Producers/hosts: Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco
For several months we’ve been reporting on the ways repressive governments, here and elsewhere, are promoting legislation that would make opposing them a criminal act in and of itself, regardless of any actual crime that might be committed. At the same time, the word “terrorist” has become “new speak”.
In 2007 several people who engaged in acts of vandalism and arson over a period of several years were rounded up and charged with terrorism in the U.S. The terrorism charges were leveled, not because they targeted a crowded subway or shopping mall,—on the contrary, they were committed to not harming a single life. They were charged with “terrorism” because of their beliefs that the companies they were targeting were causing harm. They resorted to vandalism after unsuccessfully trying to bring about change through legal channels. If they had burned down a building because they liked to watch the pretty fire they would have faced the regular set of penalties, but because these folks are environmentalists they were charged with terrorism as well, as part of what has become known as the GreenScare.
Today we talk with Maureen Block, a Maine activist as well as the mother of an environmental activist labeled as a terrorist and currently serving a 92 month sentence for crimes of property destruction. His arrest was part of the green scare which then Attorney General Gonzales called the biggest domestic terrorist threat. Maureen Block is one of the people working to get the word out about the next possible step in this process of criminalizing dissent, the Homegrown Terrorism Bill, also known as the “Thought Crimes Bill”, and introduced by our own Senator Susan Collins. There will be a day of action in Portland , Maine on Tuesday February 19th, 2008
FMI: Maureen Block maureenfblock@yahoo.com, Meg Perry Center via links at www.peaceactionme.org