CIVLIB.resol.talkingpoints

> ## Talking Points for A Santa Fe Resolution In Support of the Bill of Rights and Civil Liberties for Santa Feans

> Some ideas on relevant points and things to say when speaking about how current legislation and Presidential actions are violating the Bill of Rights, and why we, as citizens, must support the Bill of Rights and our constitutional freedoms.

> FIRST: REQUEST that what you say to be read into the record, otherwise it will not be.

> ### MAIN POINTS:

> -Violating our rights and removing our freedoms does not make us more secure

> -WE are patriots! Trampling on the Bill of Rights is not patriotic - defending it is!

> -Contravening the Constitution destroys the very freedoms we should be protecting

> -wasting time on invading the lives and the privacy of American citizens takes resources away from finding actual threats to our security

> - we ask our local elected officials to defend our rights as guaranteed under the U.S. and New Mexico Constitutions

> -our true long-term security lies in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights: in upholding our principles of liberty and justice for all.

> -the Constitution is the law of the land it is illegal and dangerous to pass laws violating it

> -Remember what it is we stand for, and what we need to defend: liberty, truth, justice, democracy, and freedom from fear: we claim our right to defend the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, and American liberties, even against our own government - indeed it is our **patriotic duty** as American citizens to do so.

> MORE SPECIFIC NOTES:

> 1.FIRST SAY YOU ARE respectfully PETITIONING YOUR CITY government to do something like:

> -Support the Bill of Rights ;
> -defend the freedoms of American citizens as guaranteed in the Constitution against violations by the Patriot Act;
> -support the foundations of our democracy and the rights of its citizens;
> -insure our true longterm security

> 2.You are doing this because:

> a. Rights guaranteed to American citizens by the Constitution are violated by the PATRIOT Act, Executive Orders, and actions of the FBI

> b.Secretly entering our houses, wiretapping and invading of our private medical, financial, educational, computer, and other records without reasonable cause, destroys our freedom without increasing security

> c. Inhibiting our rights to speak out, to freely assemble, to influence our government, and to form groups that legally dissent from current policy because of the threat of being labeled ‘domestic terrorist groups’ destroys the roots of our democracy and the rights of the people

> d. Jailing American citizens without counsel, without presenting the evidence against them, or without giving them a speedy trial destroys the basis of our judicial system and the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty

> e. asking Americans to spy on each other as in the TIPS program is forming a secret police and puts us on the road to fascism, and Big Brother

> f. putting groups like GreenPeace and Quaker peace activists on ‘watch lists’ that legally dissent with current policy is McCarthyist, chilling to democratic process, and wrong

> g. we as American citizens have the right to speak out without fear of being surveiled, spied on, or investigated

> Why this Resolution should pass at the LOCAL LEVEL: (Thanks to Virginia Miller!) Because it impacts ALL Santa Feans:

> 1. the Patriot Act inhibits our abilities to participate freely and fully in the democratic process

> 2. it is here, in our local communities, that we engage with that process, so it is here that we are first asking our elected officials to represent us

> 3. the ability granted by the Patriot Act to declare any group a domestic terrorist organization inhibits our rights to free speech, to assemble, and to participate in organizations we believe work for the good of the American people at the LOCAL level

> 4. Congress and the President, sworn to uphold the Constitution, are not doing that so we as citizens have a responsibility and a duty to uphold it

> 5. Our local representatives are most responsive to our needs we ask them to defend our rights as guaranteed under the U.S. and New Mexico Constitution