CITIZENS NEED FREE VOICES

To The Packet: At Stratford High School near Charleston, 14 police
officers, several with guns drawn, rushed into the school early in the
morning of Nov. 5. They told students in the halls to lie on the floor
while they put plastic restraints on some and dumped out their backpacks.
No drugs were found. The paramilitary-style raid has the community angry
and distrustful.

In Miami, for three days in November, 2,500 police in full riot gear beat
peaceful demonstrators with wooden clubs, shot them with rubber bullets,
shocked them with Tasers and pepper-sprayed their faces. The protesters,
mainly seniors and union workers, were objecting to the Free Trade Area of
the Americas they believe will hurt U.S. workers. Miami's mayor called the
police actions "a model for homeland security."

Next June there will be an economic summit meeting on Sea Island, Ga., and
in Savannah. Anticipating future protests, the director of Georgia's
Department of Homeland Security told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "We
need to do much the same as they did in Miami."

What's happening in America? Has 9-11 caused us to confuse antiterrorism
and patriotism? Are the actions of paranoid government leaders from the
executive branch and Congress to state bureaucrats and local police chiefs
raging out of control?

It's time we stop treating ordinary citizens like terrorists. It's time we
realize the future of our democracy depends on freedom from fear and our
right to voice different opinions.

John King

Hilton Head Island