Calling people of good conscience.

The white supremacist march, rally, and agenda is unconscionable. They admit to being Nazis. They carry torches and the Nazi symbols and plainly identify as Nazis, white supremacists. Each of us with good conscience must call them out for what they are. We cannot deny their right to free speech, but each of us with good conscience must raise our voices against them. The white supremacists, radical right, Nazis, alt-right, or called by any other name seek only to destroy more of what is good about America.

Our fathers, my father, fought in World War II to defeat Nazi Germany. The Trump regime has invited the worst of the worst to come out of the woodwork, to skitter out from the dark places where they used to hide, and now openly spout their hatred. Do not doubt that their hate is for America. Their hate is a threat to all of us with good conscience. Their hate is damaging America. Trump asked for this when he brought an edge of hate and violence into political discourse during his campaign. Trump asked for this when he repeatedly failed to disavow the white supremacists claims that they are doing Trump's work.

Be clear that the white supremacists, our modern day Nazis, are the lunatic fringe of society. A fraction of 1% of white Americans support the idea of a white only country. Most Americans, white, black, Asian, and Hispanic support the idea that America is a melting pot of people from different cultures who have come together to build a country that is uniquely our own. Most Americans embrace the diversity and are proud of our country and proud that America stands for freedom and liberty for all.

The purported reason for the clash between white supremacists and mainstream America was the city of Charlottesville's decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from the town's park. The white supremacists were supposedly protesting the removal of that statue. Their protest included torch carrying, Nazi swastikas, and running over and killing an anti-racist protester. Nineteen others were wounded. The right wing lunatic fringe likes to pretend that they are not the violent oncs. Obviously not so. The driver of the car rammed other cars that were then pushed into the crowd. That driver, now in custody, and facing a murder charge, backed up his car at a high speed and left the scene.

Black people have reason to be upset that a symbol of slavery, Robert E. Lee, stood in the town square. I wonder how white people would react if say, a statue of Bobby Seale or Huey Newton were put in its place.

To black people and all people of color - the lunatic white supremacist fringe does not represent all white people. Not by a long shot. I am a southern woman. I have lived in the south most of my life. I was raised to know that the racist mind-set is the mind-set of poor white trash.

To white people, including white conservatives and republicans - we are better than this. If you believe as I do that our current administration has promoted this violence and this hate, speak up. Speak in defense of others. Use your white privilege to help others who were not born with that accidental privilege of the lily white. Know that you have had advantages and have not had to deal with the daily struggles that people of color encounter regularly.

And, if you're still convinced that Black Lives Matter is an affront to whites everywhere. Get over it. Black lives do matter, they have always mattered. The historic and recent spate of law enforcement killing unarmed black women and men is indefensible. It is undeniable that black people and people of color are killed by law enforcement much more frequently than whites. If you're law enforcement, and in a position to make things better, do it now before its too late.

The last thing America needs is an all out race war. Don't doubt that the current regime wants a war one way or the other, so that he can swoop in and be the only one to bring order. Police state, lock down, genetic cleansing, mass deportations, what else? These are the events that happened in Nazi Germany, and they happened because the good Germans didn't stand up. Stand up - all with good conscience, stand up before its too late.

Celebrate America! Happy Fourth of July!

The Fourth of July ~ Independence Day ~ marks our countries independence and celebrates our liberty. As you enjoy the day, with food, family, fireworks, and fun, remember how lucky we are to live in the greatest country in the world. Celebrate America!

"[A] bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse."
--- Thomas Jefferson December 20, 1787 

In the summer of 1787, delegates from the 13 states convened in Philadelphia and drafted a remarkable blueprint for self-government -- the Constitution of the United States. The first draft set up a system of checks and balances that included a strong executive branch, a representative legislature and a federal judiciary.

The Constitution was remarkable, but deeply flawed. For one thing, it did not include a specific declaration - or bill - of individual rights. It specified what the government could do but did not say what it could not do.

