October 22, 2001
A Rant About Rights...
by Barbara Fisher
A lot of people, particularly among the steaming underbelly of American society known as the "counter-culture," of which I am a proud member by virtue of being a practicing Witch, have been worried that the Fundamentalist Conservative Christians who run our government might use the current crisis to strip us all of our civil rights and turn our beloved democracy into a fascist police state along the lines of Nazi Germany.
As most of the readers of "Journey to the West" should know by now, this author loves a good conspiracy theory as well as the next wild-eyed liberal, but for some reason, the evidence that is piling up in support of the idea that suddenly, overnight, America is going to be transformed into a goose-stepping vision of Hitler heaven is slim. So slim, in fact, that it is nearly invisible. So nearly invisible, that I can't see it.
And it is not from a lack of trying to see it.
As an ex-journalist, I have the tenacity of a bulldog and the spirit of a bloodhound when it comes to finding facts to support my new pet theory. I have been looking high and low for evidence to support that broad-sweeping movements toward fascism are heading in our direction from the political sector, and I just don't see it.
I keep hearing about civil rights violations from fearful Neo-Pagans who declare that the new rules governing traffic patterns into Manhattan are signs of oppression, and that soon, we will all be subject to unwarranted search and seizure, carried out, no doubt by jack-booted goons that look like Jack Palance in a police uniform. No doubt, there are black helicopters full of these grim-faced men circling overhead as I type these words, waiting to swoop down and fly me away to some secret concentration camp ringed with miles of shiny new razor wire.
Before we start hyperventilating over this, we have to understand that there is a distinction between actual civil rights and the "rights" that we are used to.
There are some folks I know complaining that the rule in NYC that says that cars entering Manhattan between the hours of 6am and noon must have more than one passenger in order to ease the burden of traffic from the security checkpoints around the city and the fact that large chunks of the streets in Manhattan are still closed is a breach of civil rights. Not only are some of them exaggerating the hours of the imposed restrictions, reporting them as being from 6 am until midnight, others are claiming that it is unconstitutional to stop and check all trucks, buses and commercial vehicles for explosives, hazardous materials and other dangerous goodies used by terrorists to blow up things like bridges and tunnels. I did some research on this issue, and found out that what is going on in NYC is legitimate, perfectly Constitutional, and there is legal precedent to support it.
Inconvenient security measures are to be expected after the largest terrorist action ever waged on our soil takes a bite out of Manhattan. Just because these measures are irritating, doesn't make them unconstitutional. A longer commute isn't a removal of civil rights, it's just life after a major national crisis. I have heard all sorts of fear-mongering and rumors from individuals who live near the city. One stated that city officials will impound a person's car for trying to drive into the city alone during the restricted hours, when in fact, the policy is to warn them, or turn them back the first time, and to ticket them the second time. Somehow, that doesn't sound very scary to me.
When you think about it rationally, it doesn't take a Rhodes scholar to think about the sheer magnitude of a logistical nightmare it would be to impound someone's car for breaching the new traffic rules. The checkpoints are at tunnels and bridges. How would you get tow trucks in and out while you are trying to check the cars and trucks that go through to make certain that none of them are bombs meant to take out an artery into Manhattan?
The answer is: you couldn't.
I have heard that the NYC officials started these searches while telling the public that there had been no specific threats to security. That makes no sense, and in fact, Attorney General Ashcroft and Mayor Guiliani have said over and over that there have been significant threats of further attacks, possibly in the form of truck or car bombs. The sheer fact that most of the recent terrorist attacks on US soil and against US assets elsewhere in the world have been in the form of truck bombs should give people the clue to shut the hell up and understand that there is no guaranteed Constitutional right to drive anywhere at any time you like in any way you like.
Driving is not a right, it has never been a right: it has always been a privilege, which can be revoked at any time that the government deems necessary for the safety of the driver and those who are also on the road with the driver. If it was a right, we wouldn't have to be licensed by the government in order to do it. Remember when gun control laws came out and people were all het up that they should have to have licenses to own guns because of the "right to bear arms?" That's because there is that little phrase about keeping and bearing arms in our Bill of Rights.
Well, where exactly in the Constitution or Bill of Rights does it state that Americans have the right to "keep and drive cars?" (Or horses, or carriages, or the nearest period-appropriate equivalent.) It doesn't. Driving your car isn't a civil right.
