Restoring Freedom on Independence Day

July 4, 2002 by Dorothy M. Ehrlich, San Francisco Chronicle

July 4th is a quintessential American holiday. But for the fog along the coast, it is a warm, summer celebration where barbecues and fireworks take center stage - a day when we focus on the pursuit of happiness.

But this Independence Day has more significance. As a nation, we are reeling from the trauma of a domestic terrorist assault. And in response, we have witnessed the erosion of the fundamental freedoms this day is meant to celebrate.

Like most Americans, I agree that the government must protect our safety since September 11th. But I have been confounded by the Bush administration’s single-minded pursuit of the war on terrorism with little regard for the Constitution.

Privacy, freedom and justice have been upended, with little evidence of enhanced safety. Attorney-client privilege has been eroded; immigrants’ rights shredded; freedom of information is under assault. Instead, we have military tribunals, race-based questioning dragnets, expanded wiretap powers, and a “neighborhood watch” program that encourages us to spy on our neighbors. But perhaps the coup de grace was the U.S. Attorney General’s reversal of decades-old regulations that barred the intelligence agencies from monitoring political and religious institutions without probable cause.

Those regulations were in place for a reason. A recent San Francisco Chronicle report unveiled remarkable abuses by the FBI and CIA in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when the agencies systematically infiltrated UC Berkeley, sabotaged the Free Speech Movement and ousted then- University President Clark Kerr. And Kerr was far from alone.

The agencies’ overreach destroyed thousands of lives. They launched a mind-boggling smear campaign against the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. They spied on lesser-known activists like Frank Wilkinson, a housing advocate who was watched tirelessly by the FBI for three decades. His surveillance generates a pile of 132,000 documents reaching seven stories tall and a totaling taxpayer tab of $17 million.

Even after new guidelines were established in the 1970s, the abuse continued. In June, a jury handed down a $4 million ruling against the FBI and the Oakland police for violating the First and Fourth Amendment rights of two Earth First activists who were victims of a car bomb attack. The agencies tried to discredit Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, claiming that they had planted the bomb themselves, and failed to find the real culprits.

In these cases, our intelligence agencies misused taxpayer money by targeting people who disagree with government policy. With the sweeping new powers now granted these same agencies, allowing them to spy in libraries, mosques, and churches, on the Internet and in colleges, I fear that rather than learning from history, we are destined to repeat it. And finally, I fear that the brunt of this backlash will continue to be borne by those of Middle Eastern descent, whether at school, at work, while traveling, or as targets in the government’s sweep of thousands of Middle Eastern men.

So this July 4th, perhaps we need to put down the beach ball and the potato salad for a moment and acknowledge the many liberties we have lost. This Independence Day, instead of fireworks, we should ignite a movement to restore those freedoms. That would be something to celebrate.