I am experiencing inordinate problems getting my ZGram out for reasons I cannot explain. Yesterday I was facing an additional problem: Whereas usually I am swept with an avalanche of mail, for the past 24 hours it was only a trickle. I do not know what's going on, but if you don't hear from me, it will not be for lack of trying.
This was supposed to be yesterday's ZGram, consisting of two letters written by the parents of a WTC victim - followed by an announcement that habeus corpus has been suspended in the United States, and that we are now one step closer to dictatorship.
If you are like me, you probably will ask: Just what does suspension of "habeus corpus" mean? Ernst put it very simply:
"It was a provision the British wrangled out of their rulers in the 13th century, forcing the rulers to bring an arrested person before a judge within a short period who would look at the accusation or charge with an impartial eye. As part of the habeus corpus tradition, you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Without it, you are guilty and have to prove that you are innocent."
In one of my novels, I describe such a scene, reconstructed here from memory:
A simple farmer of German background in the Ukraine in the early 1930s is arrested on the accusation that he acted as a spy for Germany. He is interrogated by one of the notorious Kommissars:
Farmer: "But I am innocent. You cannot prove my guilt."
Kommissar, while fingering his pistol:
"You have that wrong. You do not understand. I do not have to prove your guilt. I can sit here all day, pick my nose, twiddle my thumb, clean my fingernails, and wait for you to prove your innocence to me."
This suspension of habeus corpus is a very serious act of citizen infringement and curtailment of basic human rights. Will Americans understand what it means?
Now to the two letters by grieving parents, Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez, whose son Greg became one of the Trade Center victims.
[Start]
Copy of letter sent to NY Times:
Not in Our Son's Name
Our son Greg is among the many missing from the World Trade Center attack.
Since we first heard the news, we have shared moments of grief, comfort, hope, despair, fond memories with his wife, the two families, our friends and neighbors, his loving colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald / Espeed, and all the grieving families that daily meet at the Pierre Hotel.
We see our hurt and anger reflected among everybody we meet. We cannot pay attention to the daily flow of news about this disaster. But we read enough of the news to sense that our government is heading in the direction of violent revenge, with the prospect of sons, daughters, parents, friends in distant lands dying, suffering, and nursing further grievances against us.
It is not the way to go. It will not avenge our son's death. Not in our son's name.
Our son died a victim of an inhuman ideology. Our actions should not serve the same purpose. Let us grieve. Let us reflect and pray. Let us think about a rational response that brings real peace and justice to our world.
But let us not as a nation add to the inhumanity of our times.
Dear President Bush:
Our son is one of the victims of Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center. We read about your response in the last few days and about the resolutions from both Houses, giving you undefined power to respond to the terror attacks.
Your response to this attach does not make us feel better about our son's death. It makes us feel worse. It makes us feel that our government is using our son's memory as a justification to cause suffering for other sons and parents in other lands.
It is not the first time that a person in your position has been given unlimited power and came to regret it. This is not the time for empty gestures to make us feel better. It is not the time to act like bullies. We urge you to think about how our governement can develop peaceful, rational solutions to terrorism, solutions that do not sink us to the inhuman level of terrorists.
Sincerely,
Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez
Here is the announcement of the suspension of Habeus Corpus:
[Start]
Bush Suspends Habeas Corpus: Legal Immigrants May Be Held Without Cause
Washington, DC--The Bush Administration today announced it is using its powers under the National Emergency Act to suspend the right of habeas corpus for all immigrants in the country, including legal immigrants, meaning that any immigrant in the United States right now can be held indefinitely by the police or government without trial or demonstration of cause to hold them.
In short, all immigrants in the country are now subject to summary arrest.
The declaration by the Bush administration is being followed by a move in Congress to grant the Justice Department the power to summarily detain any immigrant in the United States, citizen or not, as a matter of law, and not just in exceptional circumstances.
Though no one has yet suggested infringing the rights of US citizens, the move is a frightening first step to a national tyranny, based on perpetual suspension of the Constitution in the name of fighting perpetual war. The US lived under such tyranny during the Civil War and World Wars I and II.
"We will cite the well-known exchange between a Catholic missionary and an African tribal chief.
The missionary asked the native chief: "Tell me, what is good and what is evil to you?"
The chief thought carefully and then responded: "Good is when we attack a neighboring tribe and steal their women and cattle; bad is when they do the same thing to us."
(Sent to the Zundelsite)