This is to enforce my claim that unless we have freedom to speak then all our
efforts are in vain; this item is simply a pointer to the way thing are going.
The U.S. is about as near a police state as one can be without actually being
there.
The article is one of several having a similar outlook on matters. I sence a
genuine fear for what is occuring. And there are too many similar occurance in
Australia both within the police services and the government.My heart goes out
to our American cousins who must feel, as we do, so inadequate in the face of
injustice.
David Brooks
Fourth of July Message
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 19:25:26 -0700
From: Steve Kubby <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Adam J. Smith, Associate Director
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.drcnet.org
DRCNet Editorial on the Fourth of July
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure
these rights, 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 to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem
most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
-- Declaration of Independence, 1776
This weekend, people across the United States celebrate
Independence Day. The day marks the courage and
achievement of a group of people who felt the lash of
tyranny and cried "no more!" It is an appropriate time,
then, to look around at the state of freedom in the land of
the free.
The United States is currently the world's leader in per
capita incarceration. By the end of 1999, more than one
million non-violent Americans will reside behind bars.
At the close of the twentieth century, the United States
Government seizes billions of dollars per year worth of
personal property. 85% of those whose property is seized
by the government are never charged with a crime.
Property that is seized under the civil asset forfeiture laws
is presumed "guilty," its owner left with the unenviable
task of proving that it is more likely than not that the
property is "innocent."
Voters in Washington, DC, the nation's capitol, have been
barred from learning the results of a scheduled election
last November in which, according to exit polls, nearly
70% voted to allow for the palliative use of marijuana by
severely and terminally ill citizens.
It is common in late twentieth-century America for the
government to gain criminal convictions by offering
money, leniency or freedom to one citizen in return for
incriminating testimony against another citizen.
The government is currently subsidizing a program to
make it affordable for small companies to test the chemical
composition of their employees' urine as a condition of
employment.
More than 11,000 U.S. children are currently incarcerated
with adults.
U.S. citizens who suffer from severe, chronic pain are
often unable to get sufficient medication. Doctors across
the nation are unwilling to prescribe pain medication in
adequate dosages for fear that their government will
preempt their livelihood or imprison them. This despite
repeated calls from chronic pain experts and the medical
establishment for an end to such abusive regulation and
enforcement.
More than one out of every four African American males
born today will spend part of his lifetime in an American
prison.
U.S. armed forces are now deployed domestically,
patrolling our borders and working hand in hand with
domestic law enforcement agencies.
All of these are the result, in whole or in part, of a
single, liberty-stealing policy of the United States
government Prohibition. At its core, Prohibition is an
attempt by the government, in the face of all evidence, to
suppress the basic laws of supply and demand through
criminal enforcement. It means that Americans are
forbidden to grow and to use certain varieties of plants
and certain chemical combinations, even in the privacy of
their own homes, and whether or not that use harms
anyone other than the user, or even the user himself.
Today, 223 years after a very brave and very principled
group of men set their names to that radical document, the
Declaration of Independence, it seems that the
government that they would establish has lost sight of the
very principles of its foundation. Governments are
instituted to secure life, liberty and the right to pursue
happiness for they who have given that government
legitimacy by their consent. Nowhere did the founders
express the idea that government ought to decide what
kind of life, how much liberty, or by what means the
governed should be allowed to pursue that happiness. To
the extent that the United States government has
overstepped its legitimate authority, it is our responsibility,
as citizens of the nation whose birth we are now
celebrating, to reign it in.
--
Cannabis Freedom Fund
http://www.freecannabis.org
She Who Remembers Radio Network
http://www.remembers.com
Radical Earth Solutions
http://www.remembers.com/radical
If you do not own enough of this planet to support yourself
And you cannot support yourself without this planet
Who is it who supports you?
<http:///>www2.tpg.com.au/users/davidsb
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