THE PATRIOT ACT
by Laura Dawn Lewis

reclaiming our Rights
& Our Country

Drafted years before September 11, 2001 and considered unconstitutional until then, the Patriot Act quickly came into enactment five weeks later.  The broadest assault on personal freedoms in the United States, both the House and Senate approved this act without even reading it.   Capitalizing on the emotional shock resonating within the population from the attacks, the Patriot Act succeeds in stripping Americans of their civil liberties and freedoms in an effort to fight "terrorism". An ambiguous term, terrorism applies to anything and everything dissenting or confronting the agenda and status quo. As a tactic or emotion, terror can never be defeated. Fear keeps people from revolting, through a false sense of security built upon emotionally contrived reasoning designed to meddle with objectivity.  Forfeiture of reason and critical thinking constitute the initial casualties.  Keep the masses shackled by fear, and confusion provides the means to manipulate.  By its very nature, terror can never be conquered and never be fully defined. A transitory idea, persons dissenting government activity become "terrorists", anti-American and non-patriots.

Rather than protect Americans, the Patriot Act transfers power from the people and places that power unequally upon the office of the President.  At one time the office of the President, the Judicial and Legislative branches balanced each other out to prevent corruption and acted for the people with the people elevated to boss.  Today, the office of the President no longer answers to the people.  Riding upon the myth of self-importance and the elitism intrinsic to forced agendas, it accomplishes the biddings of a select few without consideration for the best interests of our country.  In times past, people entered public service to serve the nation, equated in times past with the oath of poverty once accepted in the clergy.  Altruism rules within a selfless state; it is the first casualty of greed.  Today, people enter it for self-enrichment and the financial gains they and their friends receive from such service.  Entering Congress or the Executive branch becomes a lifetime financial windfall, a simple concept to prove.  Research the fortunes of those who serve and follow the agenda foreign of dissent prior, during and after.

Decisions, wars and aggressions are made without consulting the people and those whom object are vilified and targeted. Prior to invading Iraq, many newspapers reported up to 70% of the letters to the editors being against, yet they were told and complied to print more for.  War remains the preeminent financial windfall for the press. Though media's purpose is to be the populations' watchdog, its licenses are controlled by the government and easily revoked should the agenda find dissatisfaction with the information presented.

Congress swears, though not officially in oath but  through its campaigning, its allegiance to a foreign power first, becoming its pawn and  proxy, directing the US population to finance and support this power, to our own self-detriment by foregoing our own needs: healthcare, education, social security and public works. Americans can go homeless, jobless, starve and lack medical care, as long as this foreign power continues to benefit financially. More money, always more money, the American taxpayers represent an endless ATM for withdrawal.  Complain or point this out, individual or entity, expect to be targeted. Failure to embrace this foreign power's causes and its activities puts in motion forces  that seek to remove the American patriot, someone who places US interests before all others, through manipulated campaign financial backing, public slander and persecution. This insures our government is of the foreign power, and by the foreign power.  Americans, irrelevant except as wage slaves to its objectives and its means to financial security.

The Patriot Act facilitates this by allowing unfettered access to spy and detain citizens without warrant or cause. Drafted, promoted and insisted upon by many loyal to this foreign power, it removes the power from the people to be self-governed and places it with elites ruled by agendas, foreign interests and greed who can now spy and document your every movement, thoughts and dissention.  It nullifies the US Constitution as its very existence is unconstitutional.  It breeds corruption and self-interest through the denial of the checks and balances that preserve a republic where the people govern and the government is meant to act in the people's best interest rather than their own or worse, those of a foreign power drunk on elitism and entitlement. Our current political climate which commands dual loyalties of our representatives is why George Washington so fervently warned of nurturing a passionate attachment for a foreign government. The final knife in the heart of American self-interest, the Patriot Act abandon's the very substance which defines what it means to be American.

Except the US Constitution, we still have this, barely. By pandering to fear, this nation of pioneers, revolutionaries, self-made men and women, who just two-hundred years changed the world, we've become exactly what we detest: used.  Used for our money, used for our military might, used for our tolerance and used for our need to feel good. What was unthinkable a hundred years ago to a nation a hearty self-starters and survivors, today constitutes reality.  We blame, we forego responsibility, we remain apathetic, helpless and sniveling.  We represent entitlement, believing as a nation we are owed.  We see ourselves as elitists.  We see ourselves as victims.  We look up to government with awe, as serfs once did to monarchy believing all our ills and problems receive better attention if we allow the government to care for us.  This is not the actions of a freedom loving society; these are the actions of slaves. What slaves forget illustrates in mathematics.  We outnumber them; this is our power as a people.

Few will argue the United States as a free nation is today in serious trouble.  Our enemy, contrary to the government spook stories is not shadowy figures looking to bomb us. Fanning fear serves as a tool to deflect American attention from the issue and enslave us in an agenda complimentary to few.  As a nation we are being used and it is that fear which causes our submission.  Our enemy, the real enemy is within. People, no matter who they are do not hate unless provoked.  This is an elementary human truth. Provocation comes in two forms:  elitism coupled with a sense of entitlement and envy which causes one to hate those standing in his/her way of accessing what he/she feels she is entitled to.  Or, persecution and infringement upon one's ability to live life through threat, physical harm, and the denial of those things given to us to preserve our ability to live: food, shelter, safety and family. 

Discover the root of the hate and the just path becomes clear.  Is the cause immoral, as hate caused by elitism, envy or entitlement is? If it is, why as a nation do we continue to perpetuate it? Or is the cause moral, as hate generated by self-preservation is?  If it is, what as a nation are we doing that infringes upon the basic human rights of another group of people?  Terror is the objection of those whom are used when all other avenues of reason are destroyed through lies, cheating and unfulfilled promises.

To remove terrorism as a people we must address the cause and our part in creating the condition.  People do not hate freedom.  To accept such an assertion shows how far from reason and critical thinking Americans have wandered.  This is a simpleton's rational. Removing the actions, policies and producers of hate we wield on lesser nations and peoples that prevent others from enjoying their God given right to live, love and pursue happiness, this is in America's best interest. Remove the reason for terror and terror will be removed.

The Patriot Act's purpose serves not to protect Americans, it serves to shackle us within fears, stifle public debate and safeguard those in power from scrutiny by eliminating it prior to its germination and dissemination by masses. It provides an excuse to wallow within rationalizations and forego critical analysis. It provides a false sense of security by which we relinquish the very security we seek. Therefore why do we continue to allow its existence?  Why do our representative in Congress and the Judicial branch continue to support it?  To allow for acts to pass which are unconstitutional is an impeachable offense. When our public representatives take the oath of office, they pledge to uphold and defend the US Constitution. Therefore, can one of our representatives please explain, how The Patriot Act uphold and defend the Constitution? Anyone?  And Americans still think this is a war on terror...

Full Text of the Patriot Act
(62 Pages PDF)