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03/20/2003 Archived Entry: "Patriotic dissent"

I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE IDEA THAT DISSENTERS SHOULD ZIP LIPS IN WARTIME. Never have. The most patriotic thing I can do is keep urging my country to be its most noble, freedom-enhancing best. And shouldn't I do that most urgently when I believe it's gone the most wrong?

Here are a couple of good articles that discuss wartime dissent. "Sock Time or Patriotism?" by Myles Kantor talks about what's going on now. "Some Dare Call it Treason" by Bill Berkowitz starts with current demands to silence dissent but goes on to examine wartime dissent and laws to silence it, going back to World War I. "Treason" is the more important of the two articles.

(Anyway, as my Constitutionalist friends will point out, despite the bombs and missiles now flying, the U.S. government is not legally at war. Yeah, yeah, I know how silly it is to imagine the fedgov should be bound by the Constitution these days. But I'm an old-fashioned girl. I believe decent people have to maintain some standards of conduct.)

Posted by Claire @ 09:39 AM CST
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