AMBER ALERT INFRINGES ON MY RIGHTS

I was in Portland not too long ago when, while driving on I-5, an Amber
Alert came across the radio waves. I had no idea what it meant at the time,
and assumed it had something to do with the war or a terrorist threat. But I
was wrong, it had nothing to do with the war; it was a child-kidnapping
alert.

When I read about the Amber Alert bill (Senate bill 151) in Congress even
more recently, I was happy to hear about it. I am all for legislation that
helps protect children from being kidnapped. I'm all for it, that is, as
long as it doesn't take away any of my own rights, and seeing as how I have
no plans to start nabbing kiddies, I don't see how such legislation could
infringe on my rights. I'm sure that Rumsfield, Chaney, their lackey
President Bush and a few congressional slimeballs like Senator Joe Biden
(D-Del.) would be perfectly happy to hear me say that.

The problem is that the Amber Alert bill in fact has become a bill that
would infringe on my rights. Not because it wants to help children, but
because of a little something called the The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation
Act that Senator Biden tacked on. The fact that the actual bill and its
rider have nothing to do with each other seems to have escaped our
ever-caring, ever-vigilant congress.

Yes, that's right, without any public hearings, debates, or votes within the
last year the RAVE Act, whoops, I mean the The Illicit Drug
Anti-Proliferation Act, is almost law. I mistakenly wrote the RAVE Act
because IT IS THE RAVE ACT! Don't let the lack of the word "rave" in the
document fool you. Thanks to thousands of complaints within the last year,
the word "rave," as well as the suggestion that prosecutors should view the
sale of water and the presence of glowsticks or massage oil as evidence of
drug use, has been eliminated from the Act.

In the coming weeks the President will probably sign the bill into law as he
and others get to play the same role as the bad guys in "Footloose." You
remember that movie, right? The Kevin Bacon flick where the city council (or
some authority group) shuts down the high school dance because it's immoral.
Bacon's character gets them to change their minds by quoting the Bible.

Well, in our case, I don't think the Bible can help us. The President
becomes an atheist as soon as he takes office (he can hold nothing dearer to
him than his own county, not even God) and in the last few months we've seen
what little moral ground Bush's government has to stand on anyway.

So, what can we do to help ourselves? Unfortunately the answer is not much.
Nothing short of getting Bush to not sign the Amber Alert Bill into law will
prevent the The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act from becoming law. Our
right to free speech and to peacefully assemble may soon be gone.

All the police will be required to do is suspect someone is illegally using
drugs in a concert hall, hotel, stadium, or anywhere a public event is held.
And of course there will be the added scare tactic of now holding business
owners/concert promoters/etc. accountable as well, no matter what they try
to do to prevent drug use in the first place.

I'm not sure which is scarier, the possibility of losing a greater part of
my first amendment rights, or the fact that we have such scumbags in
Congress that would attach crap like The Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act
to legislation that is meant to do good in the world.

Wait, I do know. The scariest part is knowing that in a few weeks the police
might have the power to look at a group of people, and based on the way they
act, the way they are dressed, the way they live their life, or just the
color of their skin, they can come charging in.