[AAACE-NLA] "Lobbying'' as euphemism

[Eileen Eckert]

Hi George and Catherine,
As you noticed, George, I was pointing out a possible interpretation of the 
"citizen" tag that you didn't intend when you added it. I think there are 
very few people on this list, if any, who would really intend to restrict 
freedom of speech to U.S. citizens. Intended or not, though, we have 
hundreds, maybe thousands, of non-citizens in detention without charge or 
recognition, and with no end in sight. Even before the current era of 
valuing the illusion of security over the reality of civil liberties, 
non-citizens were often wary of claiming the constitutional rights that are 
theirs by virtue of simply being in the U.S. Having articulated my concern 
and hearing your responses takes care of the issue of possible 
misinterpretation.

To tie this in with the subject line, lots of people have pointed out the 
discontinuity between rhetoric and results that is a hallmark of the Bush 
administration. "Patriot Act" is a cover for subversion of civil liberties 
and unpatriotic action by government, "flexibility"--a keyword of the 
proposed changes to workplace rules--stands for loss of same because masses 
of workers will lose the right to be paid overtime when they work overtime, 
"local control" of schools really means unprecedented federal control, and 
on and on. And "lobbying" is used to mean anything some zealot in the 
administration doesn't want to see in a public discussion. Garry Trudeau in 
Doonesbury called it "down the rabbit hole."

I'm glad you took my comment as you did; we need to stand together and 
resist the current wave of euphemisms and the undemocratic, anti-humanistic 
actions for which they stand!

Eileen

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