Gay Today: World

Jeffrey Montgomery:
Bush Operatives Exploiting Nation's Fear

Compiled By GayToday

Triangle Foundation's Jeffrey Montgomery

Detroit, Michigan-Jeffrey Montgomery, the highly regarded Executive Director of Michigan's Triangle Foundation, spoke October 13 to a community debriefing about whether legislation now pending in the U.S. Congress may be considered appropriate as the federal government initiates its struggles against terrorists.

Montgomery acknowledged both U.S. Representatives John Conyers, Jr., and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan. At the podium he said:

"I'm Jeffrey Montgomery, Executive Director of the Triangle Foundation. Triangle is Michigan's statewide civil right advocacy organization working on behalf of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

"First let me add my thanks to our leaders from Congress, John Conyers and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, for their leadership and their courage in these times that have seen much confusion and misdirection, for trying to add some sound direction and sense of real leadership. And thank you for this opportunity to share my views.

"And thanks also to the NAACP, the Wolverine Bar, the ACLU, the Conference of Black Lawyers and the others that have put together this community meeting today.

"In the last month we have seen unimaginable tragedy, and we have seen some real bravery. No American has been untouched by the events of September 11.

"We have also witnessed a very frightening kind of Americanism; a frightening brand of patriotism.

"And while there has been a reassuring sense of unity, we have also seen a wholesale trust placed in people that have not earned it.

"We have seen the bravery of firefighters and other rescue workers. We have seen the courage of families faced with the loss of loved ones, breadwinners and partners. We have seen unimagined leadership from people of whom it would not have been expected.

"We have also seen unsung bravery, courage and leadership from the conveners of this gathering and a handful of their colleagues.

"John Ashcroft is not a friend of liberty and justice. George Bush, the appointed president, is not someone who ---prior to a month ago--- ever demonstrated any insight or acuity about the world around him. Have these men been born again, again?

"The bills that they have been so keen to make law wouldn't indicate any such conversion.

"It should be scary to all of us when the White House spokesman ominously tells the people and the press that people had better watch what they say, that it's not the time to be critical of the government. When the National Security Adviser tells the news networks that they should not broadcast anything from the alleged ring-leader of the attacks.. And those news executives comply. When the man in the White House, who refused as Governor to recognize a bloody and viscous hate crime in his own state of Texas, suddenly is recast as the unifier of a diverse national family.

"Condoleezza Rice is not the woman I want leading us. Give me Barbara Lee any day. John Ashcroft is not the architect of sound and serious responses to terror attacks that I trust, give me another John, John Conyers, to design that plan.

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"This country has seen some mighty perversions of patriotism in the past. All in the name of loyalty, nationalism and protectionism. Internment camps for Japanese Americans, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Red Files come to mind.

"Now we have an Office of Homeland Security. It sounds to me like a euphemism and cover for a multitude of sins.

"If, as the Administration is constantly telling us, the September attacks were attacks on our freedom, why would we allow those very freedoms to be perverted and subverted?

"Apparently there is still some little window of time to put sanity and wisdom into the current legislation. Those of us that pray, pray that the voices of people like Conyers, Kilpatrick and Lee be lifted up and rule the day. The rest of us need to employ whatever other means of guidance and advocacy you know to protect us from ourselves.

"The Administration is exploiting the nation's fear and confusion to enact an agenda that was rejected by the voters last year and that was doomed until a month ago.

"I am an American and I love my country, as I'm sure is the case of all who gather here today. We are the people. It is in our name that the Constitution is set to form "a more perfect Union." We enact.

"Now, more than ever, we must act. We must show that we've learned the hard lessons of an uneven and tarnished history.

"Thank you again for allowing me to share my views."