Freedom Riders

Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?
Person in the street shrugs -- "Security comes first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse
--The Trouble With Normal, Bruce Cockburn
_____________________

Ranger is still discombobulated from the Veterans Day effluent, which gave a tiny up to all things war. Every newspaper I read had an article to the effect that our troops are fighting for our freedom, liberty and our very way of life.

This hogwash beats me down. There is no way the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) is about our freedoms, rights or way of life (unless one is speaking about their corrosion.) The terrorists -- whomever they may be -- may be able to cut off our oil flow or even knock down the World Trade Center, but they can never take away my rights and liberties.

Only my country can do that to me. Our sacrosanct rights are precious but are only as strong as the covenant in which they appear (The Constitution). Sans that legal document, there really are no divine rights, which is why it must be so fiercely protected.

To the degree that my country encroaches upon my constitutional rights, the terrorists win.

J'Accuse!

I am a camera with its shutter open,
quite passive, recording, not thinking
--I am a Camera, Christopher Isherwood

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
--Eye in the Sky, Alan Parsons Project

Nobody naw give ya no Break,
0Police naw give you no break,
Soldier man naw give you no break,
Not even you idren naw give you no break
--Bad Boys, Bob Marley

It is a crime to exploit patriotism
in the service of hatred, and it is, finally,
a crime to ensconce the sword as the modern god,
whereas all science is toiling to achieve
the coming era of truth and justice
--J'Accuse!, Emile Zola
________________

We in the U.S. have the right to face our accusers. (That is, if you head isn't in a sandbag and you are not in the Charleston Naval Yard Brig.) That right is the bedrock of our judicial system. But that right has been compromised with today's secret court scenarios, and we all seem to acquiesce since it is them and not us getting bested by the legal system.

But let us shift this denial of rights closer to home, to something each of us may have to confront one day. We now have cameras on our stop lights, and Ranger wonders how a camera may be challenged in court. Is a camera a person? How far away are from from the conferral of such rights upon our scanning technology? Will the human operator merge with his scanner into an inviolable voice of right?

Reader choloazul recently noted:

With a camera on every corner, and interlinked databases, I'd be more worried by the fact that there are around 3 private security employees for every sworn officer, and they are increasingly being given tactical equipment, and a heavy dose of 'us vs. them' indoctrination... inside the US of A.

This is a valid concern. Along with the warrantless and widespread wiretapping of the citizenry, this is new potential violation of our civil rights. If the courts confer personhood on a camera, do we automatically presume that the camera is correct -- especially in today's Photoshopped world?

As in The Terminator, humans are accepting the intrusion of electronic surveillance into all areas of our lives. As the economy worsens and crimes perpetrated by the desperate and criminal increase, we are happy for the guards and cameras stationed at the gates to our communities. But that same oversight can be turned on the watched for nefarious purposes.

The cameras at the stop lights are acting as proxies for the newly militarized police. The oddity of the system is that it adds to the municipality's coffers while it also allows for the reduction in the actual police force, adding to the numbers of the unemployed. But who knows -- the slack in sworn officers may be taken up by furtive eyes in some remote system room monitoring behavior.

Another great example of freedom that the troops are ostensibly fighting for in the alleys of sandbox nations.

Do we think about this stuff while watching Dancing With the Stars?