Goodbye to Freedom

Thanks to another lovely fallout of the Patriot Act, today my friend Darren will be sentenced and no doubt convicted as a terrorist (their words, not mine).

How can a country label people who disagree with the government, terrorists, just because they are environmental or animal rights advocates? In the U.S. you can bomb an abortion clinic and kill someone and not be convicted as a terrorist. You can beat a person to death out of hatred of their skin color or their sexual preference and not be convicted as a terrorist. But if you burn an SUV out of frustration with the destruction of the environment you are a terrorist. Or (in Darren's case) release wild horses that the government rounds up to auction off (often to then be sold for slaughter so that ranchers can graze their cattle for practically free) you are considered a terrorist.

With this gross misuse of the term "terrorist" none of us will ever be safe.

Don't buy into the Green Scare propaganda. Support eco-saboteurs before you lose your freedom of speech. You may not agree with the actions they took to defend the earth and the animals but they are not terrorists.

***Update: Darren was sentenced to 37 months (the amount of time the prosecution requested). The judge chose not to include the terrorism enhancement on Darren's sentence (three of his co-accused have received it and sentencing continues through June 5th for the remaining defendants) due to being unable to come to a strong conclusion about his particular situation. Darren will likely be sent to either Sheridan or Sea-Tac Federal Prison where it is expected he will be classified as a medium or minimum security prisoner.