A n i
m a l W r i t e s © sm
The official ANIMAL
RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Publisher ~ EnglandGal@aol.com
Issue # 02/09/03
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Journalists ~ ParkStRanger@aol.com
~
MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Neo-McCarthyism, the Patriot Act, and the New
Surveillance Culture
Part 2 - By
Dr. Steve Best
2 ~ A Neologism: Amitor - By Greg Lawson
3 ~ It's Meatout Time Again
4 ~ Loving Animals to Death: Some Thoughts on Animal
"Collectors"
By Jim Willis
5 ~ ACT Radio - Animal Concerns of Texas
6 ~ Surrendered Eyes - From Jerry Elmore Layne
7 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Neo-McCarthyism, the Patriot Act,
and the New Surveillance Culture
Part 2
By Dr. Steve Best - sbest1@elp.rr.com
In
Part 1 of this article, I explored how a new ultra-repressive political culture
is emerging around the U.S. Patriot Act. I described its origins and how animal
and earth liberation movements are key targets of this new legislation
reminiscent of the McCarthy period in the 1950s. In Part 2 of this article, I
discuss the implications of the Patriot Act for animal rights and direct action
in this new era of global terrorism.
***************.
Implications
of the Patriot Act
“The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always
stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and
writing.”
John Adams
Under the Patriot Act, the government now has the power to violate the rights
of activists or political suspects in ways such as the following:
** Demand from bookstores and libraries the names of books anyone purchased or
borrowed. Workers at the store or library are thereafter under a firm gag order
not to mention the request to anyone such as the media and they have no power
to contest it in court
** Conduct secret surveillance of religious or political groups without the
need to show probable cause. This includes clandestine searches of homes and
offices in sneak and peak operations
** Increase wiretapping of phone calls and monitor Internet searches, email
correspondence, and chat room discussions. Internet Service Providers may be
required to hand over content information and customer records to law officials
without a court order or subpoena
** Have broad access to a person’s medical, financial, and educational records
** Eavesdrop on conversations between lawyers and clients in federal custody
** Detain foreigners indefinitely without charges or right to counsel
To do all this surveillance, the Pentagon has initiated the method of “data
mining” and the system of “Total Information Awareness” that builds on the
infamous FBI Carnivore program for Internet surveillance. This means that the
state is monitoring electronic communication and research in order to identify
possible “terrorists.” All federal agents need to say to the courts, should
they ask, is that their prying is relevant to an ongoing criminal
investigation. If a judge believes a request is without merit, he or she must
grant it anyway. At the same times, citizen rights for disclosure of public
documents and records under the Freedom of Information Act increasingly are
being weakened and denied.
The Patriot Act also creates the new legal category of “domestic terrorist” and
defines it in a chillingly broad manner. According to the Patriot Act, the
crime of domestic terrorism is committed when a person engages in activity
“that involves acts dangerous to human life that violate the laws of the U.S.
…and appear to be intended: to intimidate or coerce a civilian population [or]
to influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion.”
Clearly “intimidation” and “coercion” could mean anything, and the government
does not adequately distinguish between violent and nonviolent methods of
persuasion. This definition is a direct challenge to liberation groups like the
ALF and ELF that are targeted as top domestic terrorist threats. Indeed, nearly
any protest group can fit the definition of terrorists, for what is it to
“intimidate” or “coerce” a “civilian population” or “to influence the policy of
the government by intimidation or coercion”? Protests often are
intimidating, and their entire point is to “influence” policy.
Not only do the ALF and ELF fall under the definition of “domestic terrorism,”
but also groups like PETA. For “harboring,” “concealing,” “aiding,” or “lending
material support to” “terrorists” is punishable under the Patriot Act. PETA has
given money to well-known animal rights “terrorists” such as Rod Coronado, Gary
Yourofsky, and Josh Harper, and in Ashcroft’s world this makes PETA aides and
abettors of terror. Indeed, right wing industry organizations like the Center
For Consumer Freedom are denouncing even the Humane Society of the United
States as a terrorist group for allegedly funding an Internet service used by
the ALF and hiring “ALF-affiliated criminal” J.P. Goodwin in 2001.
