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May
10 / 11, 2003
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May
12, 2003
A Roadmap to Resistance
How
to Resist the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
By SAM HAMOD and ELAINE
CASSEL
As frequent contributors of articles related to
the Bush Administration's war on liberty and sanity, you, our
readers, often ask us, "But what can we do about it?"
Indeed, after all the hand wringing and dire prognostications,
we cannot let history repeat itself and sit idly by while Bush,
Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft hijack our country. Make no mistake--the
hijacking has already occurred. They have co-opted patriotism
for themselves, daring those who oppose them--on any count--to
speak up and be branded a traitor. They have convinced 75 percent
of the American people (although I personally don't know one
of them) that the invasion of Iraq and was necessary and proper.
They have convinced almost all of Congress that endless erosions
of civil liberties and respect for privacy must all be sacrificed
in the name of national security. They have convinced most federal
judges that we are "at war," and in a time of war,
the judiciary cedes power to the executive branch.
This is a "rhetoric of exclusion,"
wherein anyone who disagrees with the Bush line is branded, as
we said earlier, as a traitor, so the majority of our nation
is afraid to speak out--so that task, of preserving our First
Amendment rights and our democracy falls to all of us who have
the vision to see what must be done to preserve our nation.
All this began, not with September 11,
but with the hijacking of the 2000 presidential election. But
September 11 provided the spark the Bush needed to take his presidency
from mediocrity to mendacity. By now, everyone, even the right-wing
admits this, that the behavior of the Bush administration is
based on a document published years earlier, THE NEW AMERICAN
CENTURY (you will find copies on various web sites). Every day
new "threats," morphed from half-truths and lies give
rise to new terrors. The treat from Iraq of weapons of mass destruction
was but the most recent foray into fiction. Phony or misinterpreted
intelligence reports lie in the wake of the U.S. giving up on
finding those threats to our safety that supposedly led us to
invade Iraq in the first place.
How do you fight lies? How do you take
back patriotism? What can you do to save yourself and this country?
Here are several ideas.
Becoming Informed
1. Don't rely on the national newspapers
or National Public Radio or Public Broadcasting Service for your
news. You can pay attention to these sources, but seek verification
and alternative viewpoints. The British Broadcasting Company,
the Canadian Broadcasting Company, as well as Arab world sources
like Al Ahram and Al Jazeera are sources of differing perspectives
on international news. If you listened to the BBC or CBC as well
as CNN and CBS you would have wondered if they were talking about
the same war. Online versions of UK's The Guardian, The Independent,
and Times Online are excellent sources of news. The U.S. magazine,
The Progressive, has an excellent web site that includes action
alerts (see below).
2. Sign up for news services related
to issues pertaining Bush's war against America. For instance,
the New York Times allows you to pick topics , such as "civil
liberties," "John Ashcroft," and the "war
in Iraq." When these topics are the focus of articles, you
will receive a link to the article in your email. Box.
3. When you read something you find useful,
pass it on. If possible, make copies and put them in public places
where others may pick them up and pass them further on.
4. Read history. We are finding it useful
to read books on the Third Reich and fascism. Others have suggested
books on Andrew Jackson, whom Bush seems to be emulating. Read
about the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Read and weep how the U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned their internment
in prison camps and would do so again today, without question.
Effecting the Political
Process
1. First, remember that all politics
is local. Your most forceful contribution will be at the level
of your local town council or board of supervisors. Run for office.
Attend meetings. Introduce resolutions condemning things like
the USA Patriot Act and the war on Iraq. Dozens of localities
have done just that.
2. At the state level, watch what your
legislators are doing. Most are ignorant that many states are
passing laws that mirror provisions of the Patriot Act, to allow
state officials to conduct what were once unlawful searches of
homes and computers. You would be amazed at how many people don't
know what the Patriot Act is, let alone what it does. And most
people are clueless about the laws their state legislatures are
passing.
