- A man in some country was recently taken, handcuffed,
down into a subterranean interrogation room in the bowels of a police station
and asked by a police investigator, "When I look into your writings,
will I find anything subversive?" This sounds like something one
might have heard coming out of the former Soviet Union. However, it wasn't.
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- The country was America, the man was me, and the interrogation
room was in the basement of the massive and imposing Kansas City Jail
on 12th street (Tuesday, Sept 16th, 2003).
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- I'm a writer, who's contributed to many publications
worldwide, including the Kansas City Star, and the Kansas City Business
Journal. This event emblazoned into my mind that something has drastically
changed in my America . . . our America.
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- I had earlier been arrested for attempting to attend
a protest of Laura Bush's visit in Kansas City. The arresting police officer
"assumed" that I intended to cross a police line blocking Broadway
near St. Luke's, that he'd told me could not be crossed. I did not cross
the police line, nor did I intend to. I was crossing Washington Street
to walk down an open street that was not restricted. But, because the
officer "assumed" I was "intending" to cross the
police line, which I wasn't, I was forced down on the ground, my hands
handcuffed behind my back, forced into a paddy wagon, handcuffed, and
taken to the Kansas City jail. I was booked, according to the officer,
for "Disorderly Conduct. (Or walking where I was ordered not to,
which again I had not done)." There I was fingerprinted and my mug
shot was taken, but then something very strange occurred. The sign I
brought with me to the protest was given a mug shot as well. I, along
with many other Americans, have been working for some time to support
the efforts of 9-11 victims families who have bizarrely had to fight their
own President Bush for nearly two years to get a full open investigation
of what went wrong on and before 9-11 (! which Bush is still fighting,
preventing information such as the 28 redacted pages about the Saudi's
possible involvement in 9-11, from being released for public scrutiny).
My sign read, "What is Bush hiding about 9-11? Stop the 9-11 cover-up!"
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- Ask yourself this, "Why was my sign given a mugshot
to record it's message?" Was I under arrest for a legal violation?
If so, what did a free speech message I was carrying that had no bearing
whatsoever on the reason for my arrest have to do with this situation?
Who was this photograph taken for, and for what purpose?
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- As I sat in the holding area, handcuffed, I was not told
until just prior to my release that I would be released on my own recognizance.
I sat pondering the dozens of people who have been sitting in American
jails for many months now, some with no family contact, and some with
no legal representation. Those thoughts give you pause, when you are
handcuffed, then unhandcuffed, then handcuffed again and placed in a paddy
wagon on a steel seat in a wirecaged enclosed holding area, unloaded in
a lower level of a massive building, then walked into a barred area, then
unhandcuffed, then handcuffed again, then taken to an interrogation room
in the bowels of a gray building completely cut off from the world and
asked if your writing is "subversive," then unhandcuffed, then
handcuffed again, and placed once again in a barred room.
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- Once in "the system" you immediately realize
that you are completely isolated, and completely powerless. You depend
on the basic foundations of democratic society . . . it is your only hope.
In the "new Bush America" with the advent of the Patriot Act,
that foundation no longer exists. The effect this has on society is it
creates "a very shaken belief in one's right to do the things absolutely
necessary to sustain a free and open society" . . that being to
speak the truth as you see it even when the truth disagrees with your
government. Without complete confidence that you have the right to do
this without repressive consequences to be visited upon you . . . the
free society we all love, cherish, and too often take for granted simply
cannot exist.
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- You see, I have no idea who my mug shot, my protest signs
mug shot, and the notes of whether someone deems my writing "subversive"
is being recorded for. I'd understand my mugshot being in a KC police
file for a "Disorderly Conduct" charge. But who is the other
information for? Perhaps no one. I don't know, and you don't know.
But, you begin to see this would be a disturbing concept to ponder given
I've accused the highest office in the nation of a cover-up. And when
the holder of that office has told his Attorney General that he has the
right to indefinitely hold people without legal representation for . .
. well, for as long as he wants to, apparently.
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- In a way, I'm glad this happened to me, because it pushed
my face into the corner so that I had to look at the dangers we are unleashing
on our national consciousness with the "Patriot Act." Now, I
can share my experience with you, and who knows, perhaps it will awaken
in you a desire to bring our nation back to the guaranteed liberty we all
hold dear.
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- I implore citizens across this nation ! to reject the
ideas put forth in the "patriot act," that encourage citizens
to spy on one another, or to allow law enforcement to peek at what we check
out at the library, or what we buy at the bookstore, or what we email
to one another . . . because our democratic system is at stake. The dangers
of the Patriot Act don't lie as much in the actual indefinite internment
of those Ashcroft deems to confine, but the danger lies in the "uncertainty"
it places in the mind of every patriotic American who loves his/her country
enough to correct it (which is our duty).
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- Bill Douglas is the author of "The Amateur Parent
- A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe,"
and has written essays on health, environment, and peace and social justice
issues for publications worldwide ! (none of them subversive, in the
authors opinion).
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- "This is truly the ultimate 'right to life issue'.
A right to be born without genetic malformations, a right to eat and drink
non-radioactive food, a right to live a normal life-span without the threat
of early cancer and the right to live without the ever present threat of
nuclear war. Above all, we are the curators of life on earth, we hold it
in the palm of our hand, a sacred trust with God. Let us take heed and
become the true curators for God." --- Dr. Helen Caldicott
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