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Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act!

By Gordon Francis Corbett

    Something strange is happening across our land.  Ordinary Republicans, Democrats, and independents are urging their city, county, or State governments to disobey the USA PATRIOT Act and to flout the government that passed it.

    These people do not attack our Constitution.  They defend it.  They know that the USA PATRIOT Act lets the Federal Government conduct searches without having to display search warrants, deny arrested people access to attorneys and imprison them for extended periods without charges or bail, and conduct "data mining" of Internet messages and transactions.

    These facts have led well over two hundred jurisdictions to pass proclamations or resolutions opposing the Act and, in some cases, directing their employees not to help Federal officers working to implement it.  They comprise cities, counties, other governmental bodies, and the States of Hawaii, Vermont, Alaska, and the Oregon Senate.

    Consider the Act's "data mining."  Just one of its many uses should set off every alarm in the country.  Whenever you buy a firearm with a credit card, the credit card company passes that news to the Federal Government, which, no doubt, notes it in your file.

    Our Federal Government has just registered you as a gun-owner.  Why is this important?

    In the twentieth century, gun-owner registration preceded gun confiscation in Turkey, China, Cambodia, Russia / Soviet Union, and, of course, in Germany.  Later, governments in those countries committed catastrophic mass murders.  Most of the time, the gun-owners were registered by relatively benign governments, who then, through conquest or subversion, lost power to the mass murderers.

    The mere fact that the USA PATRIOT Act effects national gun-owner registration means that it sets the stage for gun confiscation, and, therefore, that it violates the Second Amendment.

    This is just one reason to oppose the USA PATRIOT Act.  Other parts of this law violate every Amendment in the Bill of Rights except the Third, which allows Congress to quarter Federal soldiers in our homes only "in time of war."

    Each of us must ask himself, or herself:  "Do I stand by my rights"?  Those "unalienable rights" are every individual's own arsenal of freedom.  For so long as every American citizen has the legal ability to use those rights, will we remain free.

    Let us do something to keep that ability.  Let us urge our cities,' counties,' and states' governments to flout the USA PATRIOT Act.  Our paid public servants swear to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."  That oath requires them to do more than collect taxes and fill potholes.

    Every official's first duty is to protect our rights, and the USA PATRIOT Act has placed those rights in danger.  Passing resolutions will help, but our City Councilors, County Commissioners or Supervisors, and State legislators must go further.  They must prohibit the expenditure of money to obey it and forbid their employees' complying with it.

    Some people will hesitate to join us because they do not know the facts and truths recounted above.

    Some people will hesitate to join us because they are apathetic.  They regard politicians as a strange breed who do strange business in strange places.  Sure, politicians make them pay taxes;  but, if the taxes do not take too much of their money, they remain content.

    Some others will hesitate to join us because they are doubtful or fearful.  "After all, the government must know what is best for us;  and, even if they do not, they have the power."

    Yet a few others may ask, "What if we succeed in making them pass a resolution, and they renege later?"

    This is an excellent question.  A given official body could pass a tough resolution and firm regulations, and later, faced with imprisonment or a threat to deny them future grants, they could decide to obey.

    If they were to do that, what would result?  When their constituents heard of this betrayal, they would be furious.  They might even back a recall.  Recall is in the wind these days.  Just ask former California Governor Gray Davis.

    Or, consider the maximum example.  Suppose that an official body were to forbid co-operation, but seriously.  Suppose that when the Feds made their demands, the local officials defied them and the Feds carted away officials and employees alike.

    Local citizens would spread the word to every part of our country before you could say, "Internet."  How long do you think Americans would need to wake up and smell the coffee?

    The secret is the moral sanction.  First, we, our City Councilors,' County Commissioners,' and State legislators' constituents, deny those officials our moral sanction to violate our rights, and we ask them to commit their moral sanction to defending our rights.  Result:  our moral sanctions and theirs form an ethical shield that the Feds can challenge only by provoking a crisis.

    The moral sanction is not an ivory-tower issue.  Having their victims' moral sanction gives politicians a semblance of legitimacy.  With it, they can make their crimes seem morally right.  Without it, crimes and perpetrators stand bare for all to see.  If any American public official tries to deny us the legal ability to use our rights, we need to strip him buck naked.

    Our rights are the sole source of legitimacy, and we award it only when they are defended.  If we make our local officials promise to defend our rights, and Homeland Security descends, they have two choices.  They can keep their promise, preserve their integrity, keep their legitimacy, and expose the Feds.  Or, they can break their promise, abjure their integrity, destroy their legitimacy, and join the Feds.

    We win either way.  Our rights need all possible help, and we can obtain that help only if we make their endangerment crystal-clear.

    We oppose the USA PATRIOT Act for reasons that are serious, well-informed, and morally right.  Ideally, we should see our public servants draw a line in the sand to defend our rights;  but, if they cannot do that, we need at least to see those officials subjected to righteous indignation.

    The unknowing need knowledge.  The apathetic need an example.  The doubtful and fearful need a spark.  We can provide all three if we defend our rights and demand that our officials do the same.  That defense requires action, such as refusal to obey un-Constitutional orders.

    Only the USA PATRIOT Act's repeal can restore and protect our Constitutionally guaranteed rights.  That repeal starts when our officials denounce, flout, and thwart it.

    Perseverance can cause hardship, but nothing worthwhile is easily won or kept.  Samuel Adams said, "It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."
 
 

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