The absence of a "bill of rights" turned out to be an obstacle to the Constitution's ratification by the states. It would take four more years of intense debate before the new government's form would be resolved. The Federalists opposed including a bill of rights on the ground that it was unnecessary. The Anti-Federalists, who were afraid of a strong centralized government, refused to support the Constitution without one. 

In the end, popular sentiment was decisive. Recently freed from the despotic English monarchy, the American people wanted strong guarantees that the new government would not trample upon their newly won freedoms of speech, press and religion, nor upon their right to be free from warrantless searches and seizures. So, the Constitution's framers heeded Thomas Jefferson who argued: "A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."

The American Bill of Rights, inspired by Jefferson and drafted by James Madison, was adopted, and in 1791 the Constitution's first ten amendments became the law of the land.

The provisions contained in the Bill of Rights were predated by the Magna Carta, which King John signed in 1215 to protect citizens against abuse of power by the King or Queen. Likewise, the authors (led by James Madison) sought to limit the role of the central government. Virginia's Declaration of Rights, drafted by George Mason immediately after independence in 1776, served as a model for other state bills of rights as well as the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.

"CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS"

Democracy and liberty are often thought to be the same thing, but they are not. Democracy means that people ought to be able to vote for public officials in fair elections, and make most political decisions by majority rule. Liberty, on the other hand, means that even in a democracy, individuals have rights that no majority should be able to take away. 

The rights that the Constitution's framers wanted to protect from government abuse were referred to in the Declaration of Independence as "unalienable rights." They were also called "natural" rights, and to James Madison, they were "the great rights of mankind." Although it is commonly thought that we are entitled to free speech because the First Amendment gives it to us, this country's original citizens believed that as human beings, they were entitled to free speech, and they invented the First Amendment in order to protect it. The entire Bill of Rights was created to protect rights the original citizens believed were naturally theirs.

LIMITED GOVERNMENT

Early American mistrust of government power came from the colonial experience itself. Most historians believe that the pivotal event was the Stamp Act, passed by the English Parliament in 1765. Taxes were imposed on every legal and business document. Newspapers, books and pamphlets were also taxed. Even more than the taxes themselves, the Americans resented the fact that they were imposed by a distant government in which they were not represented. And they were further enraged by the ways in which the Stamp Act was enforced.

Armed with "writs of assistance" issued by Parliament, British customs inspectors entered people's homes even if they had no evidence of a Stamp Act violation, and ransacked the people's belongings in search of contraband. The colonialists came to hate these "warrantless" searches and they became a rallying point for opposition to British rule.

From these experiences came a uniquely American view of power and liberty as natural enemies. The nation's founders believed that containing the government's power and protecting liberty was their most important task, and declared a new purpose for government: the protection of individual rights.

The protection of rights was not the government's only purpose. It was still expected to protect the community against foreign and domestic threats, to ensure economic growth, and to conduct foreign affairs. It was not, however, the government's job to tell people how to live their lives, what religion to believe in, or what to write about in a pamphlet or newspaper. In this sense, the idea of individual rights is the oldest and most traditional of American values.

Once drafted, the Bill of Rights was quickly ratified by the states.

Amendment 1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment 2
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment 3
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment 4
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment 5
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment 6
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment 7
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment 8
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment 9
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The Florida Association of Legal Document Preparers - Axis of Justice

Open Access Movement

On Yahoo News - by Virginia Hefferman 1/13/2013
 
"Aaron Swartz was a hacker-activist and a committed liberator of information. Facing federal charges, a possible sentence of 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine, for downloading subscription-only academic papers with the intent to distribute them, Swartz hanged himself in his apartment in Brooklyn on Friday. He was 26."
 
R.I.P. Aaron Swartz. 
 
 Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto.
 
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
 
There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.
 
That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.
 
“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back.
 
Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends.
 
Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends.
 
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
 
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies.
 
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
 
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
 
With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?
 
Aaron Swartz
July 2008, Eremo, Italy