[Peace-discuss] Bill of Rights Defense Committee (fwd)

[C. G. Estabrook]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

http://www.progressive.org

The Progressive | July 2002 Issue

Ashcroft Watch | Nat Hentoff
Grassroots Patriots

In Northampton, Massachusetts--a nineteenth century center of abolition
and the longtime home of Sojourner Truth--some 400 citizens attended a
town meeting on February 4 to organize a way to protect the residents of
the town from the provisions of the USA Patriot Act. Thus was born the
Northampton Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

After petitions were distributed, along with persistent organizing, the
Northampton City Council unanimously voted on May 2 in favor of a
"Resolution to Defend the Bill of Rights"--not only against the USA
Patriot Act but also against subsequent Presidential executive orders, and
actions by John Ashcroft, that "threaten key rights guaranteed to U.S.
citizens and noncitizens by the Bill of Rights and the Massachusetts
Constitution." Such as: "freedom of speech, assembly, and privacy; the
right to counsel and due process in judicial proceedings; and protection
from unreasonable searches and seizures."

To begin, the city of Northampton now asks that "federal and state law
enforcement report to the local Human Rights Commission all local
investigations undertaken under the Act and executive orders; and that the
community's Congressional representatives actively monitor the
implementation of the acts and orders and work to repeal those sections
found to be unconstitutional."

Since many Massachusetts towns and cities have a robust percentage of
active voters, it is not inconceivable that their passive representatives
in Washington may well be moved to pay attention. In April, similar
resolutions were passed in the nearby towns of Amherst and Leverett.

These Massachusetts patriots are, in effect, descendants of the Sons of
Liberty who organized Committees of Correspondence against the British
before the Revolutionary War. The industrious Northampton Bill of Rights
Defense Committee informs me that "the city councils of Ann Arbor and
Berkeley passed civil liberties resolutions in January," as did the Denver
City Council in March. (For an account of this resistance to Bush and
Ashcroft, go to the committee's web site at http://www.gjf.org/BORDC.)

On May 4, at the town of Leverett's 228th annual town meeting, a
resolution defending the Bill of Rights was passed by a unanimous voice
vote. Said resident Ann Ferguson: "I think we have a long legacy in New
England of defending our civil liberties. This resolution extends that
history into the present." At the meeting in Leverett, Don Ogden, who had
initiated the resolution, noted that "it is truly Orwellian double-speak
to call such unpatriotic efforts a 'patriot act.' "

And at the Amherst town meeting, where another such resolution passed
unanimously, Anne Awad made a point that Ashcroft has shown himself
incapable of understanding: "As members of the Select Board, we want to
know that all residents and visitors to our town feel safe. We do not want
to support profiling of particular types of people. If one group is viewed
suspiciously today, another group will be added to the list tomorrow."

A week before I first heard from the Northampton Bill of Rights Defense
Committee, I was speaking at a meeting of journalists in Boston on some
assaults on the Bill of Rights I've been chronicling in this column. One
of the editors handed me an April 24 Associated Press report that
surprised me: "Despite the fear of future terrorist attacks, a majority of
Americans are unwilling to give up civil liberties in exchange for
national security, according to a Michigan State University study. Nearly
55 percent of 1,488 people surveyed nationwide said they don't want to
give up constitutional rights in the government's fight against
terrorism." The poll showed that 66 percent "opposed government monitoring
of telephone and e-mail conversations."

I am no longer surprised that the citizenry is awakening to that extent.
But I am also not surprised that "60 percent of those surveyed said
schoolteachers shouldn't be allowed to criticize U.S. anti-terrorism
policies in class." There's a lot of work still to be done, and the
Northampton patriots tell me they're hearing from sons and daughters of
liberty in other towns and cities who are organizing defense committees
for the Bill of Rights. That's what it's going to take.

-- Nat Hentoff is a columnist for the Village Voice.