Stiffling news of protests

The R A N T of G L E N N glenn3@frontiernet.net
Glenn Jacobs / 130 N. Poverty Flat / Box 954 / Eagar, Arizona 85925 / 928-333-3517
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Suppressing the news of protests

Letter to the editor;

(A guest-rant by Stu Young, former Deputy Leader of the American Fascist Party)

[Here’s] a disturbing trend. We supposedly have freedom of speech, and are free to choose between political parties with clearly different agendas and tactics.

Flying in the face of all this, award winning journalist and host of Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, was arrested while covering a protest outside the Republican National Convention. Though clearly identified as press, Goodman was charged with “obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer.”

Please note that she was not participating in the protest: She was doing a story on it.

Suppressing non-violent protests is not new. It has been happening since the Patriot Acts were signed. (Incidentally, the wording of that legislation can be interpreted as defining as a terrorist any citizen who disagrees with the government.) We Americans are turning our backs on an increase of arrests, tear gas and club attacks on non-violent protesters.

In 2004, Ralph Nader, who had purchased a ticket to the last Presidential Debate, and was planning to attend like any other private citizen, was threatened with arrest if he entered the convention hall where the debate was held (this can be seen in the independent film, An Unreasonable Man). I guess the corporate-controlled organizers of the debate feared a potential protest, as though Ralph Nader, all by himself, could whip the crowd into a frenzy. But now, apparently, letting the public know that such protests are occurring has become intolerable to the [big-shots]. (For more info, I recommend the movie Why We Fight, available in the special interest section of Blockbuster.)

Think Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 are just science fiction books?

If you wonder what you can do, the following website offers [an] idea:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/dont_arrest_journalists/?r_by=803-1636285-jDjWujx&rc=confemail

Otherwise, we can start memorizing the coming, new slogan of the “American Union” (a.k.a. “Security and Prosperity Partnership;” Google that if you haven’t heard of it):

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. (Sound familiar?).

Stu Young