BRATTLEBORO-Are you thinking about our Constitution's First Amendment today? I am. Before our revolution in 1776, Benjamin Franklin, one of our founding fathers, a resister of British tyranny at the risk of his life, wrote this (spelling and capitalization modernized):
"I am an enemy to vice and a friend to virtue [and] a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country, and the least appearance of an incroachment [sic] on those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil exceedingly."
Do you feel as Franklin does? I do.
To that thought, Franklin added, "Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man, as far as, by it, he does not hurt or control the right of another. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."
In his novel 1984, George Orwell describes what life would be like in Britain under a totalitarian government that used propaganda, violence, terror, and mind control the way Hitler and Stalin did during and after World War II.
Orwell's novel paints a picture where the dictator and his party have total power and control of the citizens. They cannot resist because all words of dissent have been eliminated from the English Language and replaced by newspeak and doublespeak.
Doublespeak is saying one thing and meaning its opposite: "war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength," as Orwell wrote.
All memory of what actually happened in the past is erased. There is no longer such a thing as objective truth.
Objective truth is replaced by a new, invented version of history that changes facts in order to support and celebrate the power of the glorious dictatorship. The mere insinuation that the government might be breaking laws or encroaching on sacred liberties is branded thoughtcrime and reported to the thoughtpolice, who can imprison any one they want without a trial. People just disappear.
To me, Donald Trump's attempts to silence his critics (like journalist Jonathan Karl, comedians Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel) and crush the media (like CNBC, PBS, NPR, CNN), and arrest legal immigrants (including those who have citizenship) and peaceful protestors look and feel a lot like George Orwell's 1984.
I assert to you, fellow citizens, that President Trump - and those in the House and Senate who are supporting him, enabling him, or just plain looking the other way out of fear - have gone too far.
They are trampling on our most sacred freedoms, those guaranteed by the First Amendment of our Constitution - the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and the freedom of assembly - to protest our government's policies wherever and whenever we choose.
I believe that he, and they, have no legal right to do that.
Do you agree? If not, let's talk.
Stephen Stearns
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
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