The Bill of Rights and the USA PATRIOT Act
Presented by the FREEDOM ROUSERS
Parts
Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Bell Ringer
From the crowd 1
From the crowd 2
From the crowd 3
Play
Bell Ringer: (actors are in line behind you) [RING BELL] HEAR YE. HEAR YE. HEAR YE. WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
(pause) [RING BELL]
The Freedom Rousers now present: The Bill of Rights and the USA PATRIOT Act (Ring Bell again. Stand to the side as the actors take their places one at a time.)
Speaker 1: REMEMBER: For over two hundred years, our American Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States, has been the cornerstone of our individual liberties.
Speaker 2: BUT UNDERSTAND: Over the years, these basic rights have been and are being eroded. More than three years ago The USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym for: Uniting and Strengthening America by Requiring Appropriate Tools to Interrupt and Obstruct Terrorism, was signed into law. Today the FBI is authorized to monitor your political and religious activities. The government can get a secret warrant to search your home without telling you until later, monitor your Internet use, emails, and examine your online purchases. The government can also obtain your financial, medical, and school records. If asked, libraries and bookstores must report what you borrow at the library or what you buy at the bookstore and they are forbidden to tell you that your reading habits are being watched. Your government can detain you, if you’re an immigrant, sometimes without giving you access to a lawyer and without charging you with a crime.
From the Crowd 1: I don't understand! I've never heard of this so-called PATRIOT Act.
From the Crowd 2: It must be good, right? At least it's called the Patriot Act.
Speaker 1: (stepping onto the Soapbox) Let me help you REMEMBER our Bill of Rights.
Speaker 2: (stepping onto the Soapbox) Let me help you UNDERSTAND the USA PATRIOT Act.
Speaker 1: REMEMBER THE FIRST AMENDMENT to our Constitution!
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.
Speaker 2: BUT UNDERSTAND. ARTICLE 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act puts these rights in jeopardy. The FBI can require librarians and booksellers to report on what you read and what you buy and they are forbidden to tell you.
From the crowd 1: You mean to tell me my reading habits can be watched.
Speaker 2: YES. DO UNDERSTAND. That's exactly what it means. And your librarian has to give them the information or face arrest.
From the Crowd 3: But I don't even go to the library.
From the Crowd 1: But I do. That’s where I study to be a citizen.
Speaker 2: Listen. UNDERSTAND. There's more: The "ATTORNEY GENERAL’S EDICT" authorizes the FBI to place religious and political groups under surveillance without evidence of wrong doing.
From the Crowd 1: I don't get it.
From the Crowd 2: Does that mean what I think it means?
I can be spied on in my church?
Speaker 2: That’s right. Now the FBI can place religious and political groups under surveillance even if there's no evidence of wrong-doing.
From the Crowd 3: I remember they tried to intimidate and harass me during the Vietnam War. All I did was sign a few petitions, write letters to my newspaper, try to get a discussion group going at my church.
From the Crowd 1: Remind me again. What does the First Amendment say?
Speaker 1: OK. REMEMBER. The First Amendment states that: 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.
From the Crowd 2: How about our other rights?
Speaker 1: Yes. REMEMBER THE FOURTH AMENDMENT FROM THE BILL OF RIGHTS!
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.
Speaker 2: BUT UNDERSTAND. SECTION 218 of the USA Patriot Act essentially eliminates the need for the FBI to show "probable cause" before conducting secret searches or surveillance to obtain evidence of a possible crime.
From the Crowd 1: I don’t understand.
From the Crowd 2: Wait a minute. Don't they need probable cause to search me, my house, put a wiretap on my phone?
Speaker 1: Not really. That's the point. They can do what they want. They just use a rubber stamp judge. Those special judges have never turned them down.
Speaker 2: And UNDERSTAND there is more: SECTION 213 of the USA PATRIOT Act permits the government to search your house with no one present and they never even have to tell you.
From the Crowd 1: Wait a minute. Is that saying they can break into my house and search through my personal belongings?
From the Crowd 2: You got it.
From the Crowd 3: Yeah, you could come home and find a bunch of FBI guys in jump suits leaving your place, maybe with your computer - you've probably got emails and personal finances, tax returns and bank accounts and god knows what saved on it.
From the Crowd 1: I thought they couldn’t do that in America. It's like a burglary. Isn’t it illegal?
From the Crowd 2: Not any more.
Speaker 1: REMEMBER. THE FIFTH AMENDMENT IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS states that: 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.
Speaker 2: BUT UNDERSTAND. SECTION 412 of the USA PATRIOT Act says: Any immigrant, even here legally, just suspected of being a terrorist may be placed in military custody, and held in detention for months.
From the Crowd 1: Wait, that says 'terrorist.'
From the Crowd 2: SUSPECTED of being a 'terrorist.'
From the Crowd 1: So? I’m studying to be an American citizen! I should get my papers next month. I'm not a terrorist!
From the Crowd 2: So? Don't you get it? You come here to find freedom, work hard, make a better life for your family? All they’ve got to do is SUSPECT you. They just SUSPECT you and you're cooked.
From the Crowd 3: So?
From the Crowd 2: So. You used to be able to get a lawyer, have due process of law, have a grand jury to see if there's enough evidence to hold you. This PATRIOT Act says they don't even need that. They can just hold you. For months. And some say the President can make them hold you...forever.
From the Crowd 3: You mean like those guys down on Guantánamo, even some in this country all these years. They never got a trial. No lawyer, nothing. And now who knows what could happen to them.
Speaker 1: REMEMBER. THE SIXTH AMENDMENT IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS.
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.
Speaker 2: BUT UNDERSTAND. SECTION 412 of the USA Patriot Act states that: Any immigrant suspected of being a threat may be placed in military custody and held in detention, sometimes for months.
From the Crowd 1: Incredible!
From the Crowd 3: Can you hear what they do? Sometimes they don't even tell you why they stuck you in jail, or who's accusing you. Remember when everyone – citizen and immigrant alike – had the right to the due process of law in this country?
From the Crowd 1: Who passed this PATRIOT Act anyway?
Speaker 2: Our congress.
From the Crowd 1: Don't tell me President Bush would go for something like this.
From the crowd 2: Who do you think started it - It was President Bush. [And Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and the rest of the crew.]
From the crowd 3: This is awful. What can I do to stop the loss of my rights?
Speaker 1: REMEMBER. One of our rights is to petition our government. Speak up! Let people know you don't want your rights messed with. Write your senators. Write your congressmen. Write the President. Support a resolution rejecting the USA PATRIOT Act, joining your city or town with the states of Hawaii, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Vermont; and the communities of Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, Hartford, Arlington, MA, Burlington, VT, Peterborough, NH and 383 other cities, towns and counties in upholding the Bill of Rights -- your Bill of Rights.
Speaker 2: PLEASE UNDERSTAND. Each one of you can make a difference.
Who knows. Maybe the action you take will be just what's needed to
save our liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights for future generations.
Bell Ringer: Rings the Bell solemnly: HEAR YE. HEAR YE. A copy of the Bill of Rights is our gift to you. That and contact and reference information is on the table (wherever it is.) Thank you.