Similarly, if you shelter dogs that are rescued from a laboratory by the ALF,
or if you provided a room for a demonstrator who later became involved in a
violent protest activity, you too could be arraigned under the Patriot Act. A
foreign student involved with PETA or, certainly, the ALF, could be retained
and deported for providing assistance to a “domestic terrorist” organization.
Speaking out in support of the ALF or ELF can earn you a criminal charge, as
can taking pictures of animal abuse in laboratories or factory farms and
slaughterhouses. In our Orwellian culture where truth is falsehood and
falsehood is truth, documenting animals tortured in a slaughterhouse is
terrorism, but beating and killing animals in unspeakably vicious ways is not.
Amidst the current dragnet, the penalties for liberation activities are far
higher that previously. Whereas the crime of arson on a vivisection laboratory,
for example, carried a penalty of not more than twenty years, the Patriot Act
amends the law to read “for any term of years or for life.” The Patriot Act
also has removed the statue of limitations for specific terrorists offenses,
including those that create a “foreseeable risk” of death or injury to another
person. The maximum penalty for providing material support to, harboring, or
concealing a “terrorist” increases from ten to fifteen years in prison.
That’s When
I Reach For My Revolver
“When a long train of abuses and usurpations …evinces a design to
reduce the people under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their
duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future
security.”
Thomas Jefferson
A collective insanity is sweeping the nation no less absurd, outrageous,
frightening, and irrational than the Red Scare of the 1950s. The Patriot Act
expands government’s law enforcement powers nationwide as it minimizes
meaningful review and oversight by an independent judicial body. Rather, the
law is reduced to a Soviet-style, rubber-stamp device, compelled to grant an
order authorizing surveillance so long as the FBI, CIA, or Justice Department
say the magic words -- “This surveillance is part of an authorized terrorist or
intelligence investigation,” or just, “Do it.” The Bush world is straight out
of the film Minority Report where you are guilty until presumed
innocent, and the government condemns you even for thinking an illegal thought
and arrests you before you have a chance to possibly put the thought into
action.
Liberation movements are being demonized not just as whacko or extreme, but
also as terrorist. Surveillance is increasing in inverse relation to legal
accountability and political scrutiny. Even Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations (RICO) acts and extortion laws developed two decades ago
to fight organized crime are now being used against groups like SHAC, with
activists being arraigned under such charges in cities like Boston and San
Antonio.
Clearly the stakes of the game are higher, and this should prompt new
reflection on what direct action tactics are appropriate in the face of these
new attacks. Activists should not be afraid or intimidated, but they also need
to know their rights, or what is left of them, and everyone needs to exercise
particularly high levels of security. Even a tenuous association with the
ALF could satisfy the Patriot Act’s definition of harboring, concealing, or
supporting a “terrorist.” It is important that activists have an awareness of
the history of state repression, and to know, in particular, how the FBI COINTELPRO
infiltrated, raided, disrupted, and destroyed the many groups and causes
attacking the government during the 1960s and thereafter. The government may
right now be unleashing a similar war against the ALF, ELF, and SHAC, although
they will have a much harder time with the ALF and ELF because of their
underground, decentralized, cellular level of organization.
The movement needs more lawyers, but it must in the first place strive to avoid
long and costly court battles as these drain time, energy, and will, as
happened to SHACtivists in San Antonio, Texas when HLS’s insurance company,
Marsh, fought back with lawsuits claiming harassment. Liberationists must
resist being defined as violent and extremists; they must defend themselves
rhetorically and philosophically, establishing a sharp distinction between
theft, property destruction, and terrorism. They must also work on the
philosophical level to challenge the status of animals as property and to
define them to be, rather, subjects of a complex life, as are we.
In the current neo-McCarthyist climate, activists need to tone down the
rhetoric, so as not to hand the state the rope with which to hang themselves
and the movement. The enemy reads our writings and comes to our lectures,
recording every word, as is obvious by their use of the infamous Bruce
Friedrich sound bite from the national animal rights conference of 2002 that
champions property destruction. I am elated to see the “marvelous new
militancy” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) of groups like SHAC, but we must not
transgress non-violent boundaries or indulge in antics such as harassing family
members of employees working for corporations like HLS. We must avoid even
threats to violence, not only to escape the harsher penalties for such speech but
also to adhere to the higher moral ground that activists rightly claim. Be
intelligent, but do not be afraid; take strength from the courage of King and
Gandhi who risked their lives for justice and fought harder when the state
repression got worse. Now would be an excellent time to revisit their writings
and actions.
