Tradition of Sedition

According to Webster: Sedition: n.

1. Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state.
2. Insurrection; rebellion.

The US has a long history of battling both for and against sedition. The Declaration of Independence may be our ultimate standard for this act, a right the first amendment backed up in speech, press, petition, religion, or meeting. The very first thing the Bill of Rights gives us is the ability to speak out. Twenty-two years later the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 were passed, cutting those hard-earned rights into scraps, with a threat of deportation if one is caught speaking out against the government. To quote, "SEC. I That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States...[he] shall be punished."
SEC. 2. If any person shall write, print, utter, or publish.... scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States...with intent to defame the said government...or to bring them...into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President...or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States... then such person...shall be punished "
Even an utterance of questioning the actions of President John Adams, or Congress could lead directly to deportation (as read in Section 3, which is not quoted in this blog). It's like McCarthyism over a century before the man was born. It was a time of a two-party system, where one party wanted to use fear to control the other party. Newspaper publishers actually spent time in jail for speaking out against Adams' Federalist laws. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1918. Part of the Espionage Act, The Sedition Act essentially gave the US Government unlimited power of censorship, under the fear-driven Red Scare of the era. Largely enforceed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, and his assistant J. Edgar Hoover (yeah...THAT guy) to launch campaigns against the so-called radicals, the Sedition Act was used in the arrest of over 1500 people for the suspicion of sympathies toward communist or socialist parties. (At the time, Communism was not what we saw in Russia, China and Cuba later on in the 20th Century. This is not what the ideals of Communism were, and what became of Russia actually shocked and dismayed many who were initial sympathizers). Essentially, it made it a federal crime to criticize the government or Constitution in any way. Spoken opposition or any published form of writing, expressing negative opinions about the war effort, or even opinions against the draft would lead to imprisonment. Even the expression one's own opinions through a private correspondence to a friend or family member was illegal. To quote,
"SECTION 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war...shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States . . . or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production . . . or advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished ..."
Again, free speech was not only curbed in wartime, it was silenced altogether.
So why all this history? I mean I know I did well in AP History and all (Damn you Gillespie, damn you and your red beard!) but what does this have to do with now?
The answer is EVERYTHING. If there is one thing I did learn from Redbeard its that history repeats itself in more ways than we often notice outright. In the US we have this history of Sedition, then repression of it. Fear of speaking out, of dissent, of those who don't agree. The whole concept of free speech is difficult--the first Amendment does not just protect those with whom you agree, but those with whom you would spend the rest of your life fighting against. It is for both the pro-choice and the pro-life movements, the gay rights and anti-gay marriage activists, the Christians, the Muslims, the Jews, the Pagans, the Hale Bopp freaks.
Today I was reading Newsweek, where they divulged this information on the CIA's secret 747 that they are using to fly people, w/o due process, to other countries to be held and questioned, without any knowledge of what they are being held for, how long they will be held, or how to contact their families. It could be months of captivity. (article) There are no judges, not juries, no representatives, nothing. The CIA has the power, thanks to that lovely Patriot Act (which makes my blood pressure skyrocket, and is another issue entirely). So what? You say. I'm not a terrorist, I have nothing to worry about. When your government starts snatching people without giving a reason, a warrant, or a trial by jury, you have everything to worry about. Ever read the poem "First They Came For the Jews" about the Holocaust? Eventually, it does become about you. It always comes around.
We must question--it is our duty, our right, or obligation--we must question to keep our government honest. Sedition formed this country, and sedition just may save it. "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." -Mark Twain