Signs of the times

The bill referred to in the letter below would have required all companies employing more than 10,000 people that operate in Maryland to spend 8% of their payroll on health care benefits or to the state's health program for the poor. It was vetoed by Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich in "a tightly choreographed ceremony" featuring a high school band and waving flags and in which he was joined by a representative of Wal-Mart.

To: letters@washingtonpost.com

In your May 20 article on Gov. Ehrlich's veto of the Fair Share Health Care Bill, this statement appears:

"About two dozen protesters turned out, but were forbidden from displaying signs."

Excuse me?? Forbidden from displaying signs? Just who issued this blatant restriction on free speech? Who is responsible for this gross constitutional affront?

And why in the name of all that is the First Amendment - on which you rely, as I'm sure you're aware - was this abuse of power regarded as unworthy of more than passing mention and even then with no recognition of its venal nature?

Or have we already become so used to the idea that our rights are really mere privileges to be restricted at the whims of power that it seemed unremarkable? If so, our future is dim indeed.

The brutal reality is that we live in a time of increasing invasions of privacy by government and businesses, a time of near-constant stripping away of Constitutional protections. A time when various states are pushing to turn ordinary (and already illegal) vandalism into "terrorism" if it's done by an environmental group and when it's been shown that the FBI and various state police forces "are engaging in intimidation based on political association and are improperly investigating human rights and advocacy groups."

A time when the so-called Real ID Act, which

takes us one step closer to a national ID, and a "show us your papers" society, by forcing states to link their databases - containing every licensed driver's personal information - with other states, with no guidelines as to who will have access to that information,

can be passed with neither review nor hearings.

Meanwhile, the

chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is working on a bill that would renew the Patriot Act and expand government powers in the name of fighting terrorism, letting the FBI subpoena records without permission from a judge or grand jury.

Much of the debate in Congress has concerned possibly limiting some of the powers in the anti-terrorism law passed 45 days after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But the measure being written by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., would give the FBI new power to issue administrative subpoenas, which are not reviewed by a judge or grand jury, for quickly obtaining records, electronic data or other evidence in terrorism investigations, according to aides for the GOP majority on the committee who briefed reporters Wednesday.

The bill, to be marked up in secret, is being rushed in an apparent attempt to steamroller it through Congress before effective public opposition - and there is public opposition - can be generated.

There is also a good deal of xenophobia at work here: As David Cole points out in the May 30 issue of The Nation, most of the Traitor Act is not even up for discussion. While he goes much too far in downplaying the importance of the provisions that are being argued (he calls them "marginal details" that "hardly warrant the kind of mass rallying that both sides have mustered") he's on the money when he says that

[a]mong the most troubling provisions not sunsetted are those on immigration. They authorize the government to deny entry to foreigners because of speech rather than actions, to deport even permanent residents who innocently supported disfavored political groups and to lock up foreign nationals without charges,

provisions "which have clearly been abused."

The Real Bad Act also has its anti-immigrant provisions. For one thing, it

goes against international law and allows government officials to demand written "corroboration" from those seeking asylum. ...

Additionally, the Real ID Act would waive all state and federal laws to give the Department of Homeland Security unconditional authority to build barriers along the entire border - placing private property in the hands of federal agents for a "land grab" for national security purposes.

Yes, it is bad. Yes, it is getting worse. And yes, many of our fellow citizens seem not to care all that much. Why? Simple: They don't imagine it happening to them. It only affects The Other, "them," you know, "those people." Pastor Martin Niemoller's famous poem was meant for people like them.

As for me, my blog identifies me as "another ordinary individual struggling to keep hope alive." Sometimes the emphasis is on the hope. Today, I fear, it's on the struggle.