The last Bill of Rights Day?

by Mary lou Seymour 

Each year for the last several years, as we approach the celebration of my own personal favorite "freedom holiday," Bill of Rights Day, I have mourned the erosion of the Bill of Rights during my lifetime and urged liberty activists to take action to remind our fellow citizens of the precious freedoms outlined in the Bill of Rights and rally together to take back our freedom before it is swept away for good. On December 15, 1791, the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States -- the Bill of Rights -- went into effect, and that date has been celebrated by freedom lovers ever since as Bill of Rights Day. (For more info on the history of the Bill of Rights, see Billofrights.com) 

This year, I am beginning to wonder if this will be the LAST year we can still celebrate Bill of Rights Day. 

Last year seemed bad enough. Those in power used the fallout from Bloody Tuesday (9-11) and stepped up the downward spiral to a police state in America, to what seemed like a free fall; as if the Patriot Act wasn't enough to send shivers of foreboding down our spines, our would be masters attempted to set up a national "citizen spy network"(TIPS) in 2002. This horrible scheme was shot down by Congress after a tremendous outcry by those citizens who weren't yet ready to become members of the "stasi" and be govt snitches, but then came 2003 ... and our would be masters opened the year by secretly drafting a horrifying sequel to Patriot Act called the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003" in January . DSEA was fortunately obtained by the Center for Public Integrity while still in draft form and exposed it to public scrutiny, and it quietly disappeared. But then there was Total Information Awareness (TIA). This little gem came from the Department of Defense, which is developing a computer system that would provide the government with immediate access to our personal information such as communications (phone calls, emails and web searches), financial records, purchases, prescriptions, school records, medical records and travel history, all "tools to track terrorists" of course. Civil libertarians on the left and right raised an immediate outcry, and, in September, Congress ended funding for Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) by passing HR 2658 ... but, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out, TIA funding was only prohibited for domestic use, Congress "expressly allowed several former TIA programs to continue," and TIA was never the only domestic dataveillance program. 

There is also the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System 
(CAPPS II), which gathers personal information from unidentified government databases as well as commercial data sources, and still OTHER domestic surveillance initiatives, such as MATRIX, "the latest data mining program to emerge from the government. This surveillance system combines information about individuals from government databases and private-sector data companies. It then makes those dossiers available for search by government officials and combs through the millions of files in a search for 'anomalies' that may be indicative of terrorist or other criminal activity." And then there's the latest step in the war on civil liberties ... the VICTORY Act of 
2003 (Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 
2003) which "would expand police surveillance powers, treat drug offenses as terrorist crimes, create incentives for government agents to conduct illegal searches and remove constitutional protections on government investigations." 

And these are just on the "privacy and surveillance" issues. The statists, led by Ashcroft and the "Dept. of Justice" and the "new FBI" have been steadily whittling away our rights to fair trials and representation, imprisoning "suspected terrorists" at Guantanamo with no right to counsel, investigating web sites they think are "a source of information that could be used to "harm the United States.'" and more. Much more. For a wealth of information on the current regime's continued efforts to destroy the Bill of rights as these efforts happen, check out attorney Elaine Cassel's "Civil liberties Watch" 
(Recent articles include Yaser Hamdi Gets a Lawyer, He Just Can't Do Anything, The justices and Guantanamo and FBI to website owner). 

If 2003 has taught us anything, it is that these people NEVER stop. If the public outcry stops them at one road, they double back and come again from another angle. Just looking back over this year's attacks on the BOR to write this article has been very depressing in many ways, to consider the sheer breadth and scope of the forces aligned against freedom in our country, but, in other ways, it HAS been heartening. 

