You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression

by Matthew Rothschild

Chilling true stories of ordinary Americans whose everyday liberties have been violated since September 11.

"I'm very liberal and sometimes my friends say I'm giving them some kind of paranoid, nutty stuff, and I agree, but then the FBI show up." —Marc Schultz, reported to the FBI for reading an article called "Weapons of Mass Fox News hits a new lowest common denominator" while he stood in line at a coffee shop

In West Virginia, Renee Jensen put up a yard sign saying "Mr. You're Fired." She's questioned by the Secret Service. In Alabama, Lynne Gobbell put a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on her car. She's fired from her job. In Vermont, Tom Treece had his high school students write essays and make posters either defending or criticizing the Iraq War. After midnight, the police entered his classroom and took photos of the student artwork.

The heated debates about the Patriot Act, about extensive registration and arrest programs for immigrants, and about domestic spying by the FBI, Pentagon, and National Security Agency have all been front-page news. But less understood are the effects of ramped-up national security policies on ordinary people across the country.

In this hard-to-put-down book, Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine, shows that post-9/11 America has entered a repressive age. Through dozens of engrossing and disturbing individual stories, You Have No Rights makes clear that America is now a country that is both less safe and less free.

From You Have No Rights : Near Albany, New York, Stephen Downs went to a mall with his son Roger, and the two of them bought shirts in a T-shirt shop. Downs put his shirt on, went to eat in the food court—and was arrested. The T-shirt's message? "Peace on Earth."

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

232 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2007

Reviews

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating report of vignettes showing the blatant denial of civil rights in America under the Bush administration, all in the name of public safety. Even such situations as simple as wearing a shirt promoting peace were harassed by law enforcement or Secret Service personnel. Slanted to the Left by the author, still very disturbing collection of incidents.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is disturbing on many levels. Rather than go into all the various legal precedents and acts of congress that have made our post-9/11 lives what they are, the author gives a short introduction and then tells the stories of people who were intimidated, targeted, harassed, hurt, and even killed because of the frenetic state of 'the war on terror.' What scared me more than anything in this book was not the FBI agents popping up on peoples' doorsteps, but the fact that their neighbors or even passers by were the ones that called the FBI. I also find it ironic and pretty bitter-tasting that people who call themselves 'anti-war' are perceived as 'anti-American', or that 'peace' is considered a code word for 'terrorist'.

[Brad · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, I really did...the problem is the author puts stories like the one where a man was sent to a secret prison in Syria and tortured for 10 months (really happened) right next to stories like the one where a singer at Borders was fired for singing political songs that offended some people.

Government coercion and kidnapping sitting next to a citizen making decisions about his private business is insulting. It equates the two, and seems to say that I have a right to have a job and that its just as important as my right to not be tortured. Really??

[Sara Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very scary book about the diminution of rights under Bush/Cheney and the subversion of the Constitution.

[Craig Bolton]

You Have No Rights: Stories of America in an Age of Repression by Matthew Rothschild (2007)