Ali Samana is a local political activist in Dallas. He worked for the Ron Kirk campaign through the 2002 election. Ali writes a few articles on current politics, they will be published here.
Ali Samana is also the director of business developement for Wali Consulting Inc,. He joined the team of enthusiastic leaders in the industry in August of 2002. He is currently attaining a bachelor of Arts from The University of Texas at Dallas in Political Science, with the emphasis on Crime and Justice. His previous experiences include working for Network Traffic Controller, as a leader in the research and developement group. Ali reads and writes about philosophy, some of his work will be published through this site. Any of this material may be reproduced or used for any purposes, however, proper written credit must be given to Ali Samana.
"The Evolution of Freedom Over Time" (Apr 26th 2003)
Freedom as it seems today is a guarantee to most Americans. United States of America represents a symbol of freedom to most people. In fact, in the nineteenth century, when the immigrants crossed the statue of liberty before harboring into New York, they would consider it the lady of freedom. However, as many figured out, that was not exactly the case in all scenarios, though better then their home country, many were mistreated, discriminated against, and thought of as lower then their white counterparts. Freedom has changed over the course of the last two hundred years, after all mankind has changed through time. From slavery of the nineteenth century, to the civil rights movements of the twentieth, freedom has been tested, expanded and then shrunk again, by Americans of all age, race, sex, color, and religion.
Concerns of freedom came in place before the existence of the United States of America. As a matter of fact, they had a major part in the writings of the constitution. “All men are created equal” was the voice of the founding forefathers in1776, but many of them were also involved with slave trading. To many today, this mere act would seem hypocritical, but the intentions of the founding forefathers were pure. They dreamed of an America without discrimination, but also participated in the America of the time. The fact remains, for the time, all men were not created equal, and the word men, females were not even in the picture. Many a years would pass for women to get any rights, including such basic as the right to vote.
Slavery, however, continued in mainstream America. The despicable act of men, women, and children being bought and sold in a market continued as a shame in the face of humanity, an example of how all men were not created equal. For many slaves the light of freedom would never be seen, they would either die as a slave, or run and be shot as a run away property. The risks of trying to escape in search of truth and freedom were enormous, if caught as in many cases, a certain death, and brutal torture.
After the civil war and an end to slavery did not put an end to an era of hatred against the blacks. Many states made every effort to prevent blacks from voting. States had legalized the poll tax, which was a tax to be paid in order to vote. Since many blacks were just out of the slavery, they could not afford to pay a tax to vote. There were also literacy tests, that prevented anyone illiterate from voting, and laws that prevented blacks from learning to read and write.
The right to vote was given in 1876 with the signing of emancipation proclamation; it would however be almost another century before the equal status would be granted to blacks. Even as the citizens, blacks were looked at as second class citizens to white Americans, Jim Crow laws were in place, these laws segregated all transportations, and public and private venues. Blacks had to sit in the back of the bus, had to use separate bathrooms, and could not drink out of the same water fountains as whites.
During those hard times, many leaders emerged in the form in different forms. Some of them emerged from what is known as the Harlem Renaissance, the time of 1920s and 30s in Harlem. Harlem, is a well-known part of New York, where the population is mostly, blacks. Many writers, poets, painters and musicians came out of Harlem at that time. One of the most notable was Langston Hughes. Hughes was not a stranger to most at that time. He wrote many times about being a black writer of his times. Hughes attended Columbia University for engineering, but dropped out with a B+. He wrote many poems and was frequently published in many magazines including NAACP’s crisis magazine and opportunity magazine. In many of his works he argued “no artist is ever afraid of being himself” . Hughes enjoyed sitting in clubs and listening to the Jazz as he wrote his poetry, he at one point he claimed "I tried to write poems like the songs they sang on Seventh Street...(these songs) had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going." Langston Hughes helped the civil rights movements by publishing his works and being heard through out the country, he was a well known writer even at his time, and was not ashamed of being black.
In 1950, after World War II, President Eisenhower gave an executive order for the military to ingrate. This started another realm of civil rights movements. Many blacks were marching and lobbying to earn their right to vote. Most without violence, like Reverend Martin Luther King Junior, Ph.D., however some did turn to violence such as Malcolm X. Figures such as Martin Luther King carried more weight and public support then the other. He gave speeches and led protests to earn his true freedom. President Kennedy supported these peaceful activities, however, was assassinated before he could push a bill of equality through. Finally, President Linden B Johnson, supported the movement, and asked for senate to enact a bill that would allow for blacks to have equal rights and protection under the law.
Also, women’s rights movements were in action even in the late nineteenth century with leaders such as Susan B Anthony. Susan B Anthony tried to vote in her state, and when the case was taken to courts, did not win for the women’s rights. In the late 1880s she persuaded one California congressman to introduce a bill that would allow the women to vote in school issues in his state. He did introduce such a bill, and it did pass. In 1890, 19 states allowed for women to vote in small local issues .
During World War I, many Americans left to go fight for their country. Just like today, not all soldiers were full time soldiers, some were reservists, and some were simply drafted to fight for their country. The jobs previously held by these soldiers, however, were left vacant. Since many men were in the battlefield defending the land of opportunity, women were in a notorious position to fill up those jobs. War also opened up many jobs that were in junction with the war. Factories to produce weapons were started or otherwise expanded. Those jobs were also created and filled by women who were not in the military. Women also marched to voice their opinion, however, many politicians were apathetic since women could not vote to elect them.
