Oklahoma Federal District Judge hears the chipping!

[sazemisery]

The Honorable Lee R. West, US District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma, was recently honored with the Rogers State University 2006 Constitution Award. Here is a synopsis of his speech:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/OpinionStory.asp?ID=061015_Op_G6_Asoft11417

Here are some highlights:

". . . The theory that a war-time president's powers are virtually unlimited is contrary to the basic principles of the Constitution."

"Since the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, we've seen an erosion of our civil rights. And we've tolerated it because we're all dazed, I believe, by the sudden realization that America is not immune to the violence that plagues so much of the world. We've tolerated it because we have let ourselves be ruled by fear."

"Terrorist groups threaten a super power like the United States not because they can eventually carry out an attack that kills hundreds or even thousands of people. No, they threaten us because they reap the benefit of our overreaction."

"I never would have believed that Americans would tolerate the systematic torture of prisoners. I thought that was something so repugnant, so foreign to our understanding of what it meant to be human, much less American, that the public would instantly reject it. I didn't believe Americans would abide keeping detainees -- including American citizens -- imprisoned without charges. . . ."

"I would have been alarmed that Americans would yawn when informed that their own domestic calls had been wiretapped in the absence of the warrant required by law."

"I take exception to the endlessly repeated mantra that 9/11 'changed everything.' It did not. We have always been vulnerable. We always will be. It's part of the human condition and it is heightened in free societies where citizens accept a degree of risk as the price of freedom."

"If, as the sole surviving super power on Earth, America cannot now afford to live up to its ideals when do you suppose it will ever be able to do so?"

"Already the American public seems to be somewhat convinced that it is powerless to influence a government attuned primarily to the demands of the enormous corporations that finance our elections."

# "Despite all these truly daunting challenges, I still have hope. I have hope because I see a younger generation with energy and a determination that America can live up to its promise. I have hope because I can see you listening, and I know your ears are sharp. Once attuned, those ears will always be sensitive to that soft, chipping noise -- to the haunting sound of dying liberty."

I have known Judge West for 10 years and I am proud to say he is a fellow Okie.