recent FBI infractions by improperly, and illegally, using the USA Patriot Act. To quote Gonzales “ We have a special obligation to protect America against future acts of terrorism.” I’m sure that the eight dismissed US attorneys are asking whose going to protect us? Prior to serving at the Department of Justice, he was commissioned as Counsel to Bush in 2001 and was appointed by Bush to the Texas Supreme Court. Could this have been because he helped Bush get excused from jury duty when he was called in a 1996 Travis County drunk driving case and did not disclose Bush's 1976 drunk driving conviction? During his term in Texas he actively worked against clemency in a number of borderline cases. The state of Texas executed more prisoners during Gonzales' term. Gonzales' name was suggested as a nominee to the United States Supreme Court during both of Bush’s terms and denied. His appointment to Attorney General, was a maneuver designed by Karl Rove. On December 7 2006, eight United States Attorneys were notified by the United States Department of Justice that they were being dismissed, after the Bush administration asked for their resignations. Many claimed the dismissals are motivated by desire to install attorneys more loyal to the Republican agenda. E-mails have been released which show Gonzales' chief of staff communicating with White House Administration officials. Gonzales has admitted that Justice Department officials had misled Congress. Gonzales has also publicly stated that no immigration documentation exists for three of his grandparents and they may have entered and resided in the United States illegally. This is whose running the country. Did you know you can be recorded on your phone without your consent and it can be used against you in a court of law? Its actually stated in your telephone book in small print. History has lessons to teach us and if we don’t learn them we are apt to repeat our mistakes. We are seriously in danger of losing our rights. McCarthyism and the WWII Japanese camps may have happened in our past but is a F.A.C.T that if we don’t stand up for our liberties they will happen again.