We must attack militarism, link this to our general critique of violence, and
grasp the connections between militarism abroad and suppression of dissent at
home. We must resolutely defend the Constitution, because fundamental rights
are under attack. Unfortunately, the Patriot Act and the damages it has wrought
to civil liberties are going to scar our society for a long time to come. There
is no guarantee that freedoms lost once will return again, especially if the
new global paradigm of heightened dangers and insecurities will prevail
indefinitely.
A great sign of hope, however, is that in communities throughout the country,
city councils and local governments are passing resolutions against the Patriot
Act. From Ithaca, New York to Oakland, California, over two dozen councils have
condemned the Patriot Act as anti-constitutional and devoid of moral
legitimacy, even if it is the law. Taking more than just symbolic action,
cities like Ithaca are requiring city employees (e.g., librarians) to adopt a
policy of non-cooperation with the Patriot Act if legitimate government action
against terrorism violates the civil rights and liberties of people within
their communities. In effect, entire cities are adopting policies of civil
disobedience as they pit individual rights and state duties against the federal
government. Where Congress has proved cowardly and inept in its duties, city
governments are taking on protection of the Constitution as their own
responsibility. As one member of the Oakland Civil Rights Defense Committee
said, “Congress hasn’t been able to check this unconstitutional executive grab,
so it is up to us to reclaim our fundamental rights of free speech, free
association, due process and equal protection.”
Wisely, local communities realize that we must not accept the false dualism the
Bush administration and its accomplices are trying to foist on us -- either
security or liberty. Sewing seeds of mass paranoia about the great Evil
lurking everywhere, the Bush administration is dismantling liberties in the
name of Homeland Security. Citizens who challenge Bush’s efforts to wage war
with Iraq are denounced on national media as traitors who should go to jail. According
to some critics, Bush and Ashcroft have compromised freedom in ways previous
administrations have not even in times of formally declared war. Just as the
war on drugs is a Trojan horse for the entrenchment of state power in our
personal lives, the ever-so misnamed Patriot Act is an anti-democratic vehicle
of conservative reaction against citizen dissent against globalization,
corporate destruction of animals and the earth, and a multitude of injustices.
While the nation braces for war with Iraq and additional attacks from Al
Quaeda, a key aspect of the terrorist agenda is already realized. If their
mission is to destroy the foundations of Western democracy, then, with the help
of Bush and Ashcroft, they are succeeding.
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~2~
A Neologism: Amitor
By Greg Lawson - ParkStRanger@aol.com
From
Merriam-Webster...
Main Entry: ne·ol·o·gism
Function: noun
Etymology: French néologisme, from ne- + log- + -isme -ism
Date: 1800
1 : a new word, usage, or expression
2 : a meaningless word coined by a psychotic
(ok, ok, read on, sheesh, just because I'm psychotic doesn't invalidate this
concept)
We define the world with words. We have invented words to describe what
our senses perceive and what our imaginations can imagine. To a very
large extent, language affects the way we interpret reality. Associations
between words motivate us to actions. Lion = fearsome = run.
The word "predator" means "an animal that preys upon other
animals." There is no antonym for "predator" in the
English language. There is no word in any other language that the Amitor
project has researched, which defines behaviors opposite to predation.
A man named Tom Hufford realized this and invented the word "amitor"
from the latin "ami" for friend and "tor" to denote the
agent or doer of an action...thus amitor, to be a friend. "No one is
born hating...if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love
comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Tom Hufford
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines predator in this manner...
Main Entry: pred·a·tor Function: noun
Date: 1912
1 : one that preys, destroys, or devours
2 : an animal that lives by predation
and predation...
