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Shortly after the September 11th disaster, a "Women's March Against War" was organized by the Purple Berets, my local "radical" women's activist organization here in Sonoma County, California. Tanya Brannan's organization has for many years been revealing the truth about violence against women, organizing public protests and working with specific cases through the courts to change both public awareness and the law here in the North Bay area. Within days she put together the march and informed her e-mailing and phone tree lists of the afternoon protest.

At that time the saber rattling from the U.S. administration was deafening, although no bombs had yet been dropped. We took to the streets of Santa Rosa after an inspiring rally at the Federal Building. The highpoint of the rally was a speech by a woman from the local branch of the ACLU. She spoke about the pending anti-terrorist bill before congress and warned us that should this bill be put into law, we were facing serious reduction of our civil liberties. One thing she said stuck in my mind. "We've seen from history that any time our hard-won civil rights are taken away or curtailed, they are rarely restored without a difficult and protracted struggle."

Her warning has become manifest already, in the USA Patriot Act overwhelmingly passed by a weak and frightened Congress, and signed into law by President-select Bush on October 26th.

Nancy Chang of the Center for Constitutional Rights, in an article on their website, on December 27th, discusses the frightening reality of some of the Patriot Act's provisions. "To an unprecedented degree, the USA PATRIOT Act sacrifices our political freedoms in the name of national security and upsets the democratic values that define our nation by consolidating vast new powers in the executive branch of government. .It remains to be seen how the executive will wield its new authority. However, if the two months that have elapsed since September 11 serve as a guide, we should brace ourselves for a flagrant disregard of the rule of law by those charged with its enforcement. Already, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has admitted to detaining more than 1,100 immigrants, not one of whom has been charged with committing a terrorist act. Chillingly, the Attorney General's response to the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act was not a pledge to use his new powers responsibly and to guard against their abuse, but instead was a vow to "step up his detention efforts."

Along with this blatant disregard for the rights of "alien" immigrants based on their countries of origin (Middle Eastern) is the intentional suspension of the civil liberties of our population in general. A new crime, "domestic terrorism," has been created, which puts our First Amendment rights of free speech and political activism in jeopardy. The executive branch is solidifying its power through enhanced surveillance of its citizens. To be a political activist is to put oneself in jeopardy of persecution, arrest and prosecution for "unpatriotic," i.e. "terrorist" activity.

In an article published by Common Dreams News Center,

(http://www.commondreams.org) on October 9th, Marty Jezer speaks about the new crime of "domestic terrorism."

"The provisions regarding 'domestic terrorism' are not meant to protect the country from real terrorists. They are instead, an intimidating and coercive threat to free speech and public assembly. There is no doubt that we need to improve our law enforcement procedures to guard against terrorism and to prosecute those who attempt to carry out terrorist acts. But there's a difference between giving up conveniences and privileges for the sake of public safety and giving up rights and freedoms to impose conformity and create an illusion of popular support for political programs." In recent years we have seen our civil liberties being chipped away, but under the guise of protecting its citizens from attack, our current administration is instead attacking the very basis of our government, namely the Constitution, the ultimate Law of the Land. I question the motives behind these swift and secretive actions of our present administration. I question their motives because I am a student of history. History has shown us how the process of totalitarian governments work to create a passive and repressed populace. Keep the people in a state of fear for their lives. A police state is not that difficult to put in place. We stand warned. It has happened before in many countries and it can happen here.

You can download all 342 pages of the USA Patriot Act from the web site of the National Lawyers' Guild, at http://www.nlg.org

There you will also find a very important and useful document, Know Your Rights, which outlines your rights should you be arrested or your property searched.