Boston Legal
http://www.boston-legal.org/19-stickit/ep19-stickit.shtml
Alan Shore's closing argument
Alan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be
not true, I expected
the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that
our government
participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them
over to regimes who
specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard
from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists
suspects, locked them up
without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers.
Certainly, we would
never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting
massive, illegal,
domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least
consoled myself that
finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially,
we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're
okay with it all.
Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison
without a fair trial - or
any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not
offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear
indication that
young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding
her taxes, she could
have protested the old fa****oned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a
Presidential or
Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well.
The Secret Service can
now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect,
criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a sup****tive
t-****rt, you can be
there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be
removed.
This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of
America. Is Melissa Hughes
the only one embarrassed?
*Alan sits down abruptly in the witness chair next to the judge*
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. That's a chair for witnesses only.
Really long speeches make me so tired sometimes.
Judge Sanders: Please get out of the chair.
Alan: Actually, I'm sick and tired.
Judge Sanders: Get out of the chair!
Alan: And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody
disagrees with how the
government is running things, he or she is labeled unAmerican.
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Evidentally, it's speech time.
Alan: And speech in this country is free, you hack! Free for me, free for
you. Free for Melissa
Hughes to stand up to her government and say "Stick it"!
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Objection!
Alan: I object to government abusing its power to squash the
constitutional freedoms of its
citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being
a heretic. Melissa
Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an
American!
Judge Sanders: Mr. Shore. Unless you have anything new and fresh to say,
please sit down.
You've breached the decorum of my courtroom with all this hooting.
Alan: Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29 year
old, but the book
contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The
tragedy of our day is
the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too
often, sinister threats to
the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the
patriotic cloak of
anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's
far easier to fight for
principles than to live up to them."
I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights - we have to live up to
that. We simply must.
That's all Melissa Hughes was trying to say. She was speaking for you. I
would ask you now to
go back to that room and speak for her.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
**
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