Main Entry: pre·da·tion
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English predacion, from Latin praedation-, praedatio, from
praedari
Date: 15th century
1 : the act of preying or plundering : DEPREDATION
2 : a mode of life in which food is primarily obtained by the killing and
consuming of animals
and depredate
Main Entry: dep·re·date
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -dat·ed; -dat·ing
Etymology: Late Latin depraedatus, past participle of depraedari, from Latin
de- + praedari to plunder
Date: 1626
transitive senses : to lay waste : PLUNDER , RAVAGE
intransitive senses : to engage in plunder
The proposed definition for "amitor" is 1) a creature who does not
use violent, physically extreme, coercive, emotional, exploitive or economic
force on those of its own or other species for its existence or its
pleasure. 2) a standard bearer of non-arrogance. 3) one who only
uses force for self-defense. The antonym for "amitor" is
"predator."
The mission of the Amitor Project is to have this new word introduced into the
English language and included in dictionaries by 2025.
The world needs more words to describe peace and nonviolent behaviors.
The more we are able to speak of peace, the more peace becomes reality.
For more information about the Amitor Project and to sign an online petition to
have the word amitor included in dictionaries, visit:
www.amitor.org
Amitor Home Page
and
http://www.amitor.org/petition.html petition
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~3~
It's Meatout Time Again
From FARM - farm@farmusa.org
YES,
IT'S TIME TO GET ON BOARD MEATOUT 2003!
- Time to start planning your Meatout 20003 activities
- Time to promote healthy and compassionaate eating
- Time to visit our updated web site at <www.meatout.org.
Meatout is your best, once-a-year opportunity to have your friends and
neighbors "kick the meat habit and explore a more wholesome, less violent
diet of fruits, vegetables, and grains."
Meatout is your best, once-a-year opportunity to help the animals: every
1% reduction in national meat consumption prevents the agony and death of 100
million innocent, feeling animals - more than the combined number of animals
victimized by all other human activities. Every person you turn away from meat
consumption, saves an average of 1,500 animals.
Join thousands of caring people in all 50 states and 20 other countries
on March 20 by hosting a Meatout event in your area.
Participating is easy
Small & large events are needed
We are here to help Visit www.meatout.org to find
detailed information and to request materials, even if your plans are not yet
finalized or you’re just curious.
Dawn Moncrief, Coordinator, Meatout 2003
www.meatout.org
info@meatout.org
1-800-MEATOUT
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~4~
"Loving Animals to Death":
Some Thoughts on Animal "Collectors"
By Jim Willis - jwillis@bellatlantic.net
The Tiergarten Sanctuary Trust
Almost every week, somewhere in
America, an animal collector/hoarder situation is raided, often requiring the
rescue of hundreds of animals at a time. Often the media, the authorities, and
the rescue community condemns and accuses. We are so accustomed to being
betrayed by our society and government that we have little tolerance for being
betrayed by one of our "own."
The typical collector is most often female. That's not a sexist criticism on my
part, women are frequently the most compassionate and nurturing of the genders.
The typical collector believes that any life is better than any death.
As many know, I spent much of my adult life in Europe, with it's no-kill
shelters, euthanasia only by veterinarians and only by lethal injection, their
strict licensing, animal control and welfare laws, and national databases of
convicted animal abusers and neglecters. Should I have ever met a
"collector/hoarder" in that environment, I could have more easily
called that person "crazy," while still giving them credit for
somehow eluding the laws and authorities. I would have questioned their reasons
for attempting to break laws and efforts by government that made good sense.
I cannot do that in North America. We have created a prevailing system of
apathy and ignorance, where shelters and volunteer rescue efforts cannot
possibly stem the tide, where government has mostly turned its back on animal
welfare and control efforts, where anything "animal" is usually paid
lip service and given the lowest priority, where animals often die horrible
deaths, where national animal organizations can barely fund the resources they
provide to "crisis" situations, and where a lot of people are making
a lot of money from animals.
I get a lot of mail each week and often from rescuers who are out of hope and
out of funds. They sometimes describe personal situations to me that worry me,
and they ask me if I have any suggestions of help for them. I don't and I wish
I did. (Occasionally, I've even received some "contemplating
suicide"-type messages that make me lose sleep.) In fact, I've even
angered some Rescue efforts with criticisms (largely borne of frustration),
because their efforts and websites and fundraisers and other events include NO
advocacy and education components. That means we will always be forced to deal
with the status quo, rescuing animal by animal, with no end in sight (and where
I'm often "wrong" is that's still better than nothing!). For every
"accomplishment" we cheer about, some other situation or decision by
government seems to take us two steps backwards.
