Freedom at Risk
Rev. Kendyl Gibbons
The First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis
January 20, 2002
Give me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according
to conscience, above all liberties. And though all the winds of doctrine
were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we
do injuriously to misdoubt her strength. -- (John Milton)
Opening Words:
Come, and let us reason together.
Come, and let us reflect together upon the heritage of the past,
upon the demands of the present,
upon the possibilities of the future.
We are always, to greater or lesser degrees, a community of mourners.
Today we are especially aware of recent losses among us.
Today too, we pause to remember the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.,
who once called our nation to account for its oppression of our black
brothers and sisters.
Speaking of the demands upon the human spirit in his own time, Dr. King
wrote thus:
Courage faces fear and thereby masters it.
Cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it.
Courageous persons never lose their zest for living,
even though their life situation is zestless;
cowardly persons, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the
will to live.
We must constantly build dykes of courage to hold back the flood of
fear.
Today our land faces once more a high tide in the flood of fear;
Let it be here; let it be now; let it be us,
who build again the dykes of courage and reason,
that the ideals of equal justice, liberty and human kinship may stand
firm,
guiding us forever onward toward a better world.
Let this flaming chalice be to us a token of that light,
and of our devotion to it.
Sermon:
These are, of course, extraordinary times. Does anyone here feel ordinary?
The American psyche suffered a collective shock on September 11; a devastating
bereavement, a deeply felt insult, and a cold wind of threat, have passed
among us. As we continue the long process of groping toward an understanding
of what happened and what it means to us, I want to suggest that we
have risen magnificently to the occasion of the bereavement. We have
consoled each other in an upwelling of kinship and generosity that is
always latent, though not always evident, in the American spirit, of
which we may rightly be glad. But as the edges of our common grief wear
off, these other intense feelings loom -- and those, I fear, we are
not meeting with the same resilience and maturity that was so widely
displayed in the first moments of crisis. We have responded to the insult
with retribution and a wrathful determination to track down the one
person we have decided is responsible for the attacks, even though the
people who flew the planes are obviously dust amid the dust of their
victims. To what extent such a response is inevitable, or well-advised
or proportional, can be and has been the subject of long debate. What
I want to consider this morning, as we celebrate the memory of America's
great preacher and prophet of justice, Martin Luther King, Jr., and
launch our own new program of discovery groups here in this Society,
is how both leadership and popular opinion have been swayed by the third
dimension of that enormous experience of September 11. Ordinary Americans
had the courage to race up the stairs of the burning towers, looking
for those in need of help; they had the courage to work the fire hoses
and the police radios and the ambulances. The question now is, do we
have the kind of courage that it takes to protect our freedom in the
face of our fears?
The immediate answers to this question seem ominous. On October 26,
the PATRIOT Act (an acronym for the obviously invented title Provide
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) was
signed into law. This bill was passed by a congress in the process of
closing down in response to the anthrax scare; there was no debate,
no amendments were permitted, and the printed text was not available
to representatives before the vote. Despite the clear lack of opportunity
for thoughtful consideration, this legislation makes changes to over
fifteen different federal statutes. It permits the government arbitrarily
to detain or deport suspects; to eavesdrop on Internet communications,
monitor financial transactions, and obtain individual's electronic records;
and to survey clandestinely records of religious and political organizations,
and even bookstores. Representative Ron Paul of Texas, one of only three
Republicans in the House to vote against the measure, said afterwards,
"The insult is to call this a 'patriot bill', and suggest I'm not
patriotic because I insisted upon finding out what is in it and voting
No. I thought it was undermining the Constitution, so I didn't vote
for it -- and therefore I'm somehow not a patriot. That's insulting."
Close on the heels of this alarming development came the President's
military order issued on November 13, directing Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld to create a system of military tribunals at which noncitizens
may be prosecuted on charges of terrorism, in secret, without a jury,
on evidence protected from disclosure for "national security reasons".
These tribunals, composed exclusively of officers in the armed service,
have the authority to impose a death sentence by only a two-thirds majority,
with no process of appeal. The grandiosity of this defiance of due process
would be breathtaking enough; the order expands its own scope by identifying
"Individuals subject to this order" as anyone not a United
States citizen who the president may determine that it is in the interests
of the United States be subject to this order -- in other words, not
because of anything the individual has done, but simply because the
president says so.
Give me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to
conscience, above all liberties. And though all the winds of doctrine
were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we
do injuriously to misdoubt her strength.
