Constitutional Irony

The prez will be a no-show, but protesters will work to be heard anyway.

by Daniel Brook

In the wake of 9/11, commentators and pundits suggested that the age of irony had ended. But with the opening of America’s first museum dedicated to the Constitution on Independence Mall this Fourth of July, many civil liberties advocates are breaking out their 1990s-era smirks. They find it stunningly ironic to be celebrating the Constitution at a time when they claim the Bush administration is shredding the Bill of Rights under the auspices of protecting America from terrorists.

"It is ironic that at the time when the Bill of Rights is being challenged the most, the Constitution Center is being opened," says Pennsylvania ACLU Director David DiSabatino. But DiSabatino sees more than just irony. "I also think it's an opportunity to focus attention on the Constitution and what it means and why we want to protect it."

For Ben Waxman, one of the organizers of the July 4th Mobilization Committee that plans to bring thousands of protesters to town for the opening, the center's opening is "funny [and] sort of ironic."

But Justice Department spokesperson Mark Corallo isn't smirking. He says the administration's response to 9/11 has been guided by Attorney General John Ashcroft's maxim to "think outside the box but not outside the Constitution." Corallo says the administration's approach to fighting terror has won the bipartisan support of a U.S. Congress that overwhelmingly approved the Patriot Act, and continues to be popular according to opinion polls. Corallo says the administration's critics are motivated by politics and have gotten caught up in their own overheated rhetoric. "I'd like them to first name a single civil liberty that has been infringed upon, because the answer is not a single one," he says.

DiSabatino can rattle off a slew of them, though. "The Patriot Act creates new and sweeping surveillance and investigation powers including the ability to spy on you without probable cause, track everywhere you go on the Internet and access records on you held by any business -- including the books you read, your health records, your credit card records [and] your Internet service provider. At the same time, the Patriot Act prevents courts from challenging abuses."

Plans for the July 4 protest, known as Justice in July, were hatched not just because of outrage over the Patriot Act but also because a rumor had been circulating that President Bush would attend the museum opening. According to Constitution Center spokesperson Liz Barszczewski, the Center merely announced that Bush had been invited. That message, she says, "got carried away by various media," giving people the impression that a presidential appearance was a done deal.

Since the president's schedule is only released a few days in advance, it was not until last Friday that the White House announced the president would spend Independence Day in Dayton, Ohio. White House spokesperson Scott Stanzel says the president is heading to the Buckeye State to "celebrate Independence Day and make remarks at the Inventing Flight festivities." (The Dayton festival celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight. While the flight took place in North Carolina, the Wrights lived in Dayton.)

For Philadelphia boosters who might think, "Big whoop, they invented flight, we invented America," Stanzel notes that the president did spend the Fourth in the nation's birthplace two years ago.

Stanzel says Bush receives "thousands of invitations from throughout the country to attend events. The president wishes he could travel more and visit more places," but he can only make it to a small fraction of the events he's invited to. The White House insists that the plans for a major protest had nothing to do with the president's decision not to come to Philadelphia.

But the activists aren't buying it. "We won. He's not coming," says Waxman. "He's come to Pennsylvania how many times?" Waxman asks, alluding to the president's numerous trips to the politically important Keystone State. "He wants to win Pennsylvania. It's clear that Pennsylvania is going to be a major battleground" in the 2004 election, says Waxman. (Ohio is also considered a swing state.)

"We don't want him to speak anywhere without seeing the tremendous opposition to what he's saying and doing. Whether he's coming or not coming, we're going forward with the protest because we're protesting his policies," says organizer Phoebe Schellenberg. "We think that President Bush has trampled on the civil liberties which are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights."

For DiSabatino, having a protest at the opening is even more fitting than Bush's rain check. "We are just in favor of as much free speech as possible. That's what the First Amendment's all about."

-- Respond to this article in our Forums -- click to jump there




	search citypaper.net