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BY PAT LAVIS
The other day while listening to the news and talk of the
war on Iraq as well as the peace marches that have taken place,
I wondered what it would be like if I could journey back to the
1770s and 1780s in Philadelphia.
I walked into a room and our founding fathers were busy
drafting the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the
United States of America and the vital Bill of Rights to assure
that our nation's populace would not live in anarchy like they had
experienced. The people had suffered without free speech, their
homes had been entered by British soldiers and ransacked with
out warrants, homeowners arrested and held without bail, with
out charges filed, without lawyers.
These crucial civil liberties were felt to be so fundamen
tally essential they were willing to sign a Declaration of Indepen
dence, which was tantamount to death if ever captured by the
British. And those founding ancestors who were caught did die
as well as many families at the hands of the English. But the
Revolution was successful and we did establish a Constitutional
form of government with the Bill of Rights.
If I walked into the room to meet the nation’s founders I
would find Franklin, Jefferson, Adams and Washington with tear
filled eyes that our own contemporary Congress had adopted
oppressive laws we call a patriot act, which with its companion
homeland security, has amputated valuable freedoms from the
Bill of Rights.
I saw these men were so distraught that the American
people of the early 21st century were not speaking out for our
government to immediately restore those rights for all persons
living in the United States that were so preciously purchased in
blood at Concord and Valley Forge. The sacrifices to create this
nation were made to ensure that no government would ever
again attempt to eradicate our inalienable freedoms which are
the cornerstone that makes this land America.
Leaving our founders to return to the 21st century,
I stopped at Gettysburg. My lord! President Lincoln with his
head bowed to his chest weeping. Walking up close to him I
could barely hear his soft voice saying,“What has happened to
this nation that was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all are created equal? Did the brave young boys
die in vain?" At first I thought he was weeping about the Civil
War’s enormous losses for union and the abolition of slavery,
but his next words were for me and my generation: “I pray our
elected representatives will abolish this interminable USA Patriot
Act without delay and reestablish the Bill of Rights.”
What have we done to our beloved safeguard against
anarchy in allowing hastily Congressional action to devastate
and remove the life blood of the heart of freedom? It is time to
bring back that flow and demand our government officials at all
levels act to repeal all provisions conflicting with the Bill of
Rights. To support resolutions opposing the Patriot and Home
land Security laws that remove Constitutional guarantees. And
support the resolutions at city, county, state and federal levels.
We must let it be known that there must be changes
restoring the Constitution to the way it was written to guarantee
that this nation is a free nation for all persons who live in it.
The two acts invade the privacy of us all by requiring
that librarians report on citizens to the FBI on what books they
are checking out and never be allowed to tell these people they
are being investigated. Our bookshops are required to disclose
who is purchasing what book. Federal agents keep track of us
when we buy an airline ticket or make a credit card purchase.
Enough! Yes, enough restrictions on civil liberties.
Act now to tell your congressman or woman that citizens
are speaking out for the restoration of liberty and they will not be
silent until liberty and the Bill of Rights are back.
Pat Lavis is an attorney in Astoria and a member of the
Astoria Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
FREEDOM IS NOT ONLY A STATE OF
3EING, IT’S PEACE OF MIND & HEART
BY SARA ALSBURY
Freedom is not only a physical state or an act, but also a
state of mind One has to follow the heart to freedom. A person
can't be free unless they live through their own thoughts. This
applies on many aspects and levels of life, including learning,
how to dress, what to like, and who to be friends with.
Just because someone is free to live does not mean
they are free to express what they think without being their own
person. For instance, although some developing countries call
themselves democracies, many “voters” are intimidated into
voting for certain candidates. This includes a country of the
Middle East that is the topic of many debates these days, Iraq.
Iraq is a dictatorship, and the choice for voting is Saddam
Hussein: that’s with a yes or a no. If citizens do not vote yes,
they are subject to being shot; most people are just scared out
of their wits and vote yes anyway.That is obviously wrong and
obviously not real freedom.
Freedom is something you have to psychologically gain;
just because slavery has been abolished does not mean that
African-Americans are not still mistreated in some parts of the
United States. In the 1860s, after the Civil War ended, the 14th
Amendment was passed saying that all men of 21 years and of
any race except Indian could vote, but the Ku Klux Klan was a
big group in the United States, the Mississippi Black Codes and
Jim Crow laws also existed: they were laws which intimidated
and imprisoned the “freed" slaves, stripping them of voicing their
own opinions and views that affected how they voted. So, just
because someone is physically free, they still have to be
mentally free, free to make their own decisions and choices.
Reading a magazine that is in style and that shows
different pictures of what “everyone else will be wearing” can
MILLENNIUM HOPES TURNED TO DUST
By LACEY HOYER
We all had high hopes for this new century and
millennium. When I stood on top of the Astoria Column hill,
counting down the seconds until the year 2000 three years
ago, I could envision a whole new world.
I looked out over Astoria and could see the ocean,
dark in the distance, and I had no fears at all for this small
globe we all live on. That was before terrorism struck our
country and before George W. Bush was President.
