Dean, sans Scream

Athenae at First Draft once again puts up a great blog entry. This time she quotes a speech by Howard Dean about this presidential race, and the direction of current American policy. Here's a great bit I've taken right from her entry:

"Two hundred and two Septembers after the creation of our Bill of Rights, Attorney General John Ashcroft drafted a document that has eroded our Constitutional rights and broken down the mutual trust between the American people and their government -- and between Americans and each other -- by making suspects out of all of us.

"That is not the act of a patriot.

"A true Patriot Act is not born out of fear, but out of trust; it is not born out of division, but out of community; it is not born out of suspicion, but out of faith in each of us.

"We need to remind this administration what a Patriot Act is.

"A neighbor lends a hand to a friend in need, that is a Patriot Act.

"A mother struggles for her children's future, that is a Patriot Act.

"An immigrant becomes a member of our American family, that is a Patriot Act.

"Men and women risk life and limb on behalf of our country through our armed services, that is a Patriot Act.

"Americans come together as a community and as a country to declare their values, their rights, and their very independence that is a Patriot Act, as it was in 1776 and as it is over two hundred years later and as it will be, through our actions, over two hundred years from now."

This resonates with me in a lot of ways. And probably more now that I've experienced the invective being hurled by the supporters of this Administration in the name of Patriotism. We really need to remember what it means to be a Patriot. So read the speech already.