Ah, but these are extraordinary times, are they not? Columnist Wendy
Kaminer, writing in The American Prospect on November 5, after
the passage of the Patriot act, but before the military order was issued,
observed the flavor of our common life thus:
People are terrified: According to a recent survey, one-third of New
Yorkers now favor the internment of people suspected of being "sympathetic
to terrorists." Attorney General Ashcroft keeps fear alive by reminding
us that terrorists are lurking and planning more attacks: "Terrorism
is a clear and present danger to America today," he told the Senate,
carefully using the legal catch-phrase that justifies the suspension
of constitutional safeguards on government power.
He may be right about the continuing threats of attack. But it's worth
stressing that the administration is not seeking to expand the power
of the government's executive branch solely for the sake of combating
terrorism: The counter-terrorism bill includes general expansions of
federal prosecutorial power. And if enacted, many onerous new restrictions
on liberty will not expire when the emergency that prompted them has
passed. The administration has resisted applying a sunset provision
to its entire bill.
The prospect of additional attacks probably frightens more people than
the nature of our response to them does. Still, we shouldn't underestimate
the dangers of sacrificing freedom to fear. During the 2000 presidential
election campaign, George W. Bush said that he opposed using secret
evidence in federal prosecutions of noncitizens; now, he advocates imprisoning
immigrants on the basis of no evidence at all. But Americans should
not assume that only immigrants and people who appear to be Middle Eastern
are at risk. We will all be under surveillance. We are all suspects
now. Patriotism does not oblige us to acquiesce in the destruction of
liberty. Patriotism obliges us to question it, at least.
And in a follow-up essay on December 3 she continued:
I'm not denigrating patriotism; I just wish that we'd reconsider its
requirements. Dissent, not self-censorship, is patriotic. If, for example,
you believe that the war against Afghanistan is immoral or dangerously
counterproductive, you are obliged to say so.
If I were to draw up a list of great citizens and patriots, it would
include a number of dissenters -- like Martin Luther King, Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, and Eugene V. Debs, who was imprisoned in the early years
of the century for criticizing U.S. entry into World War I. Whether
he was right or wrong about the war, Debs was much more of a patriot
than the bureaucrats who imprisoned him for airing his opinions.
While today's beleagured antiwar protestors may be mistaken in their
analysis of terrorism, they're better Americans than are people who
hoard antibiotics that may be needed by their fellow citizens.
If patriotism requires a sense of community and a willingness to make
sacrifices for the public good, it is undermined by the survivalism
that takes hold when people feel besieged. So it's fair to say that
we have a patriotic duty to one another to stave off panic and the survivalist
behaviors it encourages. (Stoicism has rarely seemed more virtuous.)
Some people say that we can't live with fear -- but few people have
ever lived without it. You don't have to imagine a holocaust; just think
of life in a high-crime housing project. There's probably no period
in history that hasn't been shaped by fear of war, disease, or some
other arbitrary disaster. From that perspective, there's nothing particularly
new about what Americans are enduring today except for the fact that
it's Americans enduring it. And at least we don't have to believe that
the threat of anthrax or smallpox epidemic issues from nature or from
a wrathful God; we know that it's posed by other human beings, and we
can at least imagine stopping them.
So it was discouraging to hear the president describe Osama bin Laden
as "the evil one," as if he were Satan himself or a demon
on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We need to acknowledge that bin
Laden is a murderous human being, however much we want to exclude him
from the species. There's nothing supernatural about terrorism; human
barbarism requires no help from the devil. People who believe that confronting
terrorism requires God's help will disagree, but I suspect that what
we mostly need now is self-control.
She is quite right, it seems to me; nowhere is it given to the human
race, even to the privileged American segment of it, that we are supposed
to be able to live without fear. Indeed, it is only when we are willing
to live with fear, to live in the face of it and in despite of it, that
the rights we flaunt to the rest of the world, and supposedly cherish,
really mean anything. If we remember nothing else about Martin Luther
King, as year by year his heroic prophecy slips from living memory into
myth, we ought to remember this: his showing us that to be a whole human
being and a citizen is a dignity that one claims through steadfast personal
courage. It is not bestowed by the power of others, nor can it be taken
away except you surrender it through your own cowardice of heart.
These are extraordinary times, yes, but we have been here before.
We have been here before, and my own generation made a sad mistake,
I believe, when we surrendered the word 'patriotism' to the forces of
reaction, militarism, and the status quo. We are patriots who believe
the promises of liberty upon which this nation was founded; we are patriots
who would hold our leaders accountable to the ideals they profess to
serve rather than to our own comfort and safety. The night before he
died, in his speech to the sanitation workers of Memphis, Dr. King said
this:
If I lived in China or even in Russia, or any totalitarian country,
maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment
privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over
there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere
I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of
the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right
to protest for the right…
Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with
a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days,
these days of challenge, to make America a better nation…
I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead.