We also do not have the Constitutional right to get onto a plane within one hour of arriving at the airport. Sorry folks, I know it is inconvenient, but if I have to get to the airport early just so the security people have time to do a good job, that's fine with me. I can deal with some inconvenience and seemingly wasted time just so I arrive at my destination intact, and am not used as a living bomb by some malevolent fuckant with an axe to grind over US Middle East policy, most of which I don't support anyway.
In fact, I would voice that I would actually like some real security at our airports. No more of this bullshit like the "three magic questions" about who packed our bags and are we stupid enough to carry something handed to us by a stranger. No more underpaid, untrained people who look so bored and unconcerned that I have been tempted to make jokes about bombs just to see if I get a reaction. I want real security, like the stuff they have had in Europe for years.
I want to be searched, like I was in Heathrow Airport in London. It isn't like they are feeling you up, for Gaia's sake, people. When I was there, the lady who patted me down was very polite and businesslike about it, and she even had me take off my very lovely hat so she could check inside it and the brim. I want people to open my bag because they found a concentration of metal in a rounded container on the x-ray monitor. (It was my little cloth jewelry case. The lady who searched my bag unzipped it, and looked through it and complimented me on my taste and style, then put it all back.)
These "invasions of my privacy" did not bother me one bit. It was only a year after the Lockerbie bombing, after all, and I was not in the least bit offended by the questions I was asked, or the poking about in my personal effects. I wasn't carrying anything embarrassing like a vibrator, and even if I was, I still wouldn't have cared if the lady going through my bag pulled it out and checked the batteries. Being embarrassed is better than being dead, and besides, I am a firm believer in the idea that law-abiding citizens have nothing to hide, do we? I also don't have problems with security in places like concerts or sporting events either. It is only logical. It isn't like they are stopping us from peacefully assembling, are they? They are just making sure we are actually assembling in a peaceful manner, devoid of guns, knives and bombs. So long as people are allowed to gather, as per our actual Constitutional rights, then I am fine with being patted down and walking through a metal detector in order to see the Olympics sans terrorist attack.
I think that folks can see the pattern of what I am trying to get at. Civil rights are those things enumerated in the Bill of Rights, people! Please, do not confuse our civil rights with things that we are used to that are simply privileges and conveniences. I wonder how many Americans know what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights actually say? In my informal investigations on the matter, not very damned many do. I suggest that everyone who is so against us losing our civil rights go out and actually read and understand the Constitution and make certain that what you are getting so het up about is actually a right and not a privilege.
Some Neo-Pagans are so worried about the current political climate, and are so certain that the recent terrorist attack is going to bring fascism up close and personal, that they are fearful of telling folks what religion they practice. They are scared that if folks know we are Pagan, they won't trust us, mostly because of what Jerry Falwell said when he stuck his foot so far in his mouth he had toes dangling from his underwear. I hate to tell these folks, but look at the flack Falwell took in the media for his obnoxious remarks! Even Walter Cronkite said that the man is right up there with the Taliban if he believes hateful things like that! Indeed, Ari Fletcher, President Bush's terse-voiced lackey and dogsbody, couldn't emphasize quickly enough that the President did not support what Falwell said, and that he didn't believe any of it. Sure, he may be covering up so all of us Pagans, feminists and gays come out of the woodwork and make it easier for them to round us all up for the gas chambers, but I don't think so. America doesn't work that way.
So, do I tell people I am a Witch? Well, hell yes, I tell people I am a Witch, if they ask. Why lie now? Most folks I know already know about it. Besides, I don't figure that our government is building the concentration camps as we speak, and if they are, well, I guess I am doomed anyway, because my Paganosity is tattooed right on my skin, for all to see. Why be afraid to tell what I believe? What good is that?
I am more afraid for my Islamic neighbors than I am for myself and more so from other Americans than from the Government. Bush, for all that I don't like the man, has been very careful to explain that Islamic American citizens are still CITIZENS and has been good about getting the message out that hate crimes against them would be dealt with harshly. So, I don't figure he is fitting up the concentration camps for them, either. I hate to say it, but he has acted more decently in the past few weeks than he had in the months previously. I still don't like him, and don't expect to, but he isn't acting like the ogre many would have us believe he is.
And then there is John Ashcroft, who creepily enough, is a dead ringer for the "X-Files" main bad guy, the Cigarette Smoking Man. He and his bill that he wants to rush through Congress have been giving folks the jitters and fits for a while now. The bill is meant to grant broader powers to federal investigators in their hunt for terrorists, and it has some nasty clauses in it about allowing more tapping of our phone lines and email than many of us are comfortable with.
