Re: *** CONTRAST vs RESOLUTION for Telescopes REFRACTORS vs REFLECTORS ***
- From: jsavard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John Savard)
- Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 11:44:19 GMT
On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 10:03:18 GMT, Paul Murray <paul@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote,
in part:
>In article <436197ba.2271590@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, John Savard wrote:
>> People have rights.
>> Democratic governments behave lawfully, and respect those rights.
>> Non-democratic governments, on the other hand, criminally violate these
>> rights, and have political prisoners.
>Really?
>So which government has been holding over 600 prisoners, refusing them all
>basic legal rights, without even bringing any charges against them?
>Actions which would be illegal on US soil, so it is doing them in Cuba
>instead?
This certainly is a departure from normal practice in the United States.
And people have been able to call attention to that fact, and criticize
that fact, in the United States. And they haven't been hauled off to
prison themselves.
The United States is not Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia - or even the
People's Republic of China as it exists today. Dissent is not silenced.
But, as President G. W. Bush pointed out, "The Constitution is not a
suicide pact".
At one time, it might have been thought hard to believe that anyone
could find more than a dozen people who would work together to take over
an aircraft, using such ruthless tactics as slashing open one woman's
throat so as to distract the airplane's flight attendants in keeping her
alive, so as to fly it directly into a large building, killing thousands
of unsuspecting and innocent people, in the knowledge that only certain
death would result, and in the belief that a loving and merciful God
would reward such actions with Paradise.
At one time, it would seem that no one with a political goal to attain
would carry out such an outrage on the soil of the world's mightiest
nation in hopes of achieving any result but being crushed utterly.
But it happened.
I am not particularly surprised, or dismayed, that in general, the
American public is supportive of making sure that others who are likely
to be part of similar future acts are not being given the opportunity to
escape prosecution *on a technicality*, or, perhaps, to drive a Ford
Bronco to a predominantly Muslim neighborhood before their arrest.
The criminal justice system in the United States, along with the
Constitutional protections for the accused are, in case you haven't
noticed, falling into disrepute these days. That is regrettable. It is
right and proper, and an important part of democracy, to prevent
innocent people from being convicted of crimes they did not commit.
However, for whatever reason, the system seems to have gone off the
rails.
The public perception today is not that it is virtually impossible to be
convicted of a crime if you are innocent - even if you belong to a
minority group, and have to rely on a court-appointed lawyer, and that
it is virtually impossible not to be convicted of a crime if you are
guilty - no matter *how* much money you have to spend on the best
lawyers obtainable.
That is the public perception that must be restored by being confirmed
overwhelmingly by facts and experience to restore the necessary healthy
faith in the criminal justice system.
Also, framing laws such that people might break them without being
thought wicked - because what is illegal is what people in some unlucky
neighborhoods must do to survive, or because the law allows people to be
convicted without proof of criminal intent - as a desperate response to
a court system that lets too many people out - is not the answer. Now,
public respect for the law, not just the courts, is eroded.
After September 11, the stakes are too high to fool around.
I would rather we break a few more rules of the kind that we followed in
normal times - than wait for another terrorist act that makes September
11, 2001 seem minor. Because that could lead to pogroms and genocide. It
is because Americans are wealthy, safe, secure and comfortable, not
because they are not human, that violence such as followed the
assassination of Indira Gandhi, or that previously accompanied the
partition of India, is not common in the United States today. There was
a time when it was *white* Americans that went on race riots - in one
case, covered on the American television show 60 Minutes, an entire town
of African-Americans was killed by a mob spurred on by the existence of
a suspected rapist.
Right now, it seems, al-Qaeda is limited to attacking softer targets.
Such as little Bali, not an independent nation, but part of a Muslim
empire. Or smaller, poorer European countries like Spain. Or American
troops, and Shi'ite civilians, in Iraq. But we can't let our guard down,
and assume this will continue. Nor is even this level of terrorist
activity acceptable or tolerable.
John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html
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