recommended website re Homeland Security

[Note from Matthew Gaylor: Kent Van Cleave <kvc [at] tima.com> is a
philosopher studying and teaching at Indiana University, Bloomington.
He has created a web site highlighting the dangers of the Office of
Homeland Security. Of particular interest is a series of posters
that have been created and that can be adapted for your individual
use. Just go to the below website for more information.]

< http://welcome.to/HomelandSecurity1 >

What are we doing? Our purpose here is to provide "cookie-cutter" tools for activism in the service of liberty, tools to fight the encroachment of a police state and the mentality that leads a people to tolerate such tyranny. By "cookie-cutter" we simply mean that you can take our tools and create your own local education campaign in an
effective, professional manner. No muss or fuss -- just take what we have, duplicate it where you are, and spread it around. Mostly, these tools will be high-quality posters that you can reproduce
inexpensively and post around your city. Just be sure to protect the private property rights of others as you do so, though, and not post these where you shouldn't. Public locations where posters and announcements are routinely posted are ideal, and store windows (with permission from the owner or manager) are ideal private property locations. Be creative, and be persuasive -- a lot is riding on this!

Finally, the disclaimer. Some will say this website and the project
it promotes is unamerican, seditious, disloyal, unpatriotic, and
icky. This is because their idea of Americanism, loyalty, and
patriotism is directed toward their leaders, or based in a sort of
tribal loyalty to one's group -- the big group that is our nation.

This project is dedicated instead to the principles upon which this
country was founded: that rights belong to individual people, who in
cooperation with one another form their governments for the purpose
of protecting those individual rights ... period. That's the
philosophical and political foundation of America. Today, it's called
libertarianism. We don't think America is the land, or even the
people -- and certainly not the government, which is only supposed to
represent and serve the people. America is the idea that people own
themselves and have the right to determine their own destinies by any
peaceful and honest means they choose.

This important distinction is reflected in the Oath of Office taken
by public officials, and by the oath taken by members of the armed
services: to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States of America against all enemies, foreign or domestic." Not to
protect and defend our leaders, or even to protect and defend the
current institutions of government, but to protect the Constitution,
without which America would be just another government dedicated to
controlling, not serving, the people.

It is with sadness bordering on despair that we are forced to admit
that many of those today who have taken that oath are now violating
it daily. In many cases, the violations are the result of ignorance:
the honest belief that the proper role of government is to control
the people rather than work to guarantee a social and political
environment in which they can safely control their own individual
destinies. But that is not an excuse. When taking a solemn oath, one
is responsible for knowing the nature of that commitment.

Therefore, to those who might accuse us of anything from disloyalty
to treason, we say this: We are loyal to the Constitution of the
United States of America. Aren't you?

And we will not despair. Not while the freedom of expression --
especially political expression -- guaranteed by the First Amendment
is still honored by enough Americans to make the "control freaks" in
government reluctant to violate it, however much they might wish to.
Therefore, this site consists of protected political expression, and
the only action it explicitly advocates for freedom-minded Americans
is ... political expression. That should never be a problem ... and
our job is to do what we can to convince America that it must never
be a problem, for when open and honest dissent is stifled, there
simply is no freedom.