| (April 2003 Newsletter - 2) Judicial Reform? If the “system” worked and those (mal) administering justice obeyed their own rules and doctrines like “Judicial Restraint,” we wouldn’t nee a show of numbers and publicity to obtain justice. The law would operate to ensure that basic Constitutional protections were preserved and the Boards policing the profes-sion would not be able to “target” voices for the People as the old King’s court did, to silence the critics. If only more people realized how much of their heritage has been stolen from them by those they trusted to “uphold the Constitution” (actually most have, that 60 % eligible to vote that don’t are tired of the choice of the lesser of two evils.) They know the major parties’ (Rep. & Dem.) chosen candidates don’t represent them so much as the lobbying—euphemism for bribing—special interests. The First Amendment was intended to protect speech critical of government. The legal community has worked over the years to subvert the intent of that major check against government abuse of the authority by keeping complaints against politicians, lawyers, and judges’ secret. As John Adams asserted, “the people have a right to know about the character and conduct of those that would represent them.” We have all seen what the lack of accountability has done to the Catholic Church. In deference to self-protection they ignored the blight of the children being abused by priests, and now they face massive class-action suits. Cardinal Law (who discovery documents knew for years but chose to “cover up”) has finally resigned, and all the abused victims that hid in shame, as a result of their abusers’ violations, are now coming forward to tell of their ordeals. The lack of accountability and oversight of Wall Street accounting firms allowed unscrupulous greedy corporate executives to bleed their investors dry and “cover it up” with shady accounting practices much like the current MSOP practices. It took massive public outcry and investors withdrawing their money from the stock market to get OUR public servants (there’s misnomer) Congress to FINALLY address the problem of WHITE COLLAR crime. If you read Gerry Spence’s book, “With Justice for none – Destroying a Great American Myth” – he makes the points – “White collar criminals cost this country more than all the larcenies, burglaries, sex offenses…, and Congress stands mutely by with their hands in their pockets, wherein their true interests lie,…, the ubiquity of the most venal pettifoggers,…, the ultimate injustice – to surrender to the status quo,…, NOBODY is WATCHING the JUDGES..” What happened to Miss Elsebeth Baumgartner, and all too many, is a good example of former President Jimmy Carter’s assertion in an article he did for the N.Y. Times “Why Some People Distrust the ‘System’” – “it is time for America’s Legal system to correct itself…unfortunately, reform voices are muted.” P.S. WANTED CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE that will honor their oaths and serve Public welfare, not the special interests. Propaganda Can Be Deadly “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” – Attributed to Mark Twain. “You miserable Jew!” snapped the schoolteacher, as she slapped here seven-year old student. She then invited the class to file by him and to spit in his face. Both the teacher and the student – her nephew – knew perfectly well that the boy and his parents were not of Jewish descent. Nor were they Jewish by faith. Taking advantage of widespread prejudice against Jews, the teacher was fostering hatred of her student. For years both the teacher and her class had been told by their priest that Jews were despicable. The boy’s parents had been called both Communists and agents of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). So the boy’s class mates filed by, eager to spit in the face of a “miserable Jew.” That boy survived to tell his story. This was not true for six million Jews living in Germany and nearby countries some 60 years ago. Vicious propaganda was instrumental in extinguishing the lives of those Jews in Nazi gas chambers and concentration camps. Widespread, profound, unquestioned, and virulent anti-Semitism led many to regard Jews as enemies whose extermination was not only necessary but also just. In that case, propaganda proved to be a weapon of mass extermination (mass destruction). Yes, propaganda can be displayed openly by the use of such emblems of hate such as the swastika, the burning cross, sex offender internet registration, level three sex offender community notification, or subtly by the telling of a tasteless joke. Dictators, politicians, judges, clergymen, advertisers, marketers, journalists, radio and TV news media, and others who are interested in influencing thought and behavior regularly apply its persuasive techniques. Of course, propagandistic messages can be used to accomplish positive social ends as well, as in camp-aigns to reduce drunk driving, drug usage, public smoking etc. But propaganda may also be used to pro-mote hatred for ethnic or religious minorities, or those disfavored by the Minnesota Legislature such as sex offenders. “Every day we are bombarded with one persuasive communication after another,” point out researchers Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson. “These appeals persuade not through the give-and-take of argument and debate, but through the manipulation of symbols and of our most basic human emotions. For better or worse, ours is an age of propaganda.” Nationally sex offenders have been physically assaulted and possibly murdered, burned out of their homes, harassed, and publicly humiliated because they are publicly and politically disfavored. Sex offenders are undergoing various experimental treatments and their rights are continually being violated because they are thought of as the “worst of the worst” which has been repeatedly used publicly and politically to describe Minnesota’s sex offenders’. |
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