Dear Editor,
Russell Greim's piece about "un-American groups behind war protests" (March 24) was not just a tad demagogic; it was an unchecked id running out of control.
Just think, he didn't say dissenters were "bad" Americans. He said they were "un-American." He has reached a point where he is more conservative than Indiana at large.
He started the piece with the issue of "time"; that is, the First Amendment's free speech rights. Next, he arbitrarily defined "peaceable" assembly in order to take away the rights of dissenters to redress grievances. That is, the First Amendment is optional or conditional. Rubbish!
Dissent is to be combated with a single-mindedness that borders on paranoia, according to Greim. Stakes are high. So is Greim's fear. Disagreement looks like treason to him, and he resorted to lying about the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. That is, they are supporters of communism in Cuba. And he lied about Ramsey Clark, too.
In a constitutional democracy like ours, we owe loyalty to the Constitution rather than to the Bush government. And the American Constitution is a liberal construction. Americans consent to government as individuals. We do not consent as members of any group.
Regarding Bush's "election," even Ken Starr admits in his new book on the Supreme Court that the Court's preeminence does not stem from the Constitution, but is simply a continuation of politics. So much for the Bush v. Gore 5-4 decision, a.k.a. judicial tyranny, that some folks dare call treason.
Voltaire got to the nub of the issue when he said, "It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."
B.J. Paschal
professor emeritus
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