I want to conduct an experiment - I want to put an oversized sticker [or maybe 'billboard' is a better word] on my car, and I want to see if I would get hassled by the police or even the FBI, and if so, how quickly this might happen. Why would anyone do anything so stupid you might ask? I am curious to see if and /or how my exercising my first amendment right could get me labeled as a "social terrorist".

I started thinking about this after reading a handful of articles revolving around people being arrest, questioned by the FBI, threatened, fired, trailed, etc... for exercising their rights as an American. First I read about 'three teachers evicted from a Bush event for wearing "Protect our civil liberties" t-shirts. Then there was the man who was fired for asking questions during a Bush speech... the FBI had been trailing and later interrogated three young activists from Missouri. A man arrested for carrying an anti-war sign, inside the appropriate zoned-off area [while a man wearing a "I heart halliburton" t-shirt called him unpatriotic]. In all cases, the people were un-violently "petitioning the Government for a redress of grievances".

The definition of fascism reads: a system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism...

So what amendments have been heavily ignored under the Bush administration?

1) abridging the freedom of or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

2) the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures...

3) the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race...

To name a few... anyways, I truthfully don't want any trouble from the police of the FBI, but I have to know, first hand, how out of control things have gotten, I guess "under control" would be more acurate in this situation. Am I really free to speak my mind? Or would my saying, "U.S. Aggression Breeds Terrorism", get me redflagged? 20 years ago Erwin Knoll, was arrested for distributing copies of the Bill of Rights in a mall in Madison, Wisconsin. I would like to think that we have progressed from that point... become more reasonable... more open-minded and thoughtful. I'm affraid I might not like what I find...