The President uses the word “freedom” in almost every sentence in his speeches, doesn’t he?

The Patriot Act II currently in it’s drafting stages picks up where the first one left off… to throw the First and Fourth Amendment out the window for the sake of expediency.

It’s the same mentality that jurors use to send an innocent black man off to prison. “Maybe it’s not him, but at least we got *somebody*. Well, he’ll commit a crime eventually, look at him! Let’s just get him off the streets now.”

Sometimes the police stop someone. They know in their guts this guy is up to no good. They’ve been on the streets so long that they develop a sixth sense that way. They find nothing, they *have* to let them go… only to have them commit a horrendous crime, and the department takes the heat FROM an angry public that uses 20/20 hindsight screaming “How could you let them go???”

Procedures. Checks and balances.
They’re there for a reason.

The alternative is angry mobs, public lynchings… people charged up on fears, emotions, and sterotypes, that think innocents caught in the system is perfectly acceptable for the greater good.

For every “Willie Horton”, you have dozens of people in prison who are innocent. Look at the Central Park Five. Sure they were far FROM “innocent kids”, but they paid the price for a crime they didn’t commit… because the public outcry *DEMANDED* someone pay for the Central Park Jogger. Didn’t matter who. The real rapist went on to prey on more victims.

Have we not learned anything FROM the past 150 years?
Segregation? Indian Reservations? Japanese Internment camps?
Innocent until proven guilty.
That concept is there for a reason.
The end NEVER justifies the means.

Solonor publishes the highlights of the Patriot Act II. It’s too long and confusing for us Americans with such a short attention span to take in at once:

• Keeping arrests secret and ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests
• Keeping the public in the dark about dangerous practices of chemical companies
• Creating another uber-database – this one collecting DNA information
• Letting the Attorney General strip citizenship FROM any American

Can I be scared now?

Our founding fathers fought opression FROM a tyranny. The Boston Tea Party was categorically “An Act of Terrorism”, to send the message to King George that we will NEVER AGAIN allow Government to control us with no say. Our Amendments in the Bill of Rights were drafted SPECIFICALLY so that “We, The People” will always be more powerful than the leaders we chose to appoint. We heve checks an balances to make sure our government stays “Of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

So we never have another King George again.

It’s almost blasphemous to suggest this… but FROM a tactical standpoint, the Terror attack on September 11th was one of the most skillfully-executed military maneuvers of our time.

(I’ve lost friends in the WTC, I’ve seen photos that the public never will, and it took me for months to even talk about it… whatever you’re about to say, you better choose your words carefully! Assama and his kind make me sick, okay?)

The point was it was executed flawlessly. Up until the hijacking, everything the 19 terrorists did was perfectly legal. They took our rules, regulations, and laws, and used it against us.

By the time we knew what was going on, it was too late. Superman himself couldn’t have saved us. Truth be told, I think they got lucky, and couldn’t pull off an attack like that again if they tried. Even bin Laden was “surprised” the towers collapsed…

We needed to learn how to prevent such a thing FROM happening again. Tighter security, more vigilance, closing all the holes that would allow that FROM happening again… not re-write our laws, and throw away our rights and centuries of lessons we’ve already learned.

Fear and paranoia are the tools of the enemy. The people we are sending troops to fight. Like Iraq. Next on our hit list of “Spreading our message of freedom and democracy to all the nations on earth”

Really?

How do I, one that loves his Country for all it’s freedoms and fairness, stop our Country FROM becoming what we hate the most?

When the Patriot Act II passes, and I have no doubt it will, given our trauma and paralysis in fear of the “What Ifs”… I’ll have to DELETE this post. This very conversation can have me tried for treason for saying “My government is making a BIG mistake”.

America, you will be rounded up and shot.

Do I still sound paranoid, asshole?