Last Fourth of July to be truly free...
When I thumbed through the morning newspaper the other day and came across a report alleging that the Dept. of Justice is entertaining the idea of "racial profiling", I thought I plucked up the "ONION" Newspaper by mistake.
The report noted that the government is tinkering with new guidelines to allow the FBI to investigate Americans without any "evidence" of wrongdoing - allowing the agents instead - to rely solely on a "profile" that would put the spotlight on Muslims, Arabs and other racial and ethic groups.
Currently, agents of Law Enforcement require a specific reason - or proof that a law has been broken - in order to investigate U.S. Citizens and legal residents.
The new policy would permit the FBI to open preliminary terrorism investigations after they have sifted through public records and available intelligence and managed to sketch a profile of traits from the crumbs - that when taken as a whole - may be deemed suspicious and/or worthy of pursuing.
Sounds like the kind of sinister plot Adolf Hitler might hatch up in a bold-faced effort to secure the destiny of his perfect Aryan Race, don't 'ya think?
Heil George W. Bush!
From the get-go - no matter how you fathom it - the wild scheme is un-American.
We have only to recite the inscription on the base of the Statue of Liberty to get our bearings in this regard:"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Are we to amend that to read,
"Only if your a**ses are Lily white and foreign free?"
Notwithstanding, the whole "idea" flies in the face of the U.S. Constitution.
Does the Bush administration intend to toss the whole concept of "Due process of Law" out the window, too?
In that event, the presumption of innocence would be lost.
Golly, the Founding Fathers of this country must be turning over in their graves!
But, the Government's jaundiced view of things gets worse.
Factors that could make someone the subject of an investigation include travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity and/or where there is access to weapons or military training.
In addition, a person's race or ethnicity would be a key factor in the decision to open up a clandestine investigation, too.
In fact, every citizen will be suspect under the new guidelines.
Whoa Nellie!
Are they daft?
The long and short of it?
I foresee a "controlled" society where the Nation's peoples - no matter their race, color, or creed - are not free by any stretch of the imagination.
Indeed - if any of the aforementioned guidelines are implemented - the U.S. may end up sliding down a slippery slope and along a dark and trecherous path to become a full-fledged fascist regime.
At that juncture - fear, suspicion, and uncertainty - will be rife around the Nation.
And, Americans will become the most-hated citizens of the world.
You can count on that, believe me.
If anything, I surmise terrorist threats will increase!
I also expect that there will be an uprising within unstable U.S. borders - and that just maybe - there may be an overthrow of the government, too.
One has only to look to the U.S. Constitution to understand why.
"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Understandably - once there is a loss of "domestic tranquility" and irreparable harm to the "general welfare" of the people - the citizenry will pay heed to the prophetic third sentence of the remarkable - "Declaration of Independence" - and demand a call to action.
"That to secure these rights [to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
As Edward Abbey once said,"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country from his Government."
Amen!
