|
|
Once Again, Our Freedom Is Under Siege
On the eve of the New Year, it's good for a columnist's soul, or its equivalent, to confess error, and the impetus almost invariably comes from readers.
For one example, Thomas Wilson of Washington, D.C., notes that I missed a vital point when I praised the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan for opposing capital punishment on the basis, as Brennan said, that "the most base criminal remains a human being possessed of some potential, at least, for human dignity."
But, Mr. Wilson noted, Justice Brennan voted with the majority of the Court for Roe v. Wade which, in essence, says Mr. Wilson, "declared unborn children to be nonhuman and, although innocent of any criminal wrongdoing, not entitled to the fundamental protections contemplated by the Constitution."
That was Justice Brennan's major error as a jurist. He was a practicing Catholic. I have no religious beliefs, but I know scientifically that once the sperm and egg are united, there has come into existence a human being, distinct from all other human beings.
That a majority of the Supreme Court has chosen to rule that these human beings are not "persons" under the Constitution, is of the order of the Dred Scott decision which cast an entire race of human beings -- black Americans -- out of the Constitution. Another of my Supreme Court heroes, William O. Douglas, also failed, in Roe v. Wade, to protect the most vulnerable of his fellow human beings.
Another reader, Richard Dixon of Virginia, caught me in a flat-out historical error. My correction is particularly pertinent in this time of national danger. I had written that the Constitution was not ratified by the states until the Bill of Rights (the first 10 Amendments), were added. I was wrong. The Bill of Rights was added after the ratification.
What I had jumbled up in my mind was that a key part of the initial resistance to ratifying the Constitution was the absence of a Bill of Rights protecting individual Americans from violations of their fundamental liberties by the new federal government.
Virginia's George Mason, who drafted his state's Declaration of Rights in 1776, from which Thomas Jefferson drew in writing the Declaration of Independence, was a delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention. Opposing the ratification of the Constitution which, when ratified, had no specific protections of free press or free speech, among other basic liberties, George Mason emphasized that "freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty."
Alexander Hamilton disagreed because, he said, such basic liberties "must altogether depend on public opinion, and on the general spirit of the people and of the government. If the people want those freedoms, it will have them."
However, James Madison pointed out in a letter to Thomas Jefferson that rights solely dependent on majority public opinion could be curbed, and even extinguished, when public opinion changed. As our history demonstrates, he was right. Jefferson had already agreed.
Consider the state of public opinion as revealed in the First Amendment Center's First Amendment Survey, released on July 4, before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In this national survey, 46 percent believe the press has too much freedom, and 71 percent believe "it is important for the government to hold the media in check." Moreover, only 53 percent strongly agree that "newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of a story, and only 57 percent agree strongly that "newspapers should be allowed to criticize public officials."
In all these categories, there are small percentages of Americans who "mildly agree" with upholding these freedoms in the Bill of Rights. But the First Amendment does not speak of "mildly" protecting free speech and a free press.
Had George Mason, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and others not successfully lobbied for adding the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, our liberties would be uncertain, as they were during the time of the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 (which were denounced by Jefferson), the First World War, the 1920's Red Scare, and the reign of Joe McCarthy.
Many Americans, having been silenced and sometimes imprisoned for exercising freedom of speech and of the press, were later rescued by the Bill of Rights.
However, there are signs that a majority of Americans are willing, once again, to suspend the First Amendment rights of other Americans who appear to be insufficiently patriotic. And John Ashcroft tells us that dissent gives "ammunition to America's enemies."
But dissent is a vital part of our heritage.
