So, the New York Times has an interesting article today. You need to sell your soul…err…subscribe to read the article, but it’s an interesting one.
During an interview in ABC’s “This Week” news program, Alberto R. Gonzalez, Attorney General, said:
“But it can’t be the case that that right [the First Amendment's right] trumps over the right that Americans would like to see, the ability of the federal government to go after criminal activity,” he said. “And so those two principles have to be accommodated.”
Accommodated? As in…doing away with the First Amendment so they government can put journalists in jail for talking about stuff the government doesn’t want talked about.
And while they are at getting rid of the right to Free Speech and Free Press, they can also get rid of the right to assemble peaceably. This sounds like a fun way to move more and more towards a fascist state, doesn’t it?
And if you think that this would only apply to “state secrets” as Mr. Gonzalez would like you to believe, then you have to think a bit more. What this amounts to is criminalizing speech the government doesn’t like, no matter what they are. Yes, they want to get rid of that so they can “go after criminal activity”…what criminal activity? Whatever the govenment defines as criminal activity…ask any Russian who survived the Stalin era…it was a crime to talk bad about Stalin, a crime paid with a trip to Siberia, if you got lucky. Getting rid of the Free Speech and Free Press rights would allow the US government to prosecute anybody who said anything that they didn’t like.
I’m not american, I’m not even in the US (I’m mexican, born and raised in Mexico), but I can most definetely see what an ugly thing that would become even for foreign nationals who write on the web, as I do. Mexico does have a limited extradition treaty with the US, which would mean that *I* could get prosecuted if I made fun of the US government on this blog (which is in a computer in Mexico), just because I wrote something cynic or bad about the US government.
I know that’s a stretch, yes. But I also know that a government that starts taking away the rights of their citizens will do everything it can to keep going that way…that’s how most fascist governments started, after all. And when the one world power starts going that way, it scares the hell out of me, and it should scare the hell out of you too.
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.
John Adams
US diplomat & politician (1735 - 1826)
The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
Thomas Jefferson
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.
Justice Anthony Kennedy
US jurist (1936 - )
Technorati Tags: us government, government, politics, first amendment, free speech, free press
Tags: Thoughts
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!!