The thing is, though, it has serious opposition on both the left and the right, and everyone is negotiating the issue. You know that bipartisanship is a real thing when Rep. Bob Barr (remember him....just last year he was the anti-Pagan bogeyman who wanted us non-monotheistic wretches out of the military, a movement that failed miserably) and Edward Kennedy are both calling for serious restrictions on the bill as it stands, with both men citing the fact that they don't want American citizens to lose Constitutional rights. Somehow, I think that someone needs to put away the jackboots, because the democratic process with its checks and balances seems to still be in pretty good working order.
Another thing I wanted to address was all this talk about all of these Christians running about talking about God and all the "God Bless America" that seems to be driving some Pagans and atheists to distraction. First of all, didn't we turn to our Deities when this happened? Okay, I know that the atheists didn't, but I know I did. What do you expect Christians, who are a majority in our society, whether we like it or not, to do in a time of stress? Convert? No....they are going to start going to church in droves, as happens with all religious people in times of stress. They pray, we pray, everyone prays in their own way, its all good. Except for the atheists, and they are okay, too. As for "God Bless America," it happens to be my absolute least favorite patriotic song, not because of the words, but because of the woman who made it popular. Kate Smith, I think was her name. The woman with a machine-gun vibrato whose voice is as soothing as a chainsaw still gives me nightmares wherein she is belting out that damned song while swallowing quavering children in droves. She scared me as a child, and traumatizes me to this day. It doesn't matter who sings that song, I hear it in her voice, and thus shudder and tune it out.
But I don't think that hearing it on the radio or television is a Christian conspiracy to make us all uncomfortable. They are just trying to make themselves feel better, and really, that's okay. I can change the radio station. I understand the power of the "mute" button the television remote, and am not afraid to us it. People have a Constitutional right of free speech which they can exercise by singing the song, and I have the Constitutional right to ignore them. Remember, if we silence one group, we open the door for everyone to be silenced.
Patriotism tends to make me nervous, because it can be mindless and empty; however, it is to be expected now, because it makes people feel better. I, on the other hand, am a naturally cynical person who looks bad in white, has very little red in her wardrobe, and not much blue, and is allergic to the three colors in combination. If our flag was black, purple and green, I would be set, but it isn't.
I don't like flying a flag unless one does it properly, with respect to taking it out of the rain and all that stuff, since I was in the color guard when I was a girl scout. I find plastic window stickers that look like flags to be tacky. So, what is a fairly unpatriotic by nature, curmudgeonly Witch to do to show that she does indeed love her country and what it stands for?
Engage in a little bit of guerrilla art.
Around where I live I have seen a lot of banners hanging from overpasses on I 95. Lots of them say "God Bless America!" Or, "USA All The Way." Very patriotic words, but uninspired, and a bit too cheerleaderish for my taste.
I decided to do some that say, "One Nation, Many Faiths, All American", with the religious symbols of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and Neo-Paganism painted underneath. Its my way of being patriotic without being a mindlessly jingoistic flag-waving cog in the crowd. I can march to the beat of my shamanic drummers, and still be a patriot.
What this rant boils down to is that I think people need to stop being so fearful. Fear is at the heart of all of these silly assertions, and it is a fear that isn't going to do anyone any good.
Sure I was scared shitless when this first happened, as were we all. As we should be....this is a damned scary event. But, it is true: we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Let's not let our fears blind us or paralyze us. Yes, we need to be vigilant, and make certain that we don't lose our rights, but we also have to educate ourselves in what exactly those rights are. We need to keep speaking out in a critical fashion against our government when we believe it is doing something wrong. On the other hand, we should also remember to praise our officials when they are doing something right. Which, is something that I, cynic that I am, sometimes forget to do, especially when it comes to the government.
If we become afraid of flying, afraid of admitting who we are, afraid of all the Christians, afraid of the terrorists, afraid of the government, what good is that? At that point, we have let the terrorists win, and we might as well throw in the towel, lay down in front of a subway train and die, because we won't be living our lives fully.
This crisis has taught me something that I have known all along. I just didn't think about every day until a few weeks ago, when I watched 6,000 people lose their lives in a big flash as The Tower tarot card came alive on my television screen.
Life is precious, and precarious, and we never know the day when Death will come for us. Life is finite, and always has been, and always will be. We, then, should not waste our time with fear.....we should realize that we have to go out and live our dreams now. Write that book today. Sing that song this minute, and love as much as our hearts can allow, because tomorrow may never come. And let's try to be nice to each other, not just in public, but in private, among friends and family.
Carpe diem, my friends. Carpe diem.
©2001 by Barbara Fisher