'Medaling' With Free Speech at the Olympics

By creating a protest zone hundreds of yards away, the Bush–Cheney Administration's actions are designed not so much to protect the President as to give the political illusion of the President's "popularity." The media, especially the television media, focus upon the President, and crowds which are carefully selected and deftly manipulated to show enthusiastic support of Bush and his policies.

Because they believe the "story" is with the President, they usually ignore dissenters, especially if they're away from the President. It gives a false picture, yet is politically clever.

Under the PATRIOT Act, Americans' rights of privacy, including their reading habits, could be scrutinized by the FBI. Protestors - even peaceful ones - can be charged with terrorism and dissenters are often denied the right to fly on commercial airlines. In Bush's target have been Greenpeace and the Quakers. Like China's leaders, America's leaders say these restrictive measures only exist to protect the nation.

Americans are right to condemn China for its totalitarian suppression of dissent, the manipulation of free expression, and for building three "Protest Pens" in Beijing to keep protestors away from an international sporting event. Americans should also have condemned the "protest pens" at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.

More important, Americans should have spent the past seven years condemning the Bush–Cheney Administration for systematic violations of six Constitutional amendments, including the First Amendment which guarantees  free expression.