posted 06-03-2003 02:29 PM
Nat Hentoff
100th Civil Liberties Safe Zone!
Hawaii Is the First State to Defy Ashcroft
May 30th, 2003 1:30 PM
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0323/hentoff.php On May 6, the commissioners of Broward County,
Florida, in a unanimous vote, passed the 100th local
resolution in the United States proclaiming "a civil
liberties safe zone."
These resolutions are directed at the Bush-Ashcroft
war on the Bill of Rights. However, the undeterred
Attorney General is planning to introduce in Congress
USA Patriot Act II, which would much more radically
reduce individual liberties in the holy name of
national security.
I use "holy" in reference to what John Ashcroft
proclaimed on May 1, the National Day of Prayer.
During a four-hour prayer service on Capitol Hill, he
declared that "it is faith and prayer that are the
sources of this nation's strength."
However, just as God is not cited in the Constitution,
a rapidly growing number of Americans are insisting
that neither God nor Ashcroft guarantees our freedoms
in the Bill of Rights. These patriots believe, as
Thomas Jefferson said, that the people "are the only
sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."
In the spirit of Jefferson, on the same day that
Broward County became part of the Resistance, it was
joined by San Mateo, Marin, and Sausalito counties,
all in California. On April 25, Hawaii's legislature
passed the first statewide resolution to preserve and
protect the Bill of Rights. Alaska followed on May 22.
On May 29, Philadelphia became the 116th town or city
to pass one of these resolutions.
According to Nancy Talanian, director of the original
Bill of Rights Defense Committee in Northampton,
Massachusetts—where this grassroots renewal of
constitutional democracy started—the term civil
liberties zone means "a locale whose local government
has passed a resolution declaring its commitment to
protect the civil liberties of its residents."
Talanian is a longtime invaluable source of news of
the Resistance for this column. Through the Bill of
Rights Defense Committee's Web site (bordc.org),
organizing tools and texts of resolutions already
passed are continually available to communities that
want to mount the ramparts.
"It took a year," Talanian points out, "for the first
50 locales to pass resolutions; the next 50 took just
two months. A movement that started in progressive
communities now includes many more mainstream
communities, including Tucson and Flagstaff, Arizona;
Dillon and Missoula, Montana; Blount County,
Tennessee; and Minneapolis, Minnesota."
On National Public Radio's On the Media (April 29),
Talanian was asked how she got involved in this
awakening of the citizenry to realize that they can
actually do something to defend themselves against a
national government that is making up the rule of
constitutional law as it goes along.
"I had worked to help end apartheid," Nancy said, "and
I had done work to help bring democracy to Nigeria.
When I heard terms like 'military tribunals,' it was
reminiscent of what happened to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the
Ogoni activists who were hanged by the Nigerian
military dictatorship.
"And when I heard about detentions without charges,
without trial, it was reminiscent of how the apartheid
government of South Africa treated the African people
who were fighting for their freedom, and I felt this
was not my country if this was the direction that [the
United States] was going in. I had to take action."
The thrust of the Bill of Rights Defense Committees
around the country is—as Nancy Talanian emphasizes—to
"ensure that there is a debate. There was no debate
back in October of 2001, even in Congress [when the
USA Patriot Act was rammed through]. Also, we hope we
can have an impact on making sure there's a national
debate before Patriot II—the Domestic Security
Enhancement Act—is voted on by Congress."
>From what I can find out, Ashcroft's plan may be not
to introduce Patriot II as a whole, but rather to slip
sections of it into bills dealing with national
security. Fortunately, the ACLU's Washington staff and
other civil liberties organizations keep a very close
watch on bills the Justice Department can use to set
more land mines for the Constitution.
But it is important to realize that the more than 100
civil-liberties-zone resolutions around the country
include a requirement—sent to each of the federal
legislators representing that community—that those
members of Congress actively work to repeal laws and
combat executive orders that violate the civil
liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights. I would
also suggest messages of support to those members of
Congress who already are demanding of Ashcroft, the
FBI, the CIA, the Homeland Security Department, and
others in the ever expanding web of surveillance that
they tell us precisely how they are implementing these
expanding threats to individual liberties.
Among the current, increasingly impatient watchdogs in
Congress are senators Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy
(but not Charles Schumer or Hillary Clinton). And in
the House, John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler, James
Sensenbrenner, Dennis Kucinich, Barney Frank, Bernie
Sanders, Bobby Scott, and District of Columbia
delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. This is a partial
list, and I welcome the names of other unintimidated
congressional patriots.
Worth attention is the following section of the State
of Hawaii's resolution reminding members of Congress
and other Americans of the Japanese-American
internment camps ordered by President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt and confirmed by the United States Supreme
Court:
"The residents of Hawaii during World War II
experienced firsthand the dangers of unbalanced
pursuit of security without appropriate checks and
balances for the protection of basic liberties."
And now, the resolution continues, "the citizens of
Hawaii are concerned that the actions of the Attorney
General of the United States and the United States
Justice Department pose significant threats to
Constitutional protections."
That resolution should have added to the list of
despoilers of our liberties President George W. Bush,
who has enthusiastically approved all this legislation
and has told John Ashcroft that he is doing a
"fabulous job."
In the 2004 presidential campaign, already well under
way, Bush should be continually held accountable for
violating his oath to protect the Constitution, very
much including the Bill of Rights. But who is the
Democratic presidential candidate to demand that?