Whenever I read statements such as
those you posted regarding those who oppose the USA Patriot Act coming from
educated and otherwise rational people like
yourself, it pains me.
Let me preface my comments by saying I consider myself to be a very
patriotic American. I am proud of my country and its great legacy of
freedom, and I am thankful everyday for the great opportunities I am
afforded as an American. That being said, I realize sometimes this country
and its government make mistakes.
Our founding fathers realized this, too, and this is why they added the Bill
of Rights to the Constitution -- to protect us from our government. They
understood how easy it would be in trying times for the government to
overzealously exercise its power in misguided
attempts to help the American people and they understand how easy it is for
people to give up their rights in times of fear without realizing the dire
consequences of such actions.
However, it is imperative that patriotic Americans do not forget the words
of Benjamin Franklin, which ring truer today than ever before --
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
You wrote in your piece "Liars and Losers" that in your opinion, those who
oppose the USA Patriot Act are "traitors" who offer "aid and
abetment to the enemy." However, what you don't seem to realize is
that it is the goal of the enemy to take away our freedoms and fundamentally
change our way of life.
By supporting the Patriot Act, and thereby
supporting the usurpation of our freedoms by a misguided government blinded
by fear, you are giving the terrorists a victory. You are
trampling on the legacy of great Patriots like Benjamin Franklin and
James Madison who fought long and hard for the freedoms found in the Bill of
Rights. If they were alive today, they would shudder to see people like
yourself in effect handing our Bill of Rights over to a
bunch of cowards.
Does the Patriot Act make it a little bit easier for the government to
apprehend terrorists? Sure it does. But it also makes it a lot easier
for the rights of innocent people to be trampled upon as well. It is
easy to ignore this fact -- since we are not criminals,
we assume we don't need these protections.
However, what we do not realize is that governments make mistakes (more
often than one would think).
Our government is administered by human beings, not demigods. By the time
we realize what can inadvertently happen to innocent people, it is often
too late and nobody wants to defend us.
It is easy to say that the government should have every weapon possible in
order to fight terrorism, but it is also hard to
ignore the ways in which these weapons can be misused.
In "Liars and Losers," you also seem to defend
racial profiling against Muslims and people of
Middle Eastern decent simply because the September
11 hijackers were Arabs who claimed to be Muslims. While it is true
that the September 11 attacks and other acts of terrorisms were
committed in the name of Islam, it is wrong to
assume that all Muslims and people of Middle Eastern decent should then be
under suspicion.
However, you must keep in mind that the so-called Islam these terrorists
claim to practice is a gross perversion of true Islam. Saying that all
Muslims believe in this way is akin to saying that
all Christians sympathize with the beliefs of the white supremacist World
Church of the Creator, which supports terrorism
and claims that hatred of non-whites is part of true Christian belief. Keep
in mind also that before September 11, the most
devastating act of terrorism on American soil was
planned and carried out by white American men.
Also, you seem to believe that all of us who oppose the Patriot Act are
liberals. This is not true. Many prominent and well-respected
conservatives, such as Dick Armey, William Safire, and Phyllis
Schlafly have spoken out against the Patriot Act,
not to mention the countless libertarians who also
oppose the Patriot Act.
To answers your question about who is bankrolling the campaign against the
Patriot Act, which I would argue is pro-American rather than
anti-American, it is the people. The campaign against the Patriot
Act has by-and-large been a grassroots effort
funded by the efforts of countless patriotic Americans like myself who don't
want to see us give up our hard-won Constitutional
rights out of fear.
In your letter to Gary Griffith, you state that you are convinced that those
of us who oppose the Patriot act are anti-Semetic and anti-Israel. I am a
Jew and a supporter of Israel. As I have tried to
make clear in this e-mail, opposing the Patriot Act does not mean that I
support terrorism nor does it mean that I think we should not do everything
we can to oppose radical "Muslim" extremists.
Finally, keep in mind that I am not necessarily
defending racist or otherwise ignorant statements made by others opposed to
the Patriot Act. I am simply defending my personal opposition to the
Patriot Act, for the reasons stated above.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your response. |
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I have no idea how old you are or
where you studied American History. I
have a degree in History. In 4 years,I
had one professor who was not a screaming liberal.
All the others tried to slant the lessons
to turn us all into good little liberals.
Nothing in the Patriot Act is as severe as the
restrictions imposed on Americans during
World War II by Franklin Roosevelt.
Muslims fanatics don't just want to take our
liberties, they want to destroy our way of life.
To say they are not the majority or an aberration of
Islam is naive and simply wrong.
I was not surprised The League of Women Voters
were part of your movement. Silly women who spend too
much time talking to each other.
More surprising to me is that a thinking person like you would not question
where the money comes from to fund your
treasonous movement or that you believe it is a
grassroots effort.
Your movement is anti-Israel, anti-Semitic
and anti-Women.
You and your kind have never known adversity and can only live your life
because men like Bill Blaydes will stand
between you and the bad guys.
The cowards and racists on the council can't take care of this city. You
and your buddies gave them another opportunity to make fools of
themselves and vicariously make our city look
foolish.
A few weeks ago, I attended a debate on the Iraq war with Mark Davis and an
SMU Professor on one side and Bob Ray Sanders and an Iraqi woman on the
anti-war side. The SMU Professor quickly stole the show, and the
pacifists in the crowd didn't like it. They started calling him a "Jew
Warmonger". He stopped and looked at them, and said "I'm not Jewish."
The crowd continued to taunt him, calling Israelis the Mid-East Terrorists.
And you think your movement is not anti-Semitic?
There is evil in the World. You cannot reason it away.
We are at War. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, it was no more
an affront to the USA than was 9/11.
Both my natural father and my stepfather served in World War II.
Several of my uncles served in World War II. I even have two uncles
who are my age who served in Viet Nam.
US civilians were part of the war effort and survived under severe
restrictions during WW II.
From what you say, Americans of 2004 are not as strong as the people who
fought and endured WW II. That may be the only thing on which we can
agree.
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