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ACLU Not Alone in Its Outrage
[Editor’s Note: Third and final installment of an essay on governmental abuse by Stephen F. Rohde, former president of the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The essay was written on the eve of America’s birthday, the 4th of July, and appeared in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. A key line in an earlier installment: “Civil libertarians have never disagreed with the government’s stated intention of keeping our nation safe. But individuals need not forfeit their fundamental civil liberties to keep our nation secure.”]
How One Man Celebrates the 4th
As we approach July 4, our celebrations are muted by the deaths of more than 2,500 Americans in Iraq, the deaths of coalition forces, countless wounded and the untold loss of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. As if that were not enough, in the name of spreading “democracy” around the globe, the United States is violating human rights abroad and civil liberties at home. Civil libertarians have never disagreed with the government’s stated intention of keeping our nation safe, but individuals need not forfeit their fundamental civil liberties to keep our nation secure. No one said it better than Benjamin Franklin, a signer of the Declaration of Independence: “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” The declaration warned despotic governments that it was the right of the people “to provide new Guards for their future security.” One of those guards is the American Civil Liberties Union, founded in 1920 and never more active than today in the struggle for “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
First, They Came for Muslims
[Editor’s Note: Prominent First Amendment lawyer Stephen Rohde will be the guest speaker on Wednesday evening at 7:30 at the monthly meeting of the Democratic Club at the Vets Auditorium. He s a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. In the following essay, Mr. Rohde reprises — and updates — a well known call-to-arms theme from World War II.] 
Mr. Rohde
First they came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.
Then they came for the immigrants, detaining them indefinitely, solely on the certification of the attorney general, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an immigrant.
Then they came to eavesdrop on suspects consulting with their attorneys, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a suspect.
