When I was in high school, I remember discussing the freedom of speech. I heard a quote (I couldn’t tell you who said it) then: “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll die to defend your right to say it.”
As an aritst, I place a huge value on free speech and expression. As a Believer, that gets filtered through the lens of my faith and God’s perspective, but that’s internal. The external freedom to say what I want is, to quote the forefathers, “inalienable.”
At least I thought.
So Tuesday evening, when two women with whom we are all familiar were removed (in one case arrested) from the State of the Union address because they were wearing T-shirts with political slogans on them, I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Not the kind of uneasy feeling you get when you’re irritated and trying to come up with something to do about what’s making you mad. The kind you get when you’re scared. Because, honestly, I am starting to be afraid of America.
Politics leave a bad taste in my mouth, as do politicians. But, as politicians go, I am a Bush supporter. I have agreed with nearly everything he has done, including his decision to go to war (although I’m beginning to question the length of that war). The only thing I’ve really disagreed with this administration about was the Patriot Act. Somehow, legalized spying seems to me to be one step away from the secret police that drag us from our homes at night. I take issue with the fact that intelligence officials can potentially monitor my phone calls and email. I have nothing to hide from them, I simply don’t want them in my business. Of course, this monitoring, including the illegal (yes, I said it) wiretaps that have recently attracted so much attention, are only done, as I understand it, when there is probable cause to suspect that there is a need for it in the interest of national security.
My question is, who assesses that probable cause? They do.
So, here we are, suddenly in a situation where Captial Police can remove and arrest people for wearing t-shirts that express their thoughts. Sounds like censorship of political expression to me. Sounds like one more step toward the secret police to me. Sounds like one more step toward religious censorship to me, or artistic censorship. That scares me.
I’m sitting on my sofa this morning, and watching that Bush signed a temporary extention on the Patriot Act. Of course he did. We rolled over and gave intelligence officials all kinds of power they shouldn’t have because we were scared. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Of course they don’t want to give it up.
And now we have so much more to be scared of.