Darcy Speaks on Civil Liberties
“I want to commend Darcy for speaking out boldly on important issues” Todd Iverson, President of America in Solidarity, said as he introduced Darcy as a speaker on the Civil Liberties panel at the NW Progressive Convention on Saturday, November 10th. Joining Darcy on the panel were Bill Moyer, Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign, and Sal Mungli, a Tacoma-based attorney who also works with the ACLU.
Darcy Burner on the Importance of Protecting our Civil Liberties
“When I was asked to speak about civil liberties here, I was delighted to come.” Darcy began, “this is really a question of what kind of nation we want to be.”
“This nation is under attack both from the outside and the inside. We are facing very real threats from outside our borders; the people who flew into the twin towers in New York City were trying to harm this nation. We are also under attack from the inside by people who don’t believe in government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
“FISA has made it legal for the President to spy on Americans. Expect to see another attack on our liberty when the bill to give telecoms retroactive immunity for breaching our civil rights is voted on this next week. Thursday’s Seattle Times reported that AT&T gave Feds access to all cellular and email traffic. This is the Bush Administration corroding our civil liberties.”
“I want to tell you that those people are cowards and traitors to this nation.”
“We have to decide where we are going to draw the line. The founders of this country wanted us to be a free people—where each individual would get to decide what books to read, who to talk with, and what religion to practice. We decided that the government couldn’t search our homes, figure out who we were talking to, or what church we attend without having a compelling reason to do so. We are united by this rule of law. It is the most important thing about being American. It is time for us to take our country back from the people who think otherwise.”
Bill Moyer and Sal Mungli
Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign talked about his organization and their mission in relationship to civil liberties. “We try to hold people accountable for their votes and their stands. It’s our job to exercise those muscles of speaking out. We like to figure out our message and then express our opinion by making signs and holding them over the freeway passes. We want to remind people that we still have our rights.”
Sal Mungli, a trial lawyer for the ACLU who has also served on their Board of Directors, talked about why it is so important that we lend our voices to these issues. “Whenever the nation feels threatened, the people in power quell rights. We see time and time again that laws get used to oppress people.” He said that in WWI it was the passage of the Espionage and Sedition Acts; during WWII Japanese-Americans were put in concentration camps; and during the Civil Rights era the FBI spied on Martin Luther King. “This country, whenever it feels threatened, will forget about our rights. We’ve seen it again since 9/11. Only one Senator voted against the USA Patriot Act, Russ Feingold. Very few people have spoken out again the Total Information Act (TIA). People like us have started saying ’Stop.‘”
Q and A
When the issue of impeachment came up in a question, Darcy said that there is no easy answer to taking it up in Congress. She said that the oath of office that every office-holder takes is something that she takes very seriously. She fully supports Congress living up to their obligations in taking this on and she is very concerned about the precedent we set as a nation. She went on to say that in talking with current members of Congress about the issue, they have said that Iraq is taking precedence over almost everything else. Darcy reported that the same thing happens when she talks with the folks in her district. She added, “Maybe the answer is that we need to force an end to the war in Iraq and then move on. Until we get Iraq off the table, we are stuck.”
Another audience member stated that he thinks that the right to collective bargaining is a civil liberty that we don’t hear much about. The questioner went on to say that in the last six years, the Bush Administration has limited who can join a union and harassed people who join. He asked, “How do we bring back the rights of unions to organize?” Darcy’s response was simple. “There is something called the Employee Free Choice Act. I say don’t vote for anyone who doesn’t support the EFCA.”
