Our nation's Attorney General is already asking for increased
wiretap authority. What else is on this arch conservative's wish
list- perhaps a revival of national identity cards? And with them
massive databases on every resident of this nation?
I am seriously worried. I know many folks, good citizens all,
whose names and genders do not match their birth records. Our city
has many undocumented workers who must survive by self employment,
fake IDs, overstayed visas, etc. These good folks are victims of laws
that unrealisticly attempt to reinforce gender roles, long delays in
the processing of immigrants applications, and draconian immigration
laws. Fortunately, many of them have managed to slip through the
cracks.
So what happens if our AG gets his ultimate database? What if
our government, in the name of national defense, gets to compare
every public and maybe private records too? Imagine the lesbian
couple that hold a Minnesota marriage licence outed, and denied
retirement benefits. Imagine the veteran career intersex civil
servant who is marched out of his agency by Federal Marshalls.
Imagine the refugee workers who are bused to a remote internment camp
by INS charter.
In the face of war, we cannot forget one of the American
values we're ,defending- our civil rights. I went shopping at Fleet
Farm today. I passed on the gas cans that are disappearing off the
shelves and instead picked up a cot that was on sale. Minneapolis has
had a long reputation of tolerence and diversity, and if the Bush
administration has their way we may be called upon to provide asylum.
peace,
Dyna Sluyter from Hawthorne, where we always have room for more...
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