October 2007

by Daisy Ouye

October marks 62 years since the closing of Topaz Internment Camp. The site was recognized this year as a National Historic Landmark thanks to the diligence of the Topaz Museum Board and other supporters. They believe it is important that we remember the strength of the people interned, as well as injustices of former actions of the US federal government.

September 2007

by Marco Rosaire Rossi

It is impossible to hide anything on an airplane. The small cramped seats, and their cubicle-like formation gives the illusion of privacy – but in actuality everything that is said is heard. Eavesdropping on airplanes is not intentional, it’s inevitable. And perhaps because I was eavesdropping on the rich – who perhaps feel more at liberty to speak their minds than the rest of us – it was all the easier.

June 2006

by Kay Oss

From Olympia Civil Liberties Resource

Olympia Civil Liberties Resource is an Olympia-based organization working to defend the civil liberties of all citizens -- particularly activists exercising their constitutional rights. OCLR seeks to educate the public regarding current threats to civil liberties, and to act as a general resource for activists. Our website is http://www.olycivlib.org . Our email address is olycivlib@riseup.net

April 2006

by Erin Genia

On March 11, 150 people participated in the "Real Security for All" demonstration in Tacoma, which linked the injustices of US immigration and deportation policies with our aggressive foreign policy, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Participants marched from the Northwest Detention Center to the Pacific Northwest National Security Forum, a military conference focused on the future of the armed forces. Erin Genia, the coordinator of Olympia Amnesty International and one of the event's organizers, gave the following speech at the demonstration.-- Alice . . .

April 2006

Use * http://www.FOIArequest.org * to find out!

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), anyone has the right to request information from the government. Last strengthened by Congress in response to the Watergate scandal, FOIA gives citizens a way to demand transparency from the Bush administration -- and take the government to court if necessary.

January 2006

by Marjorie Cohn

Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires - a wiretap requires a court order.

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004, Buffalo, New York.

In an assertion of executive power that rivals the excesses of the McCarthy era of the late 1940's and 1950's, and the dreaded COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) of the 1950's and 1960's, George W. Bush's National Security Agency has been secretly spying on United States citizens without warrants for the last three years.

January 2006

by Marco Rosaire Rossi

Sometime in January, the 11th Circuit District Court is expected rule on whether the school board in Dover County, Pennsylvania can force its teachers to read the following statement before a biology lesson: "Darwin's Theory is a theory . . . not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence." The courts ruling is significant, and could have a major impact on the separation of church and state, the American education system, and the future of science.

January 2006

by Robert Jensen

While the great battles fought over the First Amendment's religion and free-speech/-press clauses are some of the most inspiring stories told 'round the legal campfire, the amendment's assembly and petition clauses are mostly a forgotten footnote.

There has been no great legal battle in easy memory over the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." In 1939, the Supreme Court decided a case, Hague v. Congress of Industrial Organizations, that definitively established "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" in public . . .

October 2005

Adapted from a talk in September by Prof. Therese Saliba at the Olympia Timberland Library

Reflecting back on the last 4 years since the tragic events of 9/11, I am reminded of an essay written by Bill Moyers entitled, "Which America will we be now?" In it, he described 9/11 as what educators call "a teachable moment," and argued that "what's at stake is democracy. Democracy wasn't canceled on Sept. 11," he writes," but democracy won't survive if citizens turn into lemmings."

May 2005

by Phil Gasper

There's been a whole series of attacks on left-wing academics across the whole country. The most prominent ones are the Middle Eastern Studies department at Columbia University in New York, which was attacked in a film made by a pro-Zionist group; Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado, who is being pilloried for his article written just after September 11; and other cases of harassment of left-wing or progressive faculty members.

March 2005

by Robert Jensen

Ward Churchill has a right to speak about 9/11.

And Ward Churchill is right about 9/11.

I state that bluntly, even though I disagree with some aspects of the University of Colorado professor's now-infamous essay, because so many (including some on the left) have defended his First Amendment rights while either remaining silent about, or condemning, the article's analysis.

September 2003

by Howard Rosenfeld

On Tuesday, August 19th, a newly formed coalition presented a draft resolution to the Olympia City Council in support of civil liberties and against the USA Patriot Act. City Council Member Curt Pavola acted as the point person for the City of Olympia and has been working with organizers from the coalition. All city council members present that evening spoke to the resolution, except for Doug Mah and Jeannette Hawkins (Hawkins was absent). There were 8-10 people who spoke, all in favor of the proposed resolution. Coalition member Bruce DeLoria (Thurston County ACLU) also met . . .