Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out [Hardcover]

Bill Katovsky (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1592288162 | ISBN-13: 978-1592288168 | Publication Date: April 1, 2006 | Edition: 1.00

BookSense Notable Pick "Powerful" ---Booklist

What is the relationship between patriotism and dissent? Why is political protest often maligned as disloyal and un-American? And what are the risks for speaking out and taking a principled stand? These questions form the backbone of PATRIOTS ACT: VOICES OF DISSENT AND THE RISK OF SPEAKING OUT. Here are interviews with federal whistle-blowers, peace activists, military veterans, members of the media, practioners of nonviolent civil disobedience, and former high-ranking government officials. They represent the many types of protest found in this country. These individuals have exercised their rights, resisting censorship and the restriction of free expression-often with surprising results. Some were publicly vilified as a result of their defiance and outspokenness. Others jeopardized their careers. Several went to jail. They have diverse backgrounds and political views-liberal and conservative, young and old, secular and religious-but they all share a common commitment to speaking the truth, regardless of the Among the voices heard in PATRIOTS ACT. Each interview in PATRIOTS ACT traces its own narrative arc. The cumulative effect of these oral histories embodies what is best about our national character. It also shows why it’s important to stand vigilant against those who wrap themselves so tightly in our nation’s flag that they can neither see nor hear what others are actually saying. Dissent is our birthright. It should not be silenced.

Here are some of the patriots who speak out in the book:

"You can’t chalk this all up to `failure to imagine, when in mid-August an agent in my office was on the phone and saying to FBI headquarters, This is a guy who could fly into the World Trade Center!" -Coleen Rowley, FBI 9/11 whistle-blower and Time person of the year

"When I write a column that really bothers people, even something about Bush’s personal character or, oddly, something that says that the economy isn’t doing too great, I can get up to 1,500 hostile e-mails." -Paul Krugman, New York Times op-ed columnist

"The Republicans will take someone and tear them to shreds. They will question their patriotism. They call me Osama bin Randi. Randi Hussein. Tokyo Rhodes." -Randi Rhodes, Air America Radio talk-show host

"We have a White House now that is extremely dangerous. They don’t believe in democracy. Now is the time for people to show courage. I would like to see a lot more whistle-blowing." -Daniel Ellsberg, leaker of Pentagon Papers and peace activist

"I have known both military and political battles. I have been traumatically wounded by both. Winston Churchill said that politics is a lot like war, except in war, you get killed once. In politics you get killed many times." -Max Cleland, former U.S. Senator and war veteran who lost three limbs in Vietnam

"Large numbers of the crowd began chanting against us. ‘America the Beautiful’ was playing on the loudspeakers while we were being walked out in handcuffs by the cops. -Jeff and Nicole Rank, arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts during the president’s Independence Day speech

"Nonviolent civil disobedience has really been maligned. Oftentimes the violence done to people of nonviolent means is then turned around and projected back onto them, so it looks like they deserve what they got. Then it’s easier for protests to be dismissed or marginalized by the media." -John Sellers, the Ruckus Society

Other interviews in PATRIOTS ACT include: former FAA Red Team Leader Bogdan Dzakovic who criticizes aviation security and tells why it's still unsafe to fly; Rand Beers, special assistant to the president for combating terrorism, explains why he quit the White House five days before the start of the Iraq War; Nadin Hamoui, a young Syrian-American woman, relives her arrest and detention during the post-9/11 roundup of foreign nationals; war correspondent Kevin Sites recounts the cost of reporting from the battlefield; Marine reservist Paul Hackett discusses coming back from Iraq and running for Congress as a fighting

Democrat; civil liberties advocate and expert John Dempsey looks at domestic spying; Max Mecklenburg talks about being arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention---a 30-hour ordeal; and political satirist Mort Sahl riffs about the importance of humor to keep the opposition alive.

The author, Bill Katovsky, is the co-author of Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq, which won Harvard University’s Goldsmith Book Prize.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Oral historian Katovsky (Embedded) sets out to "defend the defenders of our freedoms and civil liberties" with 20 oral histories of outspoken contemporary American dissenters. Some of his subjects, like Max Cleland, Randi Rhodes and Paul Krugman, are well-known critics of the Bush administration; some, like former FAA official Bogdan Dzakovic, "Pentagon Papers" leaker Daniel Ellsberg and former White House anti-terrorism advisor Rand Beers, became whistleblowers out of frustration with the ineffectiveness and dishonesty they encountered in the government. In celebrating his interviewees' lives, Katovsky provides brief overviews of their careers (though some are much longer than others and wander into areas where the subjects have opinions, but not expertise), and in the absence of any opposing views or objective reporting, the interviews begin to sound self-righteous. However, as the title suggests, the book avoids becoming a partisan philippic by emphasizing the protestors' patriotism-their faith in the idea of liberty at the core of the American political tradition and in the good intentions and courage of their fellow citizens. Readers who share Katovsky's politics will find this a bracing tribute to those who have risked popularity, a pristine police record, or a job by acting on their beliefs.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Patriot seems to have changed meaning, in that voicing criticism (a right ingrained in the constitution and something once encouraged and expected of citizens) can now cause you to be labeