HIGHTOWER: Stand Up for Your Democracy

Jim Hightower, AlterNet

September 19, 2001

From George W. to local airport authorities, the Powers That Be are now

scrambling to look like they're doing something to stop future terrorist attacks

on our Land of the Free. It's always dangerous for a democracy when police

power is unleashed, and that's the situation you and I now face as our

"defenders," full of made-for-television bravado, are rushing to protect us by

mounting a macho crack-down on -guess what?-our freedom!

In his brief television address on the night of the horrendous assault on

America's people, Bush noted that America is "the brightest beacon for

freedom" in the world, and he declared, "no one will keep that light from

shining." Unfortunately, the antiterrorism actions planned by Bush and

Company would darken that very beacon of freedom by making a new attack

on our own people's already-endangered civil liberties, while also and turning

our airports and other public places into armed fortresses.

The terrorists' fires were still burning when Washington officials began the

PR drumbeat to authorize more domestic surveillance, restrict people's

movements, and even to raid our social security trust fund to pay for any new

police or military action with a "counterterrorism" label stuck on it. A former

top CIA official stepped out of the darkness to assert ominously: "We're going

to have to rethink what is the trade-off for privacy in return for internal

security."

This is Jim Hightower saying...There can be no internal security without

tenacious protection of all the liberties (including privacy) that undergird our

democratic republic. What makes America great and preserves our freedom

is not police power, military might, or wealth-rather it's our democracy itself

that is the beacon to the world, that makes our "national experiment" unique

and important. We can't "Let freedom ring" if our so-called leaders restrict

people from being able to ring the bell. If we allow them to do that, the

terrorists will have won.