I understand how the system in North America creates animal
"collectors." I feel sorry for them. We who think we've got a handle
on the situation, who have learned somehow to say "no," even when
it's hard, and who care enough to ensure that every animal under our care
receives the best of our efforts, are the lucky ones. We managed to stay
upstream. A few threw themselves into the floodwaters and they are drowning
because of their compassion.
If we could get America and Canada to "no kill" as soon as possible,
if we could outlaw every method of "euthanasia" except by lethal
injection (http://www.crean.com/kindness), if we could get every animal lover
in the country to write a letter to an editor on an animal issue, and demand
that our media report on those issues, and hold government at all levels
accountable for, at the least, animal control and welfare issues - maybe we
could stop creating "collectors" and maybe we could negate the need
to rescue hundreds/thousands of poorly cared for animals at a time who further
deplete rescue resources.
Below are some additional resources on the issues. Please join the advocacy and
educational effort as soon as you can.
Thanks,
Jim
http://www.crean.com/jimwillis
"Loving Animals to Death," a psychological profile on Animal
Collectors from the Animal Protection Institute:
http://www.api4animals.org/areas.asp?c=4&ID=59
National Cruelty Investigation Schools:
http://www.missouri.edu/~letiwww/animal3.htm
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~5~
ACT Radio - Animal Concerns of
Texas
By Greg Lawson - ParkStRanger@aol.com
Be sure to listen to ACT Radio tonight at 9:30pm
EST (7:30pm, mountain time) with Animal Rights Online journalists Greg Lawson
and Steve Best. KTEP can be heard over the web with Real Radio, which is
a free download.
http://www.ktep.org/program_detail.ssd?id=103
El Paso NPR - KTEP 88.5 :
National Public Radio for the Southwest
Bruce Friedrich,
Director of Vegan Outreach for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, is our guest. We will discuss Bruce's campaigns against
McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King and KFC, the outlandish tactics of PETA and
veganism in general.
If you enjoy the show, please contact KTEP and tell them you support ACT Radio
and are pleased to hear this kind of programming.
General
Feedback: http://www.ktep.org/index.ssd
A note about
getting Real Radio if you don't already have it...
On the KTEP website you will see an icon on the left that says Listen to KTEP
Online, click it. The next page will say "In order to listen to KTEP
on-line you will need the Real Player, which is available for free on the Real
website. Click here to visit their download area." Go there.
That page will try to sell you the deluxe RealOne Player, but look in the top
right hand corner, there is a link that says "Free RealOne
Player." Go there.
Now on this page, on the bottom right, you will see a link that says
"Download the Free RealOne Player Only." This is what you want.
The download takes a little time, so be sure to do this early so you won't miss
today's installment of ACT Radio.
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~6~
Surrendered Eyes
From Jerry Elmore Layne
Throw-aways, strays, cast-offs...
Kittens, Puppies, Dogs, Cats and oh, so many more.
A complete, inexcusable wasted loss of love,
loyalty and friendship.
A loss to terrible fear.
A loss to shivers, to loud noise, to the banging of cages and
... yes, a loss to hopelessness.
Adoption is so isolated.
Life, in itself, is misery and loneliness.
The eyes, the eyes tell all.
The watery, downhearted and surrendered eyes tell all.
A dog biscuit is passed-over for the simple
act of a friendly pat on the head and a happy, loving voice.
Hot. Very hot and humid.
Cold, Very cold and windy.
No grass, No sun.
Concrete and Strangers of All Kinds.
Now, very afraid.
Now. It is the time for death. There is NO adoption.
And, please, do not say, 'putting to sleep,'
for it is the last, few remaining
moments on earth.
A kiss from me and a "I love you," and the
injection begins.
...The surrendered eyes are .... forever closed
and each and every, single one of these wonderful creatures
breaks your heart."
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~7~
Memorable Quote
"Of
all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he's the
one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for
sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong
proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that
he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot."
~ Mark Twain, American Novelist
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl 33673-7053
http://www.oocities.org/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal Rights Online=-
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