Once upon a time

It was a long time ago when things were exactly the same. I stood on the college chapel steps with about 20 people holding candles, silently wishing for the War to end. The candlelight vigil was organized by the local Society of Friends, the Quakers; a Christian group preaching non-violence, a group in whose tradition Richard Nixon was raised.

At the bottom the steps were the men in black, ticking off names on clipboards and taking pictures. Anyone who has a conscience and indeed anyone who did not sufficiently support the endless quest for “victory with honor” in the War in Viet Nam was more than suspect of being dangerous. His name was sure to be on a list.

A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists calling themselves The Truth Project met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a “threat” and one of more than 1,500 “suspicious incidents” across the country over a recent 10-month period.

Of course then as now, such behavior is explicitly protected under the Constitution. The right to assemble, the right to petition the government and the right to free speech are pillars of our nation. We’re supposed to have protection against the power of the State and the Government has never liked it. Using the universal excuse of 9/11, the Bush Administration is actively spying on peaceful, law abiding Americans and using powers it bullied and frightened the public into granting.

“This peaceful, educationally oriented group being a threat is incredible,”

says Evy Grachow, a member of the group. She’s wrong, it is credible and it is traditional with administrations obsessed with their power and obedience thereto.

“I think Americans should be concerned that the military, in fact, has reached too far,”

says NBC News military analyst Bill Arkin. The public is not concerned, although the extent of information gathering and invasion of privacy goes far beyond what I can describe here. The public loves a witch hunt and if witches are needed, we will have them. According to Raw Story, On November 21, 2004 approximately thirty demonstrators held an anti-torture rally across the street from the US Army Intelligence Center's interrogator school at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The peaceful protest, which resulted in no arrests, had been listed as a "credible" threat.

This type of behavior by the British was a strong factor in fomenting revolution and Americans have always valued their privacy, but the ability of fear mongers and patriotic con men to talk about less intrusive government while greasing up the proctoscope has grown beyond all bounds. When this nation falls to the right and becomes a totalitarian theocracy we will be the last to know because we don’t want to know, because we don’t want the responsibility of freedom and because we’re cowards.