The war was over and women were expected to leave their jobs in many cases and go on back to their houses, since the men who held the jobs previously were back. In many cases that did happen, however, in most it did not. Loosing their status in the society once again was not acceptable to women, and that sped up their political movements to gain their right to vote.
In 1918 President Wilson accepted Women’s suffrage, and asked for congress to pass the Susan B Anthony amendment. It passed with a narrow vote of one in the congress. However, it was another two years, before Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify the amendment, making it official. After almost half a century of hard work to earn their place in the society as normal citizens, women had finally seen the day they long awaited.
While Black Americans were fighting for their rights as humans, there was another group who was being denied their basic rights. During World War II many Americans of Japanese decent were rounded up into camps, and held there until the war had ended. They were taken from their houses, put on a bus and taken to camps outside of cities. The government had instituted this after Pearl Harbor attack, to ensure that the United States, entering a war against Japan wold not provoke any Japanese Americans in the United States to attack Americans. This view, however, was not held by most, just a few in power. The main proponent of this act of racism was a military general with the name of John Dewitt. He believed for the Japanese population to be “evil” , and suggested for the enemy race to be rounded up in camps. The Supreme Court upheld these heinous governmental actions in a few cases. The conditions of these camps were horrible, many did not have access to running water, food was scarce, and the concept of privacy was diminished. Among those in camps were 77,000 born American Citizens. The support for these camps was also justified by the American public’s outrage against Japan for attacking Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese Americans also were forced to sell their properties worth at 500 million dollars, since they were only allowed 48 hours to pack up; the properties went at unbelievable prices.
Japanese community was given a formal apology by the government, and a compensation of $20,000 to each of the 60,000 survivors of this horrible time in 1983. A Supreme Court justice reverted the old decision allowing for this to happen, and publicly denounced racism in this manner, and apologized for the suffrage of the Japanese people. A mistake such as that is not to be repeated ever again.
“History is taught to ensure that we learn from the mistakes that were made by our predecessors,” said, at the beginning of a history course, the instructor Mr. Brian Degner. One would think after making mistakes that big as to locking up people from a particular race, would never be repeated again. However stabs at the expanding freedom have been taken since the dreaded day of September 11th 2001. Nineteen men who followed a religion whose name translated from Hebrew means peace committed the heinous acts in the name of religion. With that day the history started to repeat itself again. This time the war was not with Japan, but “on terror” , this time it was not a nationality that had to defend itself, but a religion, the fastest growing religion in the world , Islam.
After 9-11, many ignorant people went out shooting at mosques, Muslims or anyone that looked like a Muslim, a follower of Islam. In the Dallas/Fort Worth area alone, there were 19 deaths within 72 hours of 9-11. There was also much legislation that authorized many activities to be performed by the government that would have only been laughable before 9-11. Under the so-called Patriot Act, wire tapping of any suspicious American was allowed, and any American could be detained on the basis of suspicion alone. Government asked for all of illegal aliens from certain countries, which all happened to by Islamic, to register with Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). In California over one thousand people were detained because no record of them existed. Many of the files not being in place were the mistake of the INS itself. It did not appeal to the common sense of those in power, that a terrorist would not register anyway. Nevertheless, these men, women, and children were halted to INS facilities, also known as prisons.
If this was not enough, all of the terrorists that were detained after the war of Afghanistan were taken to Cuba. That was a political move so these detainees would be deprived of their rights in Geneva Convention, since Cuba is not American Soil. One of the main rights in the Geneva Convention is not to be tortured, which many might not be afforded in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
This would all be not a problem if the people in Guantanamo Bay were proven beyond all reasonable doubt as terrorists and a threat to the society, which has not happened yet. Two inmates were released in January of 2003 after being held captives for more then a year, obviously they did not belong to a terrorist group. According to The Guardian, a British Newspaper, on April 23rd , there are four fifteen year olds in the camp as well, one of which is a Canadian citizen. Canada has not been allowed communication with this child, these children have not been afforded the right to an attorney, and supreme courts are holding it constitutional since Guantanamo Bay is not U.S soil.
As it seems now, the history is repeating it self, on a smaller level, but if it is not stopped, it could be expand to horizons not imagined before. The power of the government must be checked by the people, however, the idea of people giving up their civil rights for safety is not new, Thomas Jefferson addressed it when he said "There are rights which it is useless to surrender to the government and which governments have yet always been found to invade. These are the rights of thinking and publishing our thoughts by speaking or writing; the right of free commerce; the right of personal freedom. There are instruments for administering the government so peculiarly trustworthy that we should never leave the legislature at liberty to change them. The new Constitution has secured these in the executive and legislative department, but not in the judiciary. It should have established trials by the people themselves, that is to say, by jury. There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army." --Thomas Jefferson to David Humphrey, 1789. ME 7:323.
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Ali Samana also has experience in politics
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my thirty seconds of fame (for those of you that can read urdu), click on the top link to get more info......
www.andrewsullivan.com, a good politics discussion site
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