The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance

Most of you know, and some of you don't, that I come from a conservative background, where Republicanism was sort of assumed, not necessarily in my family, but definitely in the community. We were calm and had a general idea that we should let our political voices be heard, we should vote, we should make sure we voted for people with our values, but we were not a protesting people. We did not stream into the streets, we looked with disdain upon what we saw as brash, liberal, dangerous actions of the ACLU, we generally support authorities unless they were Really, Really Bad, bad enough to make you go against your religious beliefs, etc. It is my nature to protest, perhaps, by writing a letter to my congressman, and not much else. I am not an extremist. I (like most Americans, I think) believe profoundly in the self-correcting system of democracy: the pendulum will always swing back.

However, since moving to DC and becoming much more politically active, my attitude has changed. I have begun attending marches in protest of the war (some of my high school friends are shocked at this, I suspect...:) ), and especially in protest of the looming war with Iran, out of the simple conviction that our discontent with the current state of affairs needs to be seen in throngs of unhappy citizens on the streets. I have had for years now the vague sense that something isn't right with our democracy, but I didn't know what it was, and I didn't have the words, motivation, or education to really figure it out; nor did I really even believe there was something TO figure out.

On Monday I went to a book signing with Naomi Wolf, a Yale-educated writer whose latest book, The End of America is very easy to read, thorough, and short. It's the number 10 bestseller on Amazon, but she hasn't had any media requests to discuss her book on the major networks (unlike her first book, The Beauty Myth.)

The book is chilling. She researched 6 governments who have, in the last century, shifted from democratic open societies to fascist/dictatorial closed societies: 1930s Germany, Italy, Chile, China, etc. She found that there are 10 predictable steps in the blueprint of a fascist shift.

She found that the current state of American policy is lining up precisely with the blueprint. For example, the first step is to invoke an internal or external threat, real or invented, as a national unifier. The following steps are to establish secret prisons, a paramilitary force, to surveil ordinary citizens, restrict the press...

With just a little research, provided by Ms. Wolf, any ordinary citizen can see that this blueprint, which was effectively used by Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, and other dictators and would-be dictators, is remarkably resonant with what is happening in American today. The secret prison and daily torture, legal or illegal, at Guantanamo, the case of Jose Padilla, the invoking of 9/11 and the "war on terrorism" to justify violations of civil liberties, the presence and continued growth of paramilitary forces such as Blackwater (a military force not held accountable to military law), the increased wiretapping, confiscation of normal citizens' computers, the orchestrated firing of journalists and university professors for disagreement with the administration, the coordination between the White House and the mass media (also see the book and/or film War Made Easy by Norman Solomon) the fact that the President can now deem anyone - including you or me - an "enemy combatant."

These things all upset me before, and I recognized them as infringements of our rights, but only when I saw it so clearly presented was I struck with the realization that they aren't individual freak occurrences, but could be the result of a master plan that could-and will--eventually result in a closed, dictatorial society. Of course, it's not a sure thing: this theory could be wrong. But examine the evidence, piece it together, and you find a dangerous trend: anyone in a place of power with enough smarts and menace could easily, easily, manipulate this situation and close the door on American society. As Ms. Wolf said in her talk, "Can anyone name a country that opened secret prisons that did not eventually become a dictatorial state? ... No one can, because there isn't one."

This is urgent: the pendulum may not swing back. It doesn't matter where you stand politically, it doesn't matter who you voted for, it doesn't matter what your religion, race, or creed is. It doesn't matter what you think of the ACLU or of Republicans or Democrats or liberals. This is about the whole of American citizenry. Please read her book, or at least the interview with buzzflash.com (which is basically what she said in her talk and is very thorough) and then that you do something with this information.

You can also visit www.americanfreedomcampaign.org to voice your commitment to upholding the constitution, petition the upcoming presidential candidates to uphold the constitution and be informed of upcoming events. It's a first step, and an important one. Because even if we're not on the edge of a totalitarian state, shouldn't we as Americans hold the government accountable for what makes America America? Shouldn't all detainees have the right to formal charges and a fair trial? Shouldn't we hold habeus corpus sacred for everyone, even suspected terrorists? Shouldn't we outlaw torture in ALL cases? Should there even be a debate about these fundamental rights?!

I have to take this seriously because the pieces fit together almost too beautifully for it to be a mistake.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.