b.150m.com http://www.b.150m.com/ http://www.geocities.com/individualistanarchist/ geocities.com/individualistanarchist anarchy individualist anarchism individualist anarchist individualist anarchists libertarianism libertarian libertarians individual individualism individualists individualistanarchist@yahoo.com haarp tesla coils echelon tempest van eck hacking tools hackers hacker kevin mitnick crypto cryptographic decss software downloads denial of service attack cypherpunks cypherpunk crackers open source code linux bsd unix computer security network hong kong blondes laurie holden drool brigade blondie wong secret cells serialz death by ping cryptography exploits phreaking virus viruses herf emp electromagentic pulse electro-magnetic pulse phreaking digital millenium copy-right act copy right copy rights copyright copyrights copy-rights copy left copyleft copy-left patent patents intellectual property rights ip html computer languages personal privacy internet privacy encrypt encryption anonymity anonymous terrorism hijacking pentagon world trade center new york city anti war anti-war antiwar isolation isolationism isolationsist isolationists neutral neutrality peace du depleted uranium lysander spooner benjamin tucker mark austin murray rothbard george orwell max stirner david friedman nessie mikhail bakunan pierre-joseph proudhon william godwin josiah warren wendy mcelroy walter block thomas szasz brian caplan albert henry david thoreau j nock ayn rand ludwig von mises henry hazlitt milton friedman adam smith john locke frederic bastiat aristotle aristotelian aristotelians lao tsu patrick henry thomas jefferson george mason samuel adams george washington barry goldwater charles beard karl marx aldolf hitler nazi nazis nazism pol national socialism national socialist national socialists anti communism anti communist infiltration anti communists marxism marxist marxists anticommunist anticommunists anticommunism anti-communism anti-communist anti-communists altruism altrist altruists collectivism collectivist collectivists racist racism racists state statism statist statists liberalism liberal liberals liberalist neo-liberal neo-liberalism neo-liberals conservatism conservative conservatives neo-conservativism neo-conservative neo-conservatives national nation nations nationalism nationalist nationalists tradition traditions traditionalism traditionalist traditionalists revolution revolutions revolutionary revolutionaries reaction reactionary reactionaries democracy democracies democratic democrat democrats republic republics republican republicans republicanism progressive progressives progressivism progress radical radicals radicalism extreme extremism extremist extremists new right old right far right new left right wing fabian socialism fabian socialist fabian socialists fabian society fabians utilitarianism utilitarianist utilitarianists pragmatism pragmatist pragmatists pragmatic utopia utopias utopian utopians utopianism politics political party partiesenvironment environmental environmentalism environmentalist environmentalists ecology ecological ecologist ecologists global warming greenhouse green-house green house effect carbon dioxide cfc cfs ozone layer ozone hole science scientist scientists scientific physics sociology sociologist sociologists sociological psychology psychologist psychologists psychological anthropology debate debating discuss discussion discussing argue argues arguing argument arguments argumentation news papers individual rights individual freedom right natural rights natural law common law natural laws legal system private property personal property civil liberty civil liberties human right human rights constitution constituional right constitutional rights constitutionalism constitutionalist constituitionalists injustice injustices justice bill of rights free market free-market freemarket free-trade free trade commerce laissez-faire laissez faire economics economic economical economist austrian school of economics ethic ethics ethical moral morals morality virtue philosophy philospher philosophers ancient classical modern post-modern modernism subjective subjectivity subjectivism subjectivist subjectivists real reality realism realist realists ontology ontologies ontological epistemology epistemologies epistemological meta-physics meta physics meta physical meta-phyisical cosmology cosmologies cosmological analytic synthetic logic logical facts factual a priori a posteriori emperical empericism rational rationalism tabula rasa causality proposition propositions plato idea ideas ideal idealism idealist idealists ideology ideologist ideologists ideological theory theories theorist theorists religion religions atheism atheist atheists marijuana cannabis hemp lsd drugs drug war drug prohibition minarchism minarchist minarachists capital capitalism capitalist capitalists robert bob murphy jeremy sapienza rob moody justin raimondo alan bock brad edmonds lew rockwell lewrockwell lewrockwell.com gene callahan stephan kinsella david dieteman john stossel harry browne joseph sobran charley reese vin suprynowicz joseph farah world net daily alexander cockburn ralph raico paul craig roberts hans-hermann hoppe thomas sowell gore vidal joel miller ego egoism egoist egoists atlas shrugged the fountain head anthem john galt objective objectivism objectivist objectivists self selfish virtue of selfishness right to bear arms 2nd amendment second amendment militia citizen miltias gun control gun rights guns rifles firearms arms weapons m-16 sks ar-15 m-16 m-60 ak-47 pro anti abortion abortions pro-abortion anti-abortion pro-choice anti-choice choice woman womans rights fetus feteus unborn children unborn babies illuminatti cia central inteligence agency nsa national security agency fbi batf atf mi5 twa flight 800 crash waco janet reno bill clinton al gore george w bush jr alan greenspan jfk assassination politics david rockefeller henry kissinger zbigniew brzezinski cfr council on foreign relations trilateral commission secret societies bilderberg round table carroll quigley new world order world government un united nations wto world trade organization world band imf nato federal reserve central banking gold standard fiat currency fractional reserve banking fed cointelpro conspiracy theories government conspriracies undercover covert operations government secrecy infiltrate infiltrates infiltration weather warfare mind control microchip implants secret experimentation information disinformation john birch society new american senator joseph mccarthy joe mccarthy okc bombing ok city bombing tim mcveigh conspiracy? the oklahoma city bombing timmothy mveigh tyranny oppression emergency rule martial law fema federal emergency management federal government executive dictatorship police state military rule oppressive government posse comitatus act pcivil disobedience pearl harbor ron brown why anarchy requires private property the problem with socialist anarchism
