Rule of Law

By JAMES LISKA

Something came to mind the other day when the North Korean government sentenced two American journalists to twelve years of “reform through labor” for an illegal border crossing. This use of a trumped-up charge to silence dissent is not unfamiliar to today’s world, case in point the jailing of an Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi in Iran. These instances demonstrated to me how disrespected the legal process is in many parts of the world. Saberi was jailed and sentenced to eight years in prison for espionage.  She was tried and convicted in a one-day, closed-door trial with no access to evidence. Initially she was charged with trying to buy a bottle of wine, a crime in Iran, but those charges were dropped in favor of holding her on “reporting without proper accreditation,” after that “espionage.”

What really frustrates me about cases like these is how lackadaisical the justice system is in these countries. These countries have no concept of an “open” trial, and like Saberi’s trial, many of them are closed to the public when desired. In Saberi’s case, she is a journalist operating without a license in a country that has an authoritarian and paranoid regime in power. Like the Communist countries of the past, Iran does not allow any dissenting points of view to be expressed. Ditto with North Korea. Thus, Saberi posed a serious problem for the Iranian government. Since she was not regulated, and thus did not meet their stamp of approval, she would be free to speak out. So this sort of thing only happens in backwater barren desert countries, right? Wrong. It can happen right here in America.

A few months ago, I attended a lecture at my college by James Yee. Yee was the US Army’s Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo before he was arrested and jailed for almost 3 months with no charges levied. Eventually, after the government could not provide any evidence of his wrongdoing, he was released. Yee alleges that he was targeted by his former commanders – who called him,  behind his back, a “Chinese Taliban” – invented a charge of mishandling classified materials to send him to prison. According to Yee, this was to get back at him for advising his superiors against torture at Guantanamo. Yee was held as a pursuant to the USA Patriot Act, which is the United States’ version of a gray-area legal doctrine. My thoughts on the Patriot Act aside, Yee was held as an “enemy combatant.”

So, then, what is the grand meaning? Countries like Iran, just like many other countries in history, have clearly found ways of suppressing dissent by misuse of the legal system. In effect, there may as well be no legal system at all. Sham trials, forced convictions and trumped up charges all speak to a clear lack of respect for the legal system. This is setting a dangerous precedent, and we all need to speak out about it. Every country needs safeguards to prevent those innocent from being  imprisoned or charged without any evidence, trial, or reason. Yee sat in a Navy brig for over 70 days without being charged – and for what?  Because he was Chinese? Both these cases really represent a  serious miscarriage of justice. I suppose those in power will do anything to stay that way, and deal with any threat to that power – by legal means or otherwise.

This won’t hurt a…YEEEOOOOUCCH!

By MICHAEL K. NORRIS

The other day I read an article in the Stamford Advocate, Rell Train and Bus Fare Hikes Draw Fire (on the print paper, the headline could be read in the newspaper box from across a street). The story details the proposal by Governor Rell to, well, jack up train/bus fares to help cover a deficit. 

If it weren’t June, I’d think it was an April Fools joke.

There are times when politicians think a rise in this little fee or that little tax will provide what they think is a little pain to just a small group of people, but there are times, particularly now, they end up inflicting a lot of pain to everyone without taxpayers knowing it and without politicians acknowledging it. 

We’ve all been through this before. With transportation, all the pieces matter, and touching one part affects all the others. Make a bus or train harder to choose and driving may end up the choice.  When I ride my bike instead of drive, motorists benefit by having one less car on the road. And you want that. I drive slow. Also, when I bike, bus, or walk, there’s an extra parking spot for you to pick from when you get to where you want to go. And you want that. My car isn’t small. 

It’s unfortunate that Metro North Railroad had a deficit, but the train benefits more than just the people who take it. Keeping the fares reasonable, as Jim Cameron and State Sen. Bob Duff said in the article, takes pressure off the rest of the transportation infrastructure; and there are long term benefits to making the train and bus option easier for people to choose, even if some who don’t use the train or bus whine about the cost to the state (which is a pittance when measured up against what we’re spending on roads; some of which I have no intention of driving on but my taxes help pay for anyway).

Never plan to use the train or bus, ever? Happy with your car and your car alone? Well, get ready to welcome some new faces on your morning, noon and night commute. One will always drive the car in front of you that refuses to run the yellow light that precedes The Long Red. Get ready to allow more time in stop and go traffic; I recommend you make friends with a trustworthy brake mechanic. Get ready to spend more time looking for a parking space and brush up on your sign language/miming skills (Are you. Leaving. That space? No???). Exercise your middle finger so it won’t get sore from overuse. Time in your car will eat into your time at home as you allow more minutes getting to and from everything. And here’s the best part: get ready to did deeper into your wallet. More cars on the road means more demand on gasoline, and that’ll cost far more than the suggested penny-per-gallon gas tax increase that was proposed as an alternative to raising bus and train ticket prices. 

When you’re faced with all of these inconveniences, think of how nice it would be to have a governor that sees the entire transportation picture rather than one who doesn’t. I’ll see you at the next red light; be sure not to block the box.