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Henry
Daily Herald, Letter to the Editor, January 20,
2006
Who has read the Patriot Act?
I
attended a town hall meeting with Congressional Representative
Lynn Westmoreland on Thursday, January 19, 2006 at the Henry
County Administrative Building.
The meeting began
about 6:30pm and lasted until 8:00pm. Representative
Westmoreland spoke for some 45 minutes about issues he thought
we would ask questions about. That left the balance of time
for our actual questions.
At one point Westmoreland
had stated that unemployment was at 4.9%. This number did not
ring true to many and one man called Westmoreland to task for
using that figure.
The same man added that he was
distressed about the open borders we have and spoke of the
Mexican military crossing the border. Westmoreland had said
the border situation was his number one issue. But he seemed
to dismiss the idea that the Mexican army was crossing the
border with the United States. That’s when I spoke up. I had
brought a news article dated Sunday, January 15, 2006 with me.
This article was from WorldNetDaily.com and was entitled,
Mexican troops defiant: ‘Border? What border?’ The article
states that the “Mexican military has little regard for the
border as troops have entered the United States 216 times over
nine years.” One source says these incursions are to help drug
dealers get into the United States. Let me state that again
and quote it, “U.S. officials claim the border-crossings are
designed to help foreign drug and human smugglers gain safe
access into American territory.”
Lynn Westmoreland did
not seem to appreciate the information I was
providing.
I went on to quote a statement from U.S.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colorado. Rep. Tancredo has said, “We
should commit the military to the border—tomorrow. I mean,
with armor and weapons.”
After I quoted that statement,
Westmoreland began saying something like, “Tom lives in
Colorado…” I quickly interjected that the information and
facts in the news article are not Tom’s. Westmoreland then
said there were discussions and legislation about building a
fence along the border. I said, “But is that a continuous
fence, the fence I hear about is only for certain sections of
the border.” Westmoreland seemed to maintain that the fence
was continuous along the entire length of the border.
Then Westmoreland said something I have never heard
before. He stated that the problem with the fence is that no
one in Texas wants the fence. I could not hold back and
commented that I had not heard that before. Westmoreland
maintained the people of Texas do not want a fence.
Now let me state my main reason for writing this
letter: Westmoreland stated he thinks the original Patriot Act
is good; it is necessary to maintain our freedom. There is a
vote scheduled for February 3 on extending certain sections.
But the main piece of legislation will remain.
I would bet
most Americans have not read the Patriot Act. Most people do
not know that section 213 allows the government to search your
home with no one present and to delay notifying you of the
search indefinitely (warrantless searches).
But those
warrantless searches are only for “the terrorists,” right?
Correct, but who is a terrorist? Section 802 defines a new
crime called “domestic terrorism” and it “means activities
that—(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a
violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any
State; (B) appear to be intended—(i) to intimidate or coerce a
civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a
government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the
conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or
kidnapping; …”
According to Section 802 (B) (ii) I
could be called a terrorist. Last night, my activities
“appeared to be intended…to influence the policy of a
government by intimidation or coercion.” I wanted Westmoreland
to change his mind about the border. If the Mexican army
crosses the border, it needs to be met with lethal force and
driven back. I was trying to shame Westmoreland into
acknowledging the truth. He did not want to admit what is
going on. Am I a terrorist? The Patriot Act could be used to
say ‘yes.’ The government could be searching my house right
now. They wouldn’t need to tell me about it. If I walked in
and caught them, there would be nothing for me to
do.
Wake up America. Our God given rights are being
taken from us. The first 10 Amendments (or the Bill of Rights)
lists some of those inalienable rights. The 4th Amendment
states plainly, “The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
The
Patriot Act makes a mockery of our God and our rights. It also
makes a mockery of our common sense: Does it make sense to
restrict the freedoms of Americans in order to find the
“terrorist” while the border is wide open and terrorists can
walk into our country unimpeded? No, it doesn’t.
I
voted for Westmoreland in the last election. I’ll find someone
else to vote for next time.
Steve Stavro
McDonough,
GA
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