USA PATRIOT Act up for renewal

I subscribe to a list that keeps me posted on what my congressional delegates vote on, upcoming votes, and the sort. This was listed in the “Upcoming Votes” section of the email.

USA PATRIOT and Terrorism Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005 - H.R.3199
The House is scheduled to take up this conference report making parts of the PATRIOT Act permanent.

I’m pretty sure that the HRC is against this vote, and especially the ACLU. As am I.

I don’t believe that America is a police state, nor should it become one just for the sake of protection against terrorism. Yes, terrorism is a serious matter that shouldn’t be taken lightly. But starting a war in Iraq to fight for “freedom” while redistributing troops from Afghanistan (where we were actually fighting terrorism) isn’t the way to do it. And enacting a law that villifies anyone for criticizing the government, or if it doesn’t villify, certainly makes us paranoid that the Gov’t is going to attack us for thinking critically of its actions.

A great American, and a somewhat-questionably great American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said that we had “freedom from fear.” What has happened to those lofty ideals? What has happened to our pursuit of the American Dream? Why has our society plummeted down into the depths of cynicism? Why have we allowed inner city ghettos to become magnets of poverty? Why have we allowed class struggle to continue to exist, long after visionaries like Dr. King and Rosa Parks spread their hope for America?

Why?!?!