"Patriots Act" is a collection of interviews with twenty Americans who, knowingly and often unknowingly, dissented meaningfully with the US government. All recount intriguing and infuriating tales.
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QUESTION, Deborah White of About.com - What specifically can we learn from the people profiled in Patriots Act? Are there specific lessons about political action?
ANSWER, Author Bill Katovsky - I think the most important lesson is that dissent is inherently patriotic; it's the lifeblood and vital force of democracy.
Now what does dissent mean? In dysfunctional countries like Iraq, which is simply unable to conform to the U.S. brand of democracy, it means horrific carnage like bombings, sectarian killings, and complete breakdown of social order.
In America, dissent,too can have murderous overtones--just look at Timothy McVeigh--but he had a twisted,grotesque version of being a dissenting patriot.
The people chosen, however, for my book have taken a non-lethal course of action; many are practitioners of non-violent civil disobedience. It takes immense courage, I believe, to willingly want to be arrested for a just cause.
Daniel Ellsberg, Kathy Kelly, and John Sellers of the Ruckus Society, have been arrested dozens and dozens of times; they are not anarchists, but believers in the power of social and political change by pacifism, protest, and putting themselves in harm's way. Who wants to be the receiving end of a police baton anyway? Or spend time in jail?
Paul Hackett, who is profiled in the book, put it this way to me. He's the wealthy Cincinnati attorney who re-enlisted in the Marines, and then came back from Iraq to run as a "fighting Democrat" who was vocal in his opposition to the Bush and the war, and though he was vying for a seat in a very Republican district in southern Ohio- he almost won.
He said that the difference between America and Iraq is that over there disputes are often resolved in an alley with an AK-47, and here they are addressed through politics. "Moreover, those of us who served our country in combat believe that political dissent is at the heart of patriotism. On a day-to-day basis, those who served and fought were motivated by the fact that in some disconnected way, we are fighting for America’s freedom. And that freedom is well-defined by political dissent. That is what differentiates us from rogue nations."
But even so, Hackett later found his own party opposing him when he ran for Senate. He dropped out of the race and returned to his law practice. And subsequently, he has remained vocal in his dissent against the Democratic party brass.
Dissent can be embraced by working within the system, such as running for office, through grass roots activism, or in opposition to the system.
For example, Rand Beers, who was a senior counter-terror advisor to the White House (he held Richard Clarke's former position), decided that the Bush administration was taken the wrong course of action by invading Iraq, which drained resources from going after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan; he could have remained silent and been a loyal staff member.
Instead, he quit the White House five days before the start of the Iraq war; and within a short period, signed up with the Kerry campaign as a foreign policy advisor.
The Bush/Cheney apologist and columnist Robert Novak sneered that Beers was a "traitor." Well, Beers is anything but. He was a Vietnam veteran with almost thirty years of government service. He is a patriot in the truest sense; and his opposition to the war meant just that; he recognized early on what the war in Iraq was going to be: a political and military disaster. I was fortunate to have Beers in the book.
QUESTION, Deborah White of About.com - Did those profiled feel rewarded or satisfied by their actions? Would they do things differently if they could go back in time? Many of them paid high prices for their patriotism; did any of them feel that the price exceeded the benefit?
ANSWER, Author Bill Katovsky - They really don't look at their actions in terms of cause and effect. For many, it's an ongoing life struggle; it lasts for years.
For example, ever since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in the early 70s, he has devoted his life to working outside the system--protesting nukes or recently encouraging other federal whistleblowers to step forward and tell the truth.
The moral battlefield they are operate on lacks metrics in the standard sense.
For example, peace activist Kathy Kelly went to Iraq nearly twenty times during the U.N sanctions period, personally bringing medical supplies to Iraqi families. Of course, she was violating U.S. policy, but she was following her heart, not politics.
