Pandora is playing "Capital G" by NIN right now... Irony!
Back when the Patriot Act was rushed through the House and Senate following the 9/11, the law scared me. Never, EVER, should a law have been passed that supercedes the Constitution. Yet, utilizing the country's general state of panic and lust for revenge, our government pushed through a law that allows them to suspend the rights of anybody they suspect (or claim to suspect) of being a terrorist. It gives law enforcement officials, among other things, unlimited rights to hold prisoners without representation, without proof, and without cause. One utterance of "terrorist" and your rights are magically gone. Poof. You aren't protected, you have nowhere to turn.
That's what this story is about. Federal officials came one night and arrested a tenth grade kid for being a terrorist threat. He's been held now for two months without legal representation and limited contact with his family. His hearings are delayed, then delayed again, all the while this poor kid is being denied his Constitutional rights.
Pardon my French, but what the fuck is this country coming to? This is not the United States the forefathers envisioned, this is more like the various foreign regimes we have been horrified of in the past. Perhaps this has become cliche by now, but only because it is true. We are moving at an ever more rapis pace towards the world envisioned by George Orwell when he penned 1984. The fate of Winston Smith is scarily close to what this kid is going through right now.
If that doesn't send chills up your spine, you should get your pulse checked.
Seriously, folks, anybody reading this and watching this video must acknowledge that this is ridiculous. This is not what the USA is all about. We elected a man who promised us change, yet one of the most atrocious things left over by the Bush administration was the Patriot Act, and he is doing nothing to rectify this problem. He's busying himself with spending record amounts of money and doing more than perhaps any other President before him to socialize this country, but when it comes to the basic rights of the people he was elected to lead, he turns away and refuses to do anything.
I will inevitably get an email or two about how the Patriot Act is necessary to combat the threat of terrorism, and to that I say bullshit. I didn't believe that back in 2001 and I sure as hell don't believe that now. This Act serves no purpose other than stealing away the few rights that remain to us as citizens of the United States. It gives the government far too much power, and that power is wholly abusable due to an utter lack of checks and balances.
It's been said that terrorists attack us because they are jealous of the way we are able to live. If you believe that, perhaps you should take a step back and look at this story from the perspective of a terrorist. They are jealous of our freedoms and our rights, yet the government is stripping those freedoms and rights away from us, little by little, so really, the terrorists are winning. Hell, perhaps they've won already.
If this story horrifies you as much as it does me, do something about it. The Campaign for Liberty is educating people about what their rights are and how they can stand up for them. They are fighting to stem the tide of big government that is slowly eroding our great country and standing up for the Constitution and the rights we have under it. Head on over and educate yourself, then stand up for your rights.
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