PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) – An Oregon anti-terrorism bill would jail street-blocking protesters for at least 25 years in a thinly veiled effort to discourage anti-war demonstrations, critics say.
The bill has met strong opposition but lawmakers still expect a debate on the definition of terrorism and the value of free speech before a vote by the state senate judiciary committee (news – web sites), whose Chairman, Republican Senator John Minnis, wrote the proposed legislation.
Dubbed Senate Bill 742, it identifies a terrorist as a person who “plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt” business, transportation, schools, government, or free assembly.
The bill’s few public supporters say police need stronger laws to break up protests that have created havoc in cities like Portland, where thousands of people have marched and demonstrated against war in Iraq (news – web sites) since last fall.
America is not a true democracy
Whether for or against this war, you can not possibly believe this is a just bill. Civil disobediance is essential for a democracy. If we could not take part in it so many of our current freedoms would never have been aquired. The civil rights movement relied greatly on disruption. This is not about safety at all, this is about a corrupt government grasping for even more power. The terrorists are not on the streets, they hold political office. They rule through fear like the threat of 25 years in prison for standing up for what you believe in.
1 comment on “Not A Democracy”
Yeah… the Oregon thing is stupid… which is why it’s never going to get passed…
And no, America isn’t a true democracy. If you really want to be technical about it, it’s actually more like a republic. The difference between true democracy and America’s brand of democracy: Representative Government… thus we have a Republic. Unfortunately we have some fucked up representatives out there, and too few good ones.
There I go with my random factoid of the day. One of my old history teachers went off on a tangent one day about how everyone says the US is a Democracy when in reality it’s a Republic. True democracy would require every single individual person of which there are millions to have a vote on every single miniscule issue, which is, fankly, impossible to do. Therefore we have representatives to vote for us… blah blah blah principle of representative democracy… power resides with the people who delegate to representatives… therefore a republic. Anyway, point being, he said that the next time we hear someone refer to the US as a democracy we can feel super smart and say “But ahh, it is really a republic.” So woohoo! Go me…