FEB 5 - Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested in the U.S.
Capitol minutes before Bush's State of the Union address
for wearing a T-shirt that pointed out how many Americans, like her
son, Casey, have been killed in Iraq. The T-shirt simply said:
“2,245 Dead. How Many More?”
Besides Sheehan, another anti-war activist, Beverly Young,
the wife of Republican Congressman Bill Young, was ejected from the
speech for sporting a sweat shirt with the words, "Support the
Troops-Defending Our Freedom." Both said they lost their First
amendment Rights - and both have received apologies from the police.
"Lawyers have advised me that I was well within my constitutional
rights to wear a T-shirt emblazoned with a slogan. The police
belatedly agreed and said they would drop the charges. I don’t
understand how they could have held me in jail for four hours before
saying this was all a mistake.
That’s when the enormity of my loss hit me. On top of losing my son,
I lost my First Amendment rights. Where did my America go? I started
crying in pain," wrote Cindy Sheehan in The Los Angeles Times.
During his address, President Bush uttered the words “freedom” 17
times, "Radical Islam" twice, "Iran" more than three times. He said
the American troops were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect
America's freedom, lifestyle, liberty and democracy.
On that same evening that Bush was lauding democracy, freedom, etc.
etc., there was another person in attendance whose rights were
infringed upon.
The man, who did not want his identity revealed after the disturbing
incident, was a personal guest of Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings.
He is a prominent businessman from Broward County, Florida who works
with the Department of Defense-and has a security clearance. After
sitting in the gallery for the entire speech, he was surrounded by
about ten law enforcement officers as he exited the chamber and
whisked away to a room in the Capitol.
For close to an hour the man, an Indian-American, was
questioned by the Capitol Police, who thought he resembled someone on a
Secret Service photo watch list. Eventually, the police realized it
was a case of mistaken identity and let him go.
The Police Chief assured Hastings that his department,
Secret Service and FBI will investigate why the desi was
detained for so long, and try to "sharpen our procedures." But the
man was "very, very scared" by the incident, said a spokesperson for
Hastings to Times.
The Indian-American told his congressman friend Hastings
that the experience was "maybe just the price of being brown in
America," the spokesman said.
"He shouldn't have gone through the ringer as long as he
did," Capitol Police Chief Gainer said. "He did get caught up in the
morass of Secret Service FBI, Capitol Police. Everybody was trying
to figure out whether he was a threat. And he absolutely,
unequivocally clearly was not."
"Sounds like a politician! A politician is one who says something
and if that thing turns out differently, he is there to explain why
it did not happen or why it went wrong," commented a
Pakistani-American on Gainer's explanations.
Gainer apologized to the desi afterwards, only one of the
many apologies he has had to make that week. He met with Congressman
Young at least twice, as well as with Young's wife anti-war activist
Beverly. "There is no
prohibition against simply wearing a T-shirt that states your
particular cause," Gainer stressed, according to Time, taking full accountability for
not providing clearer direction to his officers.
One of the first protests at a State of the Union speech occurred in
1916, when President Woodrow Wilson was speaking and a group of
suffragettes sitting in the gallery unfurled a large yellow banner
with the words, "Mr. President, what will you do for woman
suffrage?"
The Capitol Police prepared to arrest the women, but the chief
doorkeeper ordered them to leave them alone. An assistant doorkeeper
on the floor, however, did manage to pull the banner down. Compared
to what happened at this State of the Union address, that almost
seems civilized.
United States wasn't a superpower nor fighting a war then, in fact Europe was, Islamic Iran did
not exist, the car was still a luxury item for the well-to-do, Bin
Laden wasn't even born, Arabs, Muslims, desis hadn't come here yet,
the Blacks were still slaves, resources were plenty, laws were
simple, families were happier, taxes were low, dreams were innocent,
fears few.
In less than a century, a "new American Century" has been jump
started. The U.S. is the only super power now - it can chose friends, declare
enemies, start wars, preemptively strike, force regime changes "at
a time and place of our choosing" as President Bush has said several
times. |
Articles/Opinions
Classifieds
