I Cogitate
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Take Away Their Civil Liberties...Please
Funny how I don't recall hearing the support for monitoring and profiling white, male, ex-military members after the conviction of Tim McVeigh for the Oklahoma City acts of terrorism. Not even Michelle (proprietress of the Manzanar Day and Night Spa) Malkin was trolling political talk shows with such a siren call."Dec. 17, 2004
ITHACA, N.Y.--In a study to determine how much the public fears terrorism, almost half of respondents polled nationally said they believe the U.S. government should--in some way--curtail civil liberties for Muslim Americans, according to a new survey released today (Dec. 17) by Cornell University.
About 27 percent of respondents said that all Muslim Americans should be required to register their location with the federal government, and 26 percent said they think that mosques should be closely monitored by U.S. law enforcement agencies. Twenty-nine percent agreed that undercover law enforcement agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations, in order to keep tabs on their activities and fund raising. About 22 percent said the federal government should profile citizens as potential threats based on the fact that they are Muslim or have Middle Eastern heritage. In all, about 44 percent said they believe that some curtailment of civil liberties is necessary for Muslim Americans."
Demands for infiltrating the CIA and FBI while also restricting the civil liberties of the officers and agents of these organizations were not voiced by anyone despite the incredible national security damage and lives lost due to the traitorous acts of Aldrich Ames (CIA) and Robert Hanssen (FBI). Another two white males--there is a trend here.
Granted, so much of the world does not and maybe cannot operate with an unyielding black-white ethical vision. But to single out certain races and nationalities for suspected wrongdoing was wrong in the past, is wrong now and can never be morally justified.
In the late 1980s, the United State government issued a formal apology and financial compensation for the nefarious internment done to Japanese citizens of this country in the early 1940s. House Resolution 2442, which acknowledged the lapse of civil rights for Americans of Italian descent during World War II, was signed by Bill Clinton in 2000. German Americans sadly suffered the same imprisonment.
And, in all fairness, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt signed the internment orders setting this piece of sordid history into motion.
Have we not learned from the past?
Or do we revert to the primal and the instinctual during times of perceived crisis?
Now is the time to display our differences, what is grounded in our Bill of Rights--our strengths, not out human failings.
Fear can bring out the basest of human instincts. There is far too much history of such.
It can also draw forth the most heroic.
Which do we choose?
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--top
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
-- Pastor Martin Niemöller
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