Christina Back
Blankenship
AP Language & Composition
20 May 2012
The Land
of the Oppressed
We
Americans are generally known throughout the world for our ignorance, are we not?
It is a playful sentiment in which even Americans muse about, but all jokes
aside, the implications for ignorance can spell dire consequences. For instance
patriotism can become affected by public blindness, resulting in the more
harmful states of mind such as jingoism and chauvinism. These attitudes fueled
by misguidance and arrogance possess the potential of further developing into
even fascist, socialist, or totalitarian ideologies. But how is this related to
America?
America
is the land of freedom, the land of opportunity? Yes, and no.
Indeed
America
had offered a wide range of freedoms absent in other nations, like the freedom
of speech, religion, and an innumerable others since its revolutionary founding
in 1776. America
also acted as a “heroic figure,” aiding the Berliners early in the Cold War and
promoting democracy in Latin American countries under the Good Neighbor Policy
(Kennedy). On more social terms, American culture bloomed during the Antebellum
period in the early 1800’s and as well as the Roaring Twenties, times of which
marked climactic points of prosperity within America. However, with years of Pax
Romana, arose light’s counterpart, darkness. Oppression had materialized
simultaneously with its alter ego in every Golden Age of freedom. From the mere existence of oppression, the lone
name of freedom would soon be dispelled, as the shadowy existence of it stains
the idealized image of eternal light. Therefore, the “land of freedom” can only
be labeled such a term to a limited extent. While America may seem to uphold a
resolute sense of freedom, it also yields to oppressive forces.
The
Native Americans were the first group to be oppressed in North
America. Although the Native Americans lived on the soil first,
they were treated as foreigners by the immigrating European explorers. Over
time, the Native Americans were pushed onto undesirable territories that were
often infertile for farming and devoid of any value. The climax came when the
Indian Removal Act of 1830 was enacted under President Jackson’s
administration, forcing the Indians to relocate. As a result, 4,000 Cherokees died
on the journey which would later be called the Trail of Tears (Kennedy). Forced onto barren lands specifically allotted
just for them by the American government under the Dawes Act in 1887, they were
also forced to live American lifestyles and abandon their traditions in a
tactic called “coercive assimilation” (Folsom). Eventually, the Native
Americans were pushed onto undesirable territories that were often infertile
for farming and devoid of any value. In addition to that, the Native Americans
were further oppressed by swindlers whom cheated them into misleading allotment
schemes. Due to the laws and combined support of the people, Native American
culture quickly fractured and bend towards the will of the oppressors.
America’s
Constitution was violated during an age of paranoia and nativism. The Red Scare
captured the essence of the Roaring Twenties, in which innocent people were
seized and forced out of America without any idea of what they had done with no
trial or hearing (Watson). Nativist
sentiment oppressed ideas brought by immigrants. This had unfortunately led to
the unjustified arrests of over thousands of people, including the arrest of
the third party candidate, Eugene Debs, under the Espionage Act of 1917, who had
no intention to overthrow the government. This was to no avail to the federal
agents commissioned to detain them, a search prompted by Attorney General
Palmer in what would later be called the Palmer Raids. It was met with much
approval by J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the F.B.I, who was notorious of having
a Gestapo-like agency (Curt, 73). On the other hand, this infamous operation
also faced criticism from even government officials. Progressive, Republican
politician Robert Follette had proclaimed in his speech to the Senate, that “it
appears to be the purpose of those conducting this campaign [is] to throw the
country into a state of terror to coerce public opinion, to stifle criticism,
and suppress discussion of the great issues involved in this war” (Follette). Although
there may have been conspirators, a fair trial could have easily been conducted
to find the culprits guilty of a coup d’etat. In permitting the Palmer Raids, the
US
government had betrayed their convictions and values of freedom, and had taken
the alternative course of oppression.
Executive
Order 9066 was one of the worst cases of oppressive scenarios. America
had resorted to this unpopular measure for the same, recurring motif; to
maintain public security. There were other means of discriminating the guilty
from the innocent, but mass prejudice engulfed this nation into doing what they
inherently thought was right. This conviction was “largely an accumulation of
much of the misinformation, half-truths, and insinuations that for years have
been directed against the Japanese Americans by people with radical
and economic prejudices (Carroll, 55)” The act was implemented by the
government in the midst of World War II. It had relocated the Japanese into
“internment camps” a euphemism for the identical concentration camps created by
the Germans, where the Japanese were seized and unjustifiably confined to worst than prison-like conditions, just for being "potential suspects." The Japanese were told by authorities and
even President Roosevelt that it was best for their protection, but the
Japanese quickly realized the white lie that was given to them; the guns were
literally pointed at them from inside the camps, not to the outside (Kennedy).
In times of crisis, the majority had to pay for the misdeeds of the few.
