Pubdate: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 Source: Daily Barometer (OR Edu) Copyright: 2003, The Daily Barometer Contact: http://barometer.orst.edu/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1222 Author: Robin Canfield AMBER ALERT INFRINGES ON MY RIGHTS I was in Portland not too long ago when, while driving on I-5, an Amber Alert came across the radio waves. I had no idea what it meant at the time, and assumed it had something to do with the war or a terrorist threat. But I was wrong, it had nothing to do with the war; it was a child-kidnapping alert. When I read about the Amber Alert bill (Senate bill 151) in Congress even more recently, I was happy to hear about it. I am all for legislation that helps protect children from being kidnapped. I'm all for it, that is, as long as it doesn't take away any of my own rights, and seeing as how I have no plans to start nabbing kiddies, I don't see how such legislation could infringe on my rights. I'm sure that Rumsfield, Chaney, their lackey President Bush and a few congressional slimeballs like Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.) would be perfectly happy to hear me say that. The problem is that the Amber Alert bill in fact has become a bill that would infringe on my rights. Not because it wants to help children, but because of a little something called the The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act that Senator Biden tacked on. The fact that the actual bill and its rider have nothing to do with each other seems to have escaped our ever-caring, ever-vigilant congress. Yes, that's right, without any public hearings, debates, or votes within the last year the RAVE Act, whoops, I mean the The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act, is almost law. I mistakenly wrote the RAVE Act because IT IS THE RAVE ACT! Don't let the lack of the word "rave" in the document fool you. Thanks to thousands of complaints within the last year, the word "rave," as well as the suggestion that prosecutors should view the sale of water and the presence of glowsticks or massage oil as evidence of drug use, has been eliminated from the Act. In the coming weeks the President will probably sign the bill into law as he and others get to play the same role as the bad guys in "Footloose." You remember that movie, right? The Kevin Bacon flick where the city council (or some authority group) shuts down the high school dance because it's immoral. Bacon's character gets them to change their minds by quoting the Bible. Well, in our case, I don't think the Bible can help us. The President becomes an atheist as soon as he takes office (he can hold nothing dearer to him than his own county, not even God) and in the last few months we've seen what little moral ground Bush's government has to stand on anyway. So, what can we do to help ourselves? Unfortunately the answer is not much. Nothing short of getting Bush to not sign the Amber Alert Bill into law will prevent the The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act from becoming law. Our right to free speech and to peacefully assemble may soon be gone. All the police will be required to do is suspect someone is illegally using drugs in a concert hall, hotel, stadium, or anywhere a public event is held. And of course there will be the added scare tactic of now holding business owners/concert promoters/etc. accountable as well, no matter what they try to do to prevent drug use in the first place. I'm not sure which is scarier, the possibility of losing a greater part of my first amendment rights, or the fact that we have such scumbags in Congress that would attach crap like The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act to legislation that is meant to do good in the world. Wait, I do know. The scariest part is knowing that in a few weeks the police might have the power to look at a group of people, and based on the way they act, the way they are dressed, the way they live their life, or just the color of their skin, they can come charging in. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh