Would You Risk It All for Freedom?

John W. Whitehead June 30th, 2008

“Dissent is the greatest form of patriotism.”—Thomas Jefferson

Let me tell you a story about 56 men who risked everything—their fortunes and their lives—to take a stand for truth.

These men laid everything on the line, pledged it all— “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor”—because they believed in a radical idea: that all people are created to be free. They believed that the rights we possess are, in their words, given to us by the Creator. At the heart of these rights … (Read More)

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Orwell Cinema: Living in the Land of the Blind

John W. Whitehead May 20th, 2008

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face."

–George Orwell

It has been 60 years since George Orwell published his novel 1984. Described as political satire, it is, in reality, a political prophecy.

1984 portrays a global society of total control in which people are not allowed to have thoughts that in any way disagree with the corporate state. There is no personal freedom. Snitches and surveillance cameras are everywhere. And people are subjec … (Read More)

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Bush and Habeas Corpus: Gutting the Constitution

John W. Whitehead March 31st, 2008

Incredibly, President Bush would have us believe that the rights of citizenship are only as good as the ground a citizen literally stands on. In recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving Mohammad Munaf and Shawqi Omar, a Bush Administration lawyer argued that "American citizens, when they go abroad, they have to take what they get."

Munaf and Omar, both American citizens, were arrested in Iraq by American military personnel and have been in the custody of … (Read More)

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America's New God: When Politics Trumps Faith

John W. Whitehead February 18th, 2008

“Nearly 30 years after religious conservatives decided to re-enter the political arena—after abandoning it as ‘dirty’ and leading to compromise—what do they have to show for it? The country remains sharply divided and the reconciling message they used to preach has been obscured by the crass pursuit of the golden ring of political power. In the end, they got neither the power, nor the Kingdom; only the glory and even that is now fading.”

—Cal Thomas, former vice president of the Mo … (Read More)

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Our Schools Are Graveyards for Freedom

John W. Whitehead December 13th, 2007

“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”—Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

My granddaughter is seven months old. Intent on discovering as much as she can about the world around her, she is blissfully unaware of the fact that she is under constant surveillance. Between her doting parents, her equally doting grandparents and a baby monitor that is always turned on and tuned in, there is little this child can d … (Read More)

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We Are the Children of the Night

John W. Whitehead October 30th, 2007

"I am Dracula."—Bela Lugosi

Halloween is associated with strange creatures, but none more so than the vampire. To most, the vampire is a myth, an image popularized in movies, television and books. Yet the vampire is no mere Hollywood creation. It is a universal legend.

Stories about this blood-sucking fiend have been told throughout the world for centuries, perhaps as long as tales have been told. The villagers of Uganda, Haiti, Indonesia and the Upper Amazon all have their local v … (Read More)

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