College Libertarians in the Herald

Congratulations to Mike Peterson, an associate member of the College Libertarians, for a publishing of his letter to editor in the Wednesday, November 29th edition of the Grand Forks Herald! You can read his letter below or find the online version of it here.

IN THE MAIL: Basic freedoms take bashing
Published Wednesday, November 29, 2006

MAYVILLE, N.D. - Today, the most basic fundamentals of any democracy are quickly fading. The basic right for the American people to ask questions and seek the truth is ridiculed and scorned. Anyone who questions the government's perspectives on national and world events is laughed at.

In 2005 and 2006, our very cornerstones of democracy and liberty were outright eliminated, and one could just hear the average American yawning as this has happened in our very own congress.

The year 2005 saw the Real ID Act, which creates a de facto national ID for all Americans; however, it's voluntary except that without it, you cannot enter an airport, a federal building or access any other government services without it!

Readers of the Grand Forks Herald should full well know what Real ID is after an entire year's worth of praise for it.

What advocates of the act are not telling you is that you'll basically be deemed a noncitizen without it. Excuse me. This is the kind of invasive government involvement in peoples' lives you see in Third World countries, not the United States, the greatest nation in the world.

This year saw its own mass destruction of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the Military Tribunals Act and John Warner Defense Act of 2007. The former bill eliminates habeas corpus, which is in the end the basic democratic right to a fair trial by jury.

Instead, any accused person labeled an “enemy combatant” (which the very loose definition does not exclude Americans) must face military court, will be unable to see the evidence against him or herself and the right to defend himself in court will be a thing of the past (note this is dictionary.com's definition of “martial law”).

The latter bill, the John Warner Defense Act of 2007, gives the president authority over any state's National Guard in the event of an emergency without the consent of that state's governor. This, combined with the Military Tribunals Act, all happened this past mid-October.

Combining these two bills alone rip the Constitution to shreds without even considering any other of the numerous liberty-destroying bills the federal government has passed since 9-11.

This is an outrage for anyone who values freedom and liberty. Habeas corpus was a traditional right that began in 1215 in Europe.

Now, out of all the various styles of government in this world, it was a democracy that destroyed this. It was a democracy that declared any of its own citizens could be called enemy combatants. It was a democracy that absorbed all the power it could from the people and the states into the federal government most notably the executive branch. It was a democracy that turned into a hypocritical imperial nation and it was a democracy that no longer believes in the value of something called freedom and liberty over false temporary safety.

We should be ashamed of our federal government because we have become a nation ruled by fear. It is time to restore real freedom to where it belongs - the people.

Mike Peterson

Mike Peterson is a junior at Mayville State University and an associate member of the College Libertarians of the University of North Dakota. Visit his website at http://www.libertybell-news.com/