3. At the federal level, don't miss any
opportunity to meet with your congressional representatives when
they are in their home district. Let them know that you won't
vote for them if they don't vote for America.
4. Don't wait to be told by someone else
what laws are pending. Read a national newspaper or check in
at www.thomas.gov at least
weekly to find out what pending laws are. You probably know by
now that some of the more outrageous laws are hidden in appropriation
bills. There is no substitute for reading the legislation. It
may be tedious, but not half a tedious as having Ashcroft read
your email.
5. Sign up for alerts from organizations
that target congress when important bills are pending. The ACLU,
People for the American Way, and <moveon.org> have places
where you can sign up. You will receive emails instructing you
how to fax and email your congressional delegates. These may
not get the results you want, but you will hear from them. And
don't be frightened just because the USA Patriot Act suggests
that lobbying to effect legislation may itself be an act of terror
(we told you to read the Patriot Act!).
6. Run for local, state, or federal office.
Community Level Action
1. Join, be active, and speak out in
community and professional organizations. Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions
Clubs, are just a few of the opportunities to be involved. These
and other types of organizations are always on the look out for
speakers. You might be a speaker or you might get someone who
is knowledgeable about the topic, even a sympathetic congressperson,
to speak to your group.
2. Be active in your professional organizations--doctors,
lawyers, accountants, and other professionals all have local
and state professional organizations that have political clout.
Help move your organization toward activism in the name of liberty.
3. Write concise, impassioned letters
to the editor of your local paper that is responsive to articles
(it goes without saying that you can do very little to reclaim
the country if you do not know what is going on). It may take
a few times to get a letter in, but you will eventually succeed.
Carefully follow the paper's protocol for submission of articles.
Missing one step will end your letter in the trash can or "deleted"
file. If this doesn't work, organize your group and make an appointment
to see the Letters to the Editor section of your local and/or
regional newspapers so that you may have an interactive learning
and response situation that may lead to more of your group's
letters being published (your numbers will tell them that you
are a serious force in the community--and if your numbers are
small, just inflate them a bit, the way political organizations
and pollsters do all the time!)
4. Call in local and national talk shows.
NPR's talk shows at least are amenable to some type of dissenting
viewpoint. If not, organize your group and let them write and/or
call in and say that if they don't balance things out, you'll
either picket and/or stop sending them funds and ask your friends
to do the same (some people are doing this in the San Diego area
at this time because of what they perceive to be a Republican
bias in their interviews on talk shows).
5. Attend marches and political rallies,
and organize some of your own if necessary; you'll find all kinds
of anti-war, anti-fascism groups alive and well in America in
this time, the largest number since the Viet Nam war, both in
the cities and on the college campus'.
6. Respond to television, website, and
radio stations that are taking polls on issues; if necessary,
call in or email in more than once so that you compensate for
the right-wing groups that are doing this regularly.
7. If you are good at writing, and recognized
locally, write and submit op-eds to the local newspapers. These
need to be short (500-700 words), factually accurate, precisely
written, and devoid of diatribe. You can be passionate with propriety.
These are just a few suggestions to get
you going. We are sure you can think of more, and as you do,
please send email to us and we will compile your suggestions
and update the roadmap for resistance.
Sam Hamod
is an expert on world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim
worlds, former editor of THIRD WORLD NEWS (in Wash, DC), a former
professor at Princeton University, former Director of The National
Islamic Center of Washington, DC, an advisor to the US State
Department and author of ISLAM IN THE WORLD TODAY. He is the
editor of www.todaysalternativenews.com,
and may be reached at shamod@cox.net
He is also a poet, nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize in 1980 and the author of 10 books of poems.
Elaine Cassel
teaches law and psychology and practices law in the District
of Columbia and Virginia. She is a contributor to CounterPunch
and <Findlaw.com>'s Writ, and keeps a watch on the Bush
Administration's rewriting of the Bill of Rights on her Civil
Liberties Watch site hosted by Minneapolis, Minnesota's City
Pages. Cassel can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net
Yesterday's
Features
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