Freedom of the press? Fear

Montag scares Mildred and her visitors when he begins to lecture them about their ignorance of the world outside of television and fun parks. His emotional outburst not only frightens them, but it also makes them suspicious enough to report him to the fire chief for having books. - Summary by BookRags on a chapter in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Where are we headed?

This is truly disturbing, at both conventions the people who are supposed to have access to the great events of our time, the news reporters are now being locked up.

Last week in a report on "the money trail", an ABC reporter/producer, Asa Eslocker, who was following and filming lobbyists and Senators was arrested, actually thrown into the street while there was traffic, You can read up on the story at ABC: "ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors"

Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Asa Eslocker was investigating the role of lobbyists and top donors at the DNC.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

Now I have received news that at the RNC, according to Democracy Now!:

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar have all been released from police custody in St. Paul following their illegal arrest by Minneapolis Police on Monday afternoon.

All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers. Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Salazar’s violent arrest by baton-weilding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, “I’m Press! Press!,” resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman’s arm was violently yanked by police as she was arrested.

Both cases show a frightening trend of squelching out the freedom of our press.

Where are we headed?
A great piece of literature posted at the Information Clearing House, titled "The Land of the Silent and the Home of the Fearful", ends it's story with this quip:

If you want to see where we're headed here in America, check out the workplace. There, we Americans have, through years of collective cowardice and unwillingness to stand together in organized labor unions, allowed our constitutional freedoms to be almost completely erased. Today, an American workplace is more akin to a police state than to a democratic society. Say what you're thinking on the job, and you're liable to lose it. Wear a shirt that says something the boss disagrees with, and you either remove that shirt or you are unemployed. Even that final refuge of free speech, the bumper sticker, can get workers in trouble if the wrong one shows up in the company parking lot. That loss of will and of freedom has in no small way contributed to the loss of jobs and the decline in living standards of American workers.

It's time for all of us to put a stop to this creeping usurpation of our liberties.

The anxious woman who asked her question came up to me after the meeting and said proudly that she would not be afraid, and would start signing on to protest letter-writing and emailing campaigns.

We need lots more like her.

If you get a chance read the entire article by Dave Lindorff, it's a great read, it goes quite well with the video on the upper right hand side of this site.

Big thanks to The Man Common blog for the Lindorff article