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Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Sedition in America

Montana's Governor Brian Schweitzer will be pardoning nearly seven dozen Montana residents convicted of sedition.

Many of those being pardoned were overheard in bars criticizing the president and his wealthy supporters, and were immediately arrested and sentenced for up to 20 years for expressing opinions contrary to the government or one of it's agencies.

Sound Scary? It is. These were ordinary Americans talking, in public, to friends.

This happened about 90 years ago during the last part of World War I. The pardons are the result of the work of a Montana journalism professor and a number of UM law students. See The Montana Sedition Project for details on their efforts and the victims.

Congratulations should go to the people who worked on this project, and to Gov. Schweitzer for rectifying the injustice. The lesson is to never let it happen again.

But I'm afraid.

With the consolidation of power to the executive branch, a president who doesn't believe he needs to follow any law contrary to his agenda, and an expanding domestic spying program - the next step will be arrests for sedition.

The difference this time is that the power that would be exercised requires no warrant, no trial, no legal representation, and no acknowledgement a prisoner is being held. It merely requires the assertion that the person was engaged in suspicious activities.

I find hope in the fact that we can recognize the injustices of nearly a century ago. If we are vigilant against those injustices now, perhaps we can keep history from repeating itself.

History has hard lessons for us, and a tendency to repeat until we learn them.

Let's hope we learned this one.

Peace,

Matt






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1 Comments:

At 11:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

unbelievable...

 

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