[Newspoetry] I am a terrorist

[John Wason]

At 12:00 AM 12/13/2001 -0600, Joe Futrelle wrote:

>I am a terrorist.
>
>I am a college student and opponent of the death penalty
>whose dorm room door bears a poster of George W. Bush
>as the grim reaper.
>The FBI is questioning me about whether I have maps of Afghanistan.
>
>I am a member of a radical Islamic group in Britain,
>banned for being "anti-democratic", excepted from freedom of association
>through a bizarre logic that practices what it preaches against.
>
>I am a lawyer from the ACLU being asked by Fox News
>whether I agree with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft that
>civil libertarians are aiding terrorists by eroding "unity."
>The pundit shouts me down before I can get my soundbites out.
>
>I am a pacifist on a college campus
>ridiculed by my peers for not appreciating the horror
>of September 11, as if somehow the only way to appreciate it
>is by killing.
>
>You everyday fascists who feel this "unity",
>and enjoy the benefits of U.S.-sponsored terror,
>blissed-out under a patriotic media smokescreen
>which only reports U.S. casualties,
>shall I refuse to distinguish among you?
>
>Shall I question you about your possible involvement
>in the U.S. killings in Panama City?
>
>Should I ban your fundamentalist Christian prayer groups
>because your ideas resemble Ashcroft's?
>
>Should I accuse you of not appreciating the horrors
>of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
>
>I shall make no distinction between terrorism
>and fascism.

Excellent, Joe.  

I think it would be interesting if about 2 million of us all over the
country - however many there are who feel basically as you (and I) do -
would all present ourselves simultaneously at FBI offices all around the
country and turn ourselves in as 'terrorists'.  Of course we'd want to
publicize the event.  But we'd all just stand there very quietly and say,
"Yes, by your definitions I'm a terrorist.  Please arrest me for the sake of
freedom and democracy."

John