Memorial.Vspeech.10-27-03

SPEECH FOR Civil Liberties Memorial SJM4, OCT 27, 2003 Im Valerie Gremillion, Director of the Global Dialog Project centered in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our aim is to promote deep dialogue on the choices we are making in the world, on the paths we are choosing into the future. But in order to assure that we can have this deep dialogue, we must first have the freedom to speak out, and the courage to do so. And what guarantees this freedom, and supports our courage, is one of the fundamental documents of human history and civilization: the Bill of Rights. I are here today because it important that we speak out, not just against the Patriot Act, but FOR the Bill of Rights. Not just against misguided approaches to the War on Terror, approaches that would trade our liberties away while we claim to be protecting them. Not just against unconstitutional actions by the Bush administration. Not just against the removal of some of the basic freedoms we call American. I am here today to speak FOR the Bill of Rights; I am here today to remind you of what allows us to be free. The Bill of Rights is not just a pillar of our nation it is its foundation. Without the Bill of Rights, we would not be here because the United States of America would never have been formed. The story of the Bill of Rights is an important one and it is a story we have forgotten. When the Constitution was written, it was not considered a sufficient guarantee of core rights and freedoms of the people, and it was rejected by many states. It was only when the Bill of Rights was added that all of the states agreed to sign on to this fledgling new country. You see, the states had formed their own governments first and as stubborn, independent people who had previously been under the thumb of persecutors and corrupt governments, they knew to protect themselves against their own governments, no matter how well intended. Their ability to speak freely, to meet, to worship as they saw fit had all been compromised in the past their homes had been invaded, their right to be free and fearless individuals had been removed. So in forming their state governments, they saw that prevention of these abuses MUST be encoded, at the highest level of the law. When the United States Constitution was first written, though, it contained none of these protections. When they saw this, many states refused to sign because why SHOULD they give up rights that they had already claimed, for themselves, for their children, and for their childrens children? They refused, until these rights were added as the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution: the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights, then, was and IS the primary document that guarantees that the people, as individuals, had rights. The right to be free from tyranny, from spying, from unreasonable searches of person or posessions, the right not to be thrown into jail or investigated without cause. The right to speak the truth, even if that truth was detrimental to those in power and the right to publish those truths. The right to afair trial, to a lawyer, and to face those who accused them. For without these things, the Founders were at the mercy of their government, at the mercy of their law enforcement, at the mercy of their neighbors who could secretly accuse them. It was only when these rights to freedom of speech, assembly, religion and the press, rights to privacy and to due process under the law, were encoded in the Bill of Rights, that the United States of America could become a nation. And so it is these principles on which our past stands and on which our future rests today. The Bill of Rights is about our principles and our values. · The Bill of Rights is about truth the truth that the people need legal protections to prevent those in power from abusing the people, as well as the freedom to speak out which allows each of us to speak our own truth without fear of punishment. · It is about freedom guarantees of the freedom of the people, which is the wellspring of our prosperity, our ethics, and our happiness. · It is about respect respect for the rule of law, respect for privacy, respect for due process. · And it is about integrity an integrity that is maintained only when our words which claim we are free, which claim we are a government of and by and for the people match our actions. These are the principles we claim as a nation. They are the foundation, the bedrock of our liberty and of our success as a people. If we are not true to them, if we do not uphold them, then we have lost our way, we have strayed from the path of truth and freedom, respect and integrity. And if we are not true to them, we cannot claim to be the land of the free, OR the home of the brave, for we will have allowed fear to deprive us of freedom. Federal actions like Presidential Executive orders which remove rights to due process, or FBI edicts which allow our government to spy on its people without cause as well as the USA Patriot Act itself make a mockery of the Bill of Rights, and of the freedoms we believe in. If what we believe in is freedom and truth, respect for the freedoms and rights of the people, real democracy and a future which supports democracy for our nation as well as others, then we must reject the Patriot Act for its violation of these principles, and strengthen our support of the Bill of Rights. It is only then that we can claim to be not only the land of the free and the home of the brave, but a land of principle and of integrity. I ask you to support the memorial to be introduced today, and to affirm our civil rights and liberties while opposing provisions of the Patriot Act which destroy our freedoms. Thank you.