Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
To those who pit Americans against immigrants, citizens against non-citizens, to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America’s enemies and pause to America’s friends.
What have these people done to be accused of such a crime? All they have done is to use their First Amendment rights and voice their opinions on Bush administration actions. The opinions they voice happens to disagree with the Administration, but that is their right as citizens. Since when has it been required that to be patriotic one must completely agree with what the current administration is doing?
I begin to wonder what else Ashcroft will begin to consider treasonous. Since he personally disagrees with the Oregon Assisted Suicide law, last month Ashcroft decided that he will step in and prevent anyone from using the law to end their life. Are we now an “enemy” because we disagree with Ashcroft?
The Attorney General seems to be applying the Constitution as he sees fit. It is suddenly legal to detain thousands of people in this country simply because they are Arabic and they *MIGHT* have spoken to a terrorist, or seen a terrorist, or been in the same time zone as a terrorist. One should note that only Arabic men are being detained, not women. If this is truly a campaign that seeks to find information about terrorists, then why aren’t the women being questioned? Or perhaps this is indeed a new type of McCarthysim where you are locked up simply because you can’t answer the question: “Do you now, or have you ever known a terrorist.”
It’s easy to sit back and simply say that the Government is doing it’s best to defeat terrorism and must detain these people. It’s easy to say this because we all want to defeat terrorism. Yet, we must all be vigilant of the misuse of power from the Bush Administration. We must ask ourselves: who will be declared the enemy next week? Perhaps the Pro-Choice people? Or perhaps maybe those who don’t believe in the God that Ashcroft and Bush do.
Attorney General John Ashcroft went before the Senate Judiciary Committee on December 7, 2001. Ashcroft told the committee that anyone who is critical of the way the Bush administrations is handling the “war on terrorism” is undermining the constitution. He accuses those critics of giving “ammunition to America’s enemies”. In effect he is accusing these people of committing treason.Hello. My name is Angela Christine Byers (yes, my mother actually named me “Angel of Christ”), and I am an atheist.
— United States Constitution, Article III, Section 3
— U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft before the Senate Judiciary Committee on December 7, 2001
First they came for the Communists but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out; Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists but I was not one of them, so I did not speak out; Then they came for the Jews but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
— Martin Niemoller, 1892-1984
Copyright © 1996 - 2002 Angela C. Byers
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Angela C. Byers