Dissent isn't easy these days. You're branded unpatriotic for questioning an unelected president's rush to war, and dismissed as insignificant even when you number in the millions.
It gets much worse. If you work in an American university, you could be blacklisted, harassed and even lose your job for questioning the Bush Administration's conservative pro-war agenda. Thanks to a small number of deep-pocket groups with close ties to the government, campuses have been pummeled with a right-wing political agenda; one stated goal is to replace liberal-minded professors (found to be "short on patriotism" or failing to teach that civilization itself "is best exemplified in the West and indeed in America") with more politically correct conservatives. http://hnn.us/articles/1244.html
If you're a human rights activist in the States, things get even bleaker. Of the 10,000 who demonstrated in Fort Benning, Georgia last November to shut down what they call a terrorist training camp on U.S. soil - the School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC) - 96 peacefully crossed the forbidden line into the facility and were charged with civil disobedience. Those arrested included a priest, a reverend, Catholic nuns and veterans; as of now, 83 have been adjudicated, many receiving federal prison terms. Who says we don't have political prisoners in America? http://www.soaw.org/new/pressrelease.php?id=55
It gets much worse. If you work in an American university, you could be blacklisted, harassed and even lose your job for questioning the Bush Administration's conservative pro-war agenda. Thanks to a small number of deep-pocket groups with close ties to the government, campuses have been pummeled with a right-wing political agenda; one stated goal is to replace liberal-minded professors (found to be "short on patriotism" or failing to teach that civilization itself "is best exemplified in the West and indeed in America") with more politically correct conservatives. http://hnn.us/articles/1244.html
If you're a human rights activist in the States, things get even bleaker. Of the 10,000 who demonstrated in Fort Benning, Georgia last November to shut down what they call a terrorist training camp on U.S. soil - the School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC) - 96 peacefully crossed the forbidden line into the facility and were charged with civil disobedience. Those arrested included a priest, a reverend, Catholic nuns and veterans; as of now, 83 have been adjudicated, many receiving federal prison terms. Who says we don't have political prisoners in America? http://www.soaw.org/new/pressrelease.php?id=55