Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource TomPaine.com Stories Description An account of the resource TomPaine.com -- a liberal advocacy organization -- distributed a public call on August 12, 2002 for 300 word "opinion advertisement" similar to those that the organization had been running regularly in the op-ed page of The New York Times. TomPaine.com received hundreds of submissions from the public, most of which the September 11 Digital Archive has preserved here. TomPaine Story TomPaine Story: Story To Those Who Represent U.S. Citizens Dissent is the life-blood of a free nation. The alarming and dangerous usurpation and consolidation of power by the Bush Administration has been an anemic drain of Libertys sustenance. The fears and uncertainties of the public must not be allowed to fuel the war machine of the far right. Starting another war with Iraq would kill, or as half of the world will believe, murder countless innocents. John Ashcroft and the activities of his so-called Department of Justice (while heroically protecting us from the dangers of medicinal and agricultural hemp products) have been a betrayal to the publics safety. Along with his shameful waste of resources directed at victimless crime, the Attorney General has been shredding the Constitution as fast as much of corporate America has been shredding integrity. The number of voters who share this view is growing into the millions. George W. Bush had been casting a dark shroud of secrecy around the government well before September 11, 2001. His brazen act of sealing of the presidential libraries is not only an insult to the citizens who paid for them, it is theft and mockery of truth and history. The Freedom Of Information Act is now nearly extinct. Homeland Security will surely generate even greater insecurity if it is enacted with the same lack of disclosure and open, informed debate that the USA Patriot Act received. The electorate is discovering what is being swept into law. Workers will have been denied their bargaining rights and have their livelihood subjected to the whims and dictates of the President. How many other Americans are horrified by the Bush Administrations stolen authority to label a U.S. citizen an enemy combatant and then proceed to indefinately incarcerate him and completely strip him of his constitutional rights? Operation TIPS would breed a culture of distrust and paranoia, and embolden informents and snitches of questionable reliability and intentions. Personal vendettas and unjust harassment by authorities must not replace the rule of law. We are well on our way towards witnessing our military become a political police force. How can all this not evoke an uneasy comparison to the state of emergency mentality of mid 1930s Germany? These and other measures being rushed to implementation must be held up to careful scrutiny for inherent negative consequences. If the neglect or dismantling of the Bill Of Rights is the price we pay in order to purchase, at best, only limited protection from terror, then we have lost the War On Terrorism. If you do not challenge or question this pervasive contempt for our rights, you have lost my vote. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource tp174.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-03-03