Less than a year later when it became certain George
W. was to become our President, I was positive our country and
the rest of the world were heading into murky waters. Thoughts
of war rang in my head as I looked at his smiling face, and I
knew this man would stir us away from the peace that had
reigned through most of my life and right back into the fray
that his father started. And look at us now — I was right!
The President rushed almost immediately into war.
The events of 9/11 are tragic and horrific, and I think we all want
the ones responsible for that day to be apprehended and justice
to be served on them. Unfortunately, our military is performing
what is known as “Total War”, which means that we are striking
out against Afghanistan’s whole society America is not just
punishing those terrorists responsible for the deaths of 9/11
They are punishing all Afghani citizens, young and old, guilty
or innocent.
This murder of humans is still going on It has been
more than a year now and every day our military slaughters
more. President Bush will also declare war on Iraq because of
lust for oil and rumors. We have all sat in front of our televisions
or scanned newspaper articles with cold eyes, learning of United
Nations' disapproval of this war, watching weapons inspectors
find nothing and then being accused of falsifying information,
and listening to the President try and slither his way into another
trie as he is, keeps pushing our nation further into the grave that
he keeps digging He is digging deeper with each new attack on
innocent civilians in Afghanistan, digging further down with each
bullied attempt to gain allies for a preemptive attack against Iraq
and hollowing out this grave with each refusal to solve this
problem in any way but war.
The demon that will rise and place us in that grave is
anti-Americanism. If we keep making enemies, someday they
will rise up against us and place each of us neatly into the earth
Someone might declare a “Total War” on us, and then we will
all be targets of hatred Will our children know peace? Will
they know how to love despite racial, cultural and ideological
differences? Not if we keep going to war. Not if we keep making
enemies.
I met a man named Leonard on a train trip last Christ
mas, and he confided to me that he just wanted to “blow all
Afghan
people up." I wonder, now that President Bush is turning his evil
eye upon Iraq, if Leonard would like to blow all Iraqi people up
as well?Thanks to clever propaganda many American citizens
tend to think this way America is the great shining liberator,
saving the word from terrorists and weapons of mass
destruction.
At one point, propaganda likened Osama bin Laden and
Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler, and this war we fought to the
one we fought gallantly in the 1940s Although that is incorrect,
I could think of another likeness to World War 2 It is us, the
American people — and we are like the German citizens during
the rise of Hitler Some of us can see something bad happening,
and some cannot But those who can see are powerless to stop
the man who will ultimately ruin their nation
If America is still around in another millennium, I hope
that the new one can turn out the way I had hoped this one
would I hope that there is peace and that all children could learn
what love is, and that all life is valued — not just American life
affect how a person makes their own decisions on what their
style should be. It is hard to think, when you see someone
wearing something that is the same as many other people, that
they are choosing that style by their own original personality;
there is a lack of originality in this world, something that the
world desperately needs is people who do their own thing.
To be original is to be free; doing something “everyone else
is doing it' is not originality — this is because the action is not
done by one’s own thoughts and feelings.
In school a certain method of teaching may cause
a student to have problems with learning, or if a teacher
uses personal opinion in class it may cause students to have
slanted, unbalanced information. For example, in some small
schools in the Deep South it is still taught that the Confederates
should have won the Civil War and that slavery shouldn’t have
been abolished Many thoughts such as that are passed down in
families that fought in the Civil War for the Confederacy. To this
day the South still hates William Tecumseh Sherman of the
Union for his “March to the Sea" that destroyed many cities in
Georgia.
Teens today are becoming themselves more and more.
As you look around the population of the Junior and Senior
classes of Astoria High School, more than 60% of students
dress how they want to dress, or are friends with people they
want to be friends with. There are no longer as many social
barriers deciding who can hang out with whom, just by judging
class based on money, brains or beauty.
Just because a “cool" person says something is cool,
should not mean that everyone else thinks that particular thing
should be deemed “cool” or “in style.” The common cliché
comes to mind, “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?”
Obviously, that is a little unrealistic, but true in many cases
today Take the 1980s group the Rajneeshes Many people
joined the so-called cult-like group, alienating themselves from
the outside world and trying to take over nearby cities. The
Rajneeshes poisoned customers at a few restaurants in a nearby
town called The Dalles, Oregon, to illegally influence an election
in their favor. Many people just went along for the ride because
their friends were doing it, a true example of “jumping off the
bridge.”
Although a United States citizen can say that they are
free, this does not mean they would be free to just do whatever;
there are systems and laws in this country that are necessary
to make the government run the way it is intended The people
run this government and the voices of the citizens are heard
Overall, people have to follow their hearts and listen
to their gut instincts It may sound like a cliché, but it's true
Go out into this big world and express yourself; be free, vote
Sara Alsbury is a Junior at Astoria High School She
is the copy editor for the school newspaper, The Astor Post
war.
War with Iraq will not only be (so far) uncalled for, but
it could very well unleash a demon. Hatred within our world has
skyrocketed during the past few years. Our President, ethnocen-
Lacey Hoyer is an Astoria High School graduate and a
freshman at the University of Oregon She wrote this article for
the Daily Astorian
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