All across America, on the left and on the right, people ARE fighting back, and resisting. If they had not been doing so, it is my firm belief that we would by now, truly be in "gulag America." The Bill of Rights defense Committee efforts to get cities and towns and states to pass resolutions against the Patriot Act has been a remarkable achievement for these apathetic materialistic times. As of this writing, the ACLU lists more than 222 communities in 35 states, including three state-wide resolutions, "representing approximately 
27.7 million people who oppose sections of the USA PATRIOT Act." And quick and concerted action by liberty activists throughout the country in August and September made Ashcroft's "road show" to tout the Patriot Act a farce for the statists. (Civil liberties roadshow) 

We must not stop. We must continue to work together with all those who love and respect the Bill of Rights, on the left and on the right, and continue to rally to stop the forces of statism and evil abroad in our land. Evil? Yes, I think it's evil, when people are imprisoned with no lawyer or trial, when people are watched and spied on for no reason. What else CAN you call it, but evil? 

JPFO has the premier collection of activities and actions for celebrating Bill of Rights Day. Pins, posters, t-shirts, sample letters to the editor, proclamations for your town ... and JPFO also supplies the music for your celebration, with the "I will Live Free" CD of songs celebrating the Bill of Rights (see if your local radio station will play some of the songs!) as well as the Bill of Rights in 11 different languages, info on how to do outreach to "the Other Side of the Political Spectrum" and pledge to honor the BOR (Freedom pledge). 

No Bill of Rights Day celebration would be complete without some Bill of Rights Enforcement buttons from L. Neil Smith's "Bill of Rights Enforcement Page." Order your button(s) to wear or hand out to friends (and foes, to make them squirm) ... included with each button ordered is a card with the text of Smith's essay "Save America -- Enforce the Bill of Rights." 

One final, easy action to take: send a Bill of Rights Day e-card from Founding Fathers Virtual Cards to everyone on your list, reminding them to get ready for December 15. 

This year, liberty activists must, more urgently than ever before, rally our forces to make THIS Bill of Rights Day one that is remembered and celebrated as fervently as the one in 1791. 

So ... get your buttons and t-shirts on, take those resolutions to your city council, write those letters to the editor. Let's make this December 15 a day the statists will NEVER forget, instead of the LAST Bill of Rights Day we can celebrate. 

For freedom 

Mary lou 

History of the Bill of Rights http://www.billofrights.com/ 

Center for Public Integrity Breaks Story on Patriot II http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&...

Congress ends funding for TIA http://www.eff.org/Privacy/TIA/20031003_conf_report.php 

TIA: is it truly dead? http://www.eff.org/Privacy/TIA/20031003_comments.php 

CAPPS II http://www.eff.org/Privacy/cappsii/ 

MATRIX: TIA reloaded http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=14240&c=130 

Yaser Hamdi Gets a Lawyer, He Just Can't Do Anything http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/2003/12/04 

The justices and Guantanamo http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/2003/11/12 

FBI to website owner http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/2003/11/07 

ACLU: Bill of Rights Resolutions http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=11256&c=206 

VICTORY Act of 2003 http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm? ID=13692&c=24 

war on civil liberties road show http://www.rationalreview.com/mlseymour/082603.shtml 

JPFO: Reach out for the bill of Rights http://www.jpfo.org/outreach.htm 

I Will Live Free http://www.jpfo.org/livefree.htm 

JPFO: Bill of rights in 11 languages http://www.jpfo.org/bor.htm 

Freedom Pledge http://www.jpfo.org/alert20020522.htm 

L. Neil Smith's Bill of Rights Enforcement Page http://www.lneilsmith.com/bor_enforcement.html 

Bill of Rights Enforcement Buttons http://www.rkbabang.com/ 

Founding Fathers E-Cards http://www.foundingfathers.info/cgi/card.cgi 

Liberty Activist Blog http://libertyaction.blogspot.com/ 

Liberty Activist Resource Directory http://www.rationalreview.com/ladir.shtml 

Bill of Rights Day organizing center http://billofrightsday.com 

Bill of Rights Day (sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security! http://www.kiva.net/~kvc/HomSec/borday1.htm

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