Media ignoring government repression

Kudos to the Wildcat for publishing the article on the Green Scare event. The “”liberal”” mainstream media has ignored the increasing governmental repression of dissidents and activists of all sorts since 9/11.

From book clubs in Fresno, Calif., (see “”Fahrenheit 9/11″”) to environmental activists, to more than 50 police departments creating intelligence departments throughout the country, America is moving away from many of the “”sacred truths”” we hold to be “”self-evident.””

Due process and access to counsel in Guantanamo, open government and Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force and now “”modern McCarthyism”” are undermining the values that once made America great. Keep telling the people the truth and someday they’ll listen.

– Jared Hautamaki
graduate student

Columnist misunderstands law

In her column last week, Yusra Tekbali asserted that a federal ban on gay marriage, particularly in the form of a constitutional amendment, would be unconstitutional. To begin with, it’s obvious that an amendment to the U.S. Constitution cannot be unconstitutional. That is a contradiction in terms.While I certainly concur with my former colleague that there is very little wisdom in passing such an amendment, I firmly dissent from some of the other points in her column. Namely, the suggestion that Americans are not entitled to vote based on their own morality, their religious beliefs or any other personal conviction. If a majority of the American people support one position and they derive that position from religious belief, then it should become law just like any other measure.

The Constitution only prevents government from “”respecting the establishment of religion.”” This means that government may not fund religion or endorse it directly. But the people may still vote however they choose, for whatever reason they choose.

Tekbali has fallen into the misunderstanding Jefferson feared even as he advocated “”a wall of separation between church and state.””The First Amendment mandates a government free from religious influence, not a nation or a people that is free from it.

The reality is that we remain a nation and a people of belief and those beliefs, varied as they are, have, do and always will influence how Americans vote. For Tekbali to suggest that a political opinion formed on purely secular grounds is somehow superior to one influenced by religious belief is not only arrogant, but it reveals a deep lack of understanding of the history of this nation and its law.

– Michael Huston
political science junior, former Arizona Daily Wildcat
opinions columnist