[Vision2020] Homeland Security Questions, Please

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

Saundra, et al,

I am surprised that the seizure of your persons and property has not been or
will be challenged in court by a 1983 (section of the civil rights act) as an
egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The Homeland Security Act was a knee-jerk reaction by some people who did
not/could not think the consequences through very clearly.

I believe that over time many of its provisions will be found unconstitutional
at great expense to all of us.  I seldom agree with Jim Otter, but he is on the
right track for this issue.

I am sorry that you and others had to go through this experience.  It doesn't
take an Einstein to see that the threat of the situation you describe (which was
also reported in the news [sans your name]) could have been handled much more
expeditiously without the illegal seizure, inconvenience, and without the
possibility of exposing the innocents to real harm/death had there been a bomb
aboard.

Wayne

Art Deco  (Wayne Fox)
deco@moscow.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Saundra Lund" <sslund@adelphia.net>
To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 10:51 AM
Subject: [Vision2020] Homeland Security Questions, Please


| Visionaries:
|
| Having just returned from The Trip from Hades, I've determined that I
| haven't a clue as to the *purpose* of Homeland Security.  I mean, I
| *thought* I had a basic understanding of its purpose and goals since I keep
| up with the news fairly well, dutifully pay my taxes, have traveled too many
| air miles to count, and have been in & out of government institutions and
| through security many times, but it's become clear my knowledge is clearly
| lacking in some important aspect.
|
| Since I know some here have done a better job of keeping abreast of things
| than I, I'm hoping for some clarification.
|
| What part of Homeland Security justifies forcing a small group of US women
| and children *back* onto a train on US soil with a suspected bomb and
| suspected terrorists?
|
| What part of Homeland Security justifies holding hundreds of US citizens
| (and perhaps non-US citizens -- I didn't, and wouldn't have been allowed to,
| survey all the passengers and crew) hostage on a train for hours with a
| suspected bomb and suspected terrorists?
|
| What part of Homeland Security justifies moving the same US train on US soil
| full of hundreds of US citizens (including children, the elderly, & the
| disabled) to a remote field and forcing the passengers off without their
| possessions, including medications?
|
| What part of Homeland Security justifies holding those same US citizens at
| gunpoint (well, surrounded by guns) for hours in a hot remote field overrun
| by cicadas for hours with no food, water, or facilities, and no place to
| sit?
|
| What part of Homeland Security justifies holding that same group of US
| citizens in that field close enough to the train that had there been a bomb
| that exploded, we'd all have been history?
|
| What part of Homeland Security justifies depriving US citizens of their
| belongings (including money and medication) for hours once the "bomb threat"
| and "terrorist threat" have been resolved?
|
| A related, but less pressing question, is what part of Homeland Security
| justifies keeping those US hostage-citizens completely in the dark about
| what's going on while the circumstances are being reported on TV and are
| widely known amongst the citizens of the town where the "terrorist scare"
| unfolded?
|
| And, what part of Homeland Security justifies *everyone* but those US
| hostage-citizens access to the information?
|
| Thanks in advance for any enlightenment.  At this point, I'm forced to
| conclude that Homeland Security is nothing but a huge expensive joke that
| puts US citizens at risk and takes away our basic human rights.
|
|
| Saundra Lund
| Moscow, Idaho
|
| The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
| nothing.
| Edmund Burke
|
|
| _____________________________________________________
|  List services made available by First Step Internet,
|  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
|                http://www.fsr.net
|           mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com
| ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
|