Feingold Talks About Rights, Liberties

Throughout his speech, Feingold emphasized the importance of maintaining basic liberties in times of war, and he began by saying it is important for future generations to take an interest in the cultures and languages of other nations.

"Many of us feel that we must turn to you," he said.

Feingold said civil liberties are questioned the most in times of war, citing the Alien and Sedition Acts in the late 18th century and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II as examples of poor decisions to sacrifice civil liberties for security. "The first aspect of the fight against terrorism is right in our borders," he said. "We must not allow these pieces of our past to become our prologue."

Feingold said he garnered a mixed reaction for casting the lone dissenting vote against the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, known as the USA PATRIOT Act, which passed 98-1 in the U.S. Senate.

"I was the only one in the Senate to vote against what was called the anti-terrorism bill," he said. "Voting against that is not what I would call fun."

Feingold said he dissented because the act "upsets the balance of power between law enforcement, big government and our civil liberties," highlighting such things as Fourth Amendment infringements and racial profiling of Arab-Americans.

"If we lived in a police state it would be much easier to catch terrorists ... but that probably would not be a country that we would want to live in," he said. "That's not a country we would want our young people to fight and die for, and that certainly would not be America."

Feingold said he did not dissent because he is against the unity of the United States. "Unity is not the same as unanimity -- not in a democracy."

Feingold also said it is important to be cognizant of what is going on in other nations, highlighting the recent link between Sierra Leonian diamond mines and al-Qaida capital. "No place on earth ... can be overlooked in the global fight against terrorism," he said. "The alternative of continuing our myopia will give the United States a legacy that we will not want."

Feingold then spoke about issues he said would have comprised the largest part of his speech if not for the attack on America -- namely racial profiling, campaign finance reform and the death penalty.

He said the events of Sept. 11 cannot be used as an excuse for Americans to overlook "what is happening to Latinos and African-Americans across the nation."

"It is not legitimate to have 75 percent of the people pulled over on the New Jersey turnpike be African-American," Feingold said. "That is not legitimate law enforcement -- that is racial profiling."

He also said that racial profiling against Arab-Americans is not justifiable and spoke of an event in which a group of Arab-Americans were voted off of a Northwestern Airlines flight.

Feingold said another pressing issue is the death penalty, which he opposes. "We should shudder to think -- we should shudder -- the number of innocent people who went to their deaths."

Feingold then spoke about campaign finance reform and the McCain-Feingold bill, which he said is three signatures away from being debated in the U.S. House. He highlighted recent questions about the involvement of politicians in the affairs surrounding the bankruptcy of the energy giant Enron.

"Both political parties received huge contributions from Enron -- that's not to say they did anything wrong," he said. "We've got to finish this job and ban soft money and give President Bush the honor of signing the bill."

Feingold ended with a call to action to future generations. He ended his speech with a quote from former President Bill Clinton.

"This is your moment," he said. "The torch is being passed to a new generation."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.