Voices: Independent Thought Day

I can march but only off to war / no marching in front of department stores

I can hang only the red white and blue / blue white and red and they'll hang you

I can accept what's been termed classified / or spend my days smelling like formaldehyde
I can beat my chest with monkey pride / or be wiretapped from the inside.

- "I'm Sure Ben Franklin Wanted it This Way" by Tom Flannery at www.songaweek.com.

This weekend people across the country will celebrate Independence Day with hot dogs, sparklers, and beer in their backyards. Some will take economy-bolstering trips out of town. What could be more American?

How about a hike through Philadelphia? You know, the city in which the Continental Congress agreed on the document that demanded America's sovereignty back in 1776. On Friday, thousands will arrive in the city of Brotherly Love to exercise the very rights that make us so proud to be American. Joining them from NEPA will be a bus load of affiliates from Wayne Peace and Rally of One . Their plan is to protest the Bush Administration for what they see as violations of the constitution.

I can't imagine a more patriotic way to celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

"This country's founders started a revolution against a tyrant named George; the least we can do is exercise our First Amendment right to protest his policies," reads a statement by protest organizers Justice in July

The trigger for Friday's rally and march is the grand opening of the National Constitution Center . Located on Philadelphia's Independence Mall, the center is "the first museum in the world dedicated to honoring and explaining the U.S. Constitution through more than 100 interactive and multimedia exhibits, photographs, film, sculpture, text and artifacts." It was widely anticipated that President Bush would attend the grand opening, but he chosen to address U.S. soldiers on a military base rather than acknowledge their grievances, Justice in July suggests.

Much like the pre-Revolutionary Americans who cried "Taxation without Representation," demonstrators do not feel represented. They're further afraid of losing the liberties guaranteed to them by the Bill of Rights. The post 9-11 panic legislation known as the USA PATRIOT is threatening our freedoms they warn. Passed in October 2001, the "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" was almost augmented earlier this year by the Domestic Security Enhancement Act a.k.a Patriot II. Word about the latter bill disappeared in late March or so, but civil rights watchers expect a revival.

The truly patriotic thing to do, the suspicious remind, is not to blindly accept and agree with every propaganda-packed word put out by the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, etc. We have a responsibility, rather, to prime ourselves with the requisite knowledge in order to participate in a government that's supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people - not of the wealthiest, by the privileged and for the corporate interests.

In order to help people wade through the details of the USA PATRIOT act, Rally of One will host an educational community forum at Lackawanna College on July 10 at 7:30 p.m. Two experts on the legislation will present facts - not opinions, organizer Lita Dunn Grossman, promised - and answer questions about the implications of the bill. The act has pissed off the American Library Association - that detail alone is worth looking into.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson proposed that the fourth of July "forever refresh our recollections" of human rights including "the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion." Our devotion to those rights, he insisted, must remain "undiminished."

Let's hope the fireworks aren't so bright that we fail to see the warning signs of a diminished America.

--alicia grega-pikul, 3 July 2003