FREE SPEECH WHILE WE STILL CAN

The woman who published my book, Nancy Randolph, held an event today in Brunswick called Authors Talk Peace. She had six people, whose books she has published with her small company called Just Write Books, come to the public library and each spend an hour reading and answering questions from the public.

I've been in bed for the past three days with a severe cold and flu but dragged myself to the event at 4:00 pm figuring I could do my scheduled hour. There was a small group that came and I read some bits from my book which Nancy just finished republishing for me.

My book was first published in 2005 and I was nearing the end of my second printing stock. I figured that if I was going to re-order more books I might as well update it through the end of 2007 with some of my newer writings. So I added six new articles and several new pieces of art by W. B. Park whose work appears throughout the book.

Nancy has been a great person to work with. These days she lays out all the Global Network's leaflets and brochures and she also did our last newsletter - Space Alert! She has a real artist's eye and always comes up with excellent designs.

So I am back in bed wiping my running nose and hoping I will recover soon as my pounding headache is more than I can stand.

I just finished re-reading Philip Agee's book, On The Run, and once again was deeply moved by his courage and unwavering determination to break the CIA's corrupt and violent interventions around the world. The personal sacrifices Phil made in order to bring the truth about the CIA's global war on people's liberation movements and nations that dared to stand against Washington's domination, was just staggering. Few of us would have shown such strength.

In recent days some of us in Maine have been having a series of email exchanges about the perilous times we face in this country as we see the dark hand of fascism at work. One important short video sent around by one friend is about the recent passage in the House of Representatives (and now in committee in the Senate) of the "Homegrown Terrorism Act." Basically the bill criminalizes thought, speech, written arguments, and persuassion. Very dangerous stuff.

So it could soon be criminal for books like Phil's On the Run, or even my humble little book, to be available because they are critical of our government and call the public to action. Simply calling for the people to organize could soon be seen as an outright act of terrorism under this proposed law.

Our civil liberties are in grave danger.