But it doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountain
top. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life;
longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now, I just
want to do God's will… And I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about
anything, I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of
the coming of the Lord.
Do you see how they go together, the statements "Somewhere I
read about freedom of speech… Somewhere I read that the greatness
of America is the right to protest…" and "I'm happy tonight,
I'm not worried about anything, I'm not fearing any man"? To be
truly free, we must be brave; to be truly brave, we must be free.
Russ Feingold, Democratic senator from Wisconsin, was the only dissenting
voice in the Senate before the passage of Patriot. He pointed out to
his colleagues that the framers of the U.S. Constitution, even though
they'd just been through a war with Britain, "wrote a Constitution
of limited powers, and an explicit Bill of Rights to protect liberty
in times of war, as well as in times of peace." Feingold added:
Of course there is no doubt that, if we lived in a police state,
it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that
allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason;
if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your
mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your e-mail
communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government
to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think,
or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government
would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists.
But that probably would not be a country in which we would want
to live. And that would not be a country for which we could, in good
conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that
would not be America.
Preserving our freedom is one of the main reasons that we are
now engaged in this new war on terrorism. We will lose that war without
firing a shot if we sacrifice the liberties of the American people.
It is sad to me that the American people seem largely willing for our
liberties to be sacrificed in the name of assuaging our fear. A contributing
editor to MotherJones.com, Brook Shelby Biggs, sees the same dynamic
at work; on October 4 he wrote,
Far more surprising than government attempts to stifle criticism
is the seeming willingness of the media, politicians, and activist
groups -- particularly those on the left -- to censor themselves.
Some may be backing off to avoid the kind of public crucifixion endured
by Politically Incorrect's Bill Maher. Others, however, apparently
truly believe that frank and vibrant discourse is damaging to the
country's moral fiber.
Give me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according
to conscience, above all liberties. And though all the winds of doctrine
were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we
do injuriously to misdoubt her strength.
Frank and vibrant discourse is the very foundation of this country's
moral fiber; it is never more necessary than in extraordinary times,
in times of confusion and disagreement and danger. We do injuriously
-- we do harm, to ourselves, to each other, to the legacy of our past
and the future of our children -- when we get so scared that we think
it is better to clamp down, to get things under control, to sacrifice
liberty for safety. The founding fathers knew better; they knew that
safety lay in freedom, and freedom lay in courage. Martin Luther King
knew better; he knew that human dignity could only belong to those
who would stand up to corrupt power. Eugene V. Debs knew better; he
knew it in his prison cell, which could not change his mind about
the madness of the first world war -- a prison cell which never has
changed the mind of anyone of principle, nor ever shall. The Asian-Americans
knew better; they knew it in the bitter injustice of internment camps
fifty years ago, when their fellow citizens exchanged the demands
of liberty and justice for hysterical comfort and the illusion of
safety. Are these extraordinary times? We have been here before; did
we learn nothing?
This congregation is one of the most subversively patriotic American
institutions I know. Right here in this Society, we gather together
-- we assemble freely, we exercise our liberty -- in our acknowledged
differences, and we reason together of the questions that confront us,
in extraordinary times or whatever other times there may be. We read
what people have written; the human record of discovery in trial and
error. We speak as we think, in the confidence that even though all
should disagree, none will prevent us from being heard. We challenge
every power that would fetter the human mind, the human spirit, or human
dignity. We cherish the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely
according to conscience, above all liberties. And though all the winds
of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the
field, we do not misdoubt her strength.
Here in this community of memory and promise, we lay claim to a faith
that does not offer us salvation, in this world or the next. Yet we
know that it is only by faith that freedom can be maintained in the
face of fear; it is only by our faith in the equal dignity of the human
spirit in diversity, and our essential, inescapable kinship with one
another, that we can confidently choose the risks of liberty over the
seductive protection of authority and control. It is only by faith that
real patriotism speaks out against national hysteria, contending for
the principles of freedom by which our true safety has always been assured.
Courage and freedom, patriotism and faith -- these are the very stuff
of extraordinary times; the times that call them forth, the times in
which they shine. May these be indeed such days, and may these days
call forth in us renewed devotion to the law, the liberty, and the light
of our faith in freedom, that we may be worthy stewards of the promise
that has been America, and loyal heralds of a future world of liberty
and justice for all.
Benediction:
Let us take our voices wherever there are those who want to hear the
melody of freedom,
or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of despair
and fear.
Our weapons must be peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can
be attained.
Let the song of freedom live in our hearts, and prevail in our world.