In
another case of government hypocrisy, a seemingly minor change was added to the
NDAA, or the National Defense Authorization act, in 2012, inconspicuously
seizing the rights of Americans. The bill states that “any person who has
committed a belligerent act” can be detained without warrant. It also indicates if the government finds anyone unsavory for any reason, the government may "seize and imprison an individual indefinitely" without trial, even for merely opposing the government. Essentially, any person living in the United States
can be arrested without due process of law.
The NDAA is basically an addition
to its counterpart from 2001, the USA Patriot Act, when spelled out titled, Uniting
and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept
and Obstruct Terrorism Act, which allows the government to search and
spy on U.S.
citizens without warrant. Together, the government can spy and arrest whomever
it pleases without restrictions, justifying its actions with the weak excuse of
“preserving national security;” this is oppression at its finest. Clinton Rossiter,
former Political Science professor
from Cornell University, claimed that a crisis
government must be implemented in times of crisis, with the qualification that
it must also be carried on by persons representative of the citizenry
interested in defense of the Constitutional order (Rossiter, 304). And with
only 51% of Americans in 2010 believing that “it is necessary to give up some
civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism,” the
condition for a “constitutional dictatorship” is already broken (Thomma)
Today,
America
faces another threat on top of the NDAA. Now, under H.R. 347, formally called
the Federal Restricted Buildings
and Grounds Improvement Act, anyone who “engages in disorderly or disruptive
conduct” or “impede[s] or disrupt[s] the orderly conduct of Government business
or official functions,” may be arrested. It further states that the protests in
areas occupied by individuals, like politicians or Presidential candidates,
under the protection of the Secret Service are forbidden. The unspecific and
vague wording even within the bill allows arrests to be made easier. Even
peaceful protests are under a threat (Lithwick). The bill’s easy passage with a
vast majority of bipartisan support indicates how far America has ventured off from its
once sacred promises and ideals.
Like the National Defense
Authorization Act and the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, the Federal Restricted Buildings
and Grounds Improvement Act uses the language of “doublespeak,” in which carefully selected
words are used to mislead and distort reality (Lutz, 422). By using deceitful
diction, the government is gradually stripping away the power of the people and
oppressing their freedoms under the radar, first with the creation of the Patriot Act, then with
revisions of the NDAA, and now H.R. 347.If the people cannot voice themselves
to the people who create the laws, and are consequentially punished for
speaking, how can there possibly be change in a society that accepts no
opinions other than that of the federal establishment? Today, we are all guilty
until proven innocent.
It is another
general fact that history repeats itself. Throughout American history, the
repetitious suspicion of foreigners and the sacrifice of civil liberties for
safety is not a new fact in America
today (Rossiter). Therefore, certain revolution will come as the cycle comes into
full circle. From the years of 2010 to 2012, President Obama created a slogan
to promise change, but only changed his promise. It is time for America to recreate
itself into its idealized self, a country where the government is not above the
law, a country where the people’s best interests are heard, and most of all, a
country that symbolizes freedom. “And may one day the innocent never suffer and
the brave never die, for on that day we'll truly be free, united as one,
divided by zero.”
-Anonymous
Works Cited
Carroll,
Jamuna, ed. Civil Liberties and War. Farmington Hills, MI:
Greenhaven Press, 2006. Print. Issues on Trial.
Curt, Gentry. J.
Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc.,
1991. Print.
Follette,
Robert La.
“Free Speech in War Time .” U.S.
Senate Chamber. 6 Oct. 1917. United
States Senate. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.senate.gov/////.pdf>.
Folsom, R.D. "American Indian
Law Interview." American Indians Imprisoned in the
Oklahoma Penitentiary:
"A Punishment More Primitive than Torture" 2.1
(1974):
85-109. JSTOR. Web. 22 Mar. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/>
Lithwick,
Dahlia, and Raymond Vasvari. “You Can’t Occupy This.” Slate. Washington
Post Company, 19 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 May 2012.
<http://www.slate.com//_and_politics////_anti_protest_bill_signed_by_barack_obama_is_a_quiet_attack_on_free_speech_.html>.
Kennedy, David
M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. Boston: Suzanne Jeans,
2006. Print.
Lutz, William. The
World of Doublespeak. The Bedford
Reader. 9th ed. Boston:
Bedford, 2006.
417-26. Print.
“Opinions of
the Patriot Act.” Chart. Pew
Research Center.
Pew Research Center,
15 Feb. 2011. Web. 22 Mar. 2012. <http://www.people-press.org////remains-divided-over-the-patriot-act/>.
Rossiter,
Clinton. Constitutional Dictatorship. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1948. Print.
Thomma, Steven.
“Most Americans would Trim Liberties to be Safer.” McClatchy. McClatchy,
12 Jan. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://www.mcclatchydc.com/////most-americans-would-trim.html>.
- - -. - - -. Federal
Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. 112 Cong., 2nd
Sess,. H.R. 347. 2012. PDF file.
Watson, Bruce.
“Crackdown! When Bombs Terrorized America, the Attorney General Launched the ‘Palmer Raids.’” Military and
Intelligence Database Collection. N.p., Feb. 2002. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.
<http://go.galegroup.com//>
