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A patriotic declaration
Thursday's New York Times featured "A Declaration for Our Times," a variation on the Declaration of Independence that, in the spirit of the original document, rejects sacrifices of basic liberties in the name of security and is signed by 500 individual Americans and organizations who are pledging their support for fully restoring constitutional rights and human rights.
The declaration is part of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's "People's Campaign for the Constitution," which has been launched to organize grass-roots coalitions in communities across the country to demand that 2008 election candidates get serious about renewing rights that have been seriously undermined and threatened during the Bush/Cheney interregnum.
"Many Americans feel dispirited by the continuing array of freedom-robbing laws, policies, and government actions, including warrantless domestic spying, torture and unlimited detentions, which they see as un-American," says BORDC director Nancy Talanian. "In this declaration, we are calling out the administration for usurping our constitutional rights and committing ourselves to resolving our grievances through all lawful means available, as the Founding Fathers did."
Talanian and the BORDC have been tireless champions of the Constitution in general and the Bill of Rights in particular during a period when the president and vice president have aggressively assaulted our liberties and when, for the most part, Congress has let them get away with it.
After the Patriot Act was passed in 2001 -- with support from all but one senator, Wisconsin's Russ Feingold, and all but a few House members, including Madison's Tammy Baldwin -- it was the BORDC that launched a nationwide campaign asking city, county and state governments to go on record for upholding the constitutional rights of their citizens. Eight states and more than 400 communities -- including Madison and Dane County -- acted, and members of Congress repeatedly cited the outpouring of support for the Bill of Rights when they addressed concerns about the Patriot Act.
But, Talanian admits, there is a big difference between getting the notice of responsible members of Congress and getting the United States to recommit itself to the cause of liberty that inspired our revolution against another King George.
The White House and its congressional allies are on this 232nd anniversary of America's declaration of independence from kingly oppressions preparing a new assault on liberty. Instead of asserting aggressively that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees a right to privacy, the Senate is by all accounts preparing to join the House in giving "legitimacy" to George Bush's spying on Americans and immunity to the telecommunications corporations that assist his warrantless wiretapping schemes.
"It is an immeasurable tragedy that on July 4, 2008, the United States Congress appears poised to pass a bill that would betray the spirit of July 4, 1776, by radically expanding the president's spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal surveillance program," declares the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which signed the declaration.
The privacy fight is just one of the many struggles that will be resolved only by electing a Congress that is committed to constitutional renewal. And such a Congress will be elected only if the people demand a new direction.
"The people need to organize themselves locally and to meet with legislators and candidates face to face," says Talanian. "After all, the U.S. government was created to serve the people. Therefore, we need to set the government's agenda and communicate to our representatives clearly that we are unwilling to accept suspensions of our liberties and of anyone's human rights in exchange for our government's promises of greater security."
Those words may offend the sensibilities of despots, but they are music to the ears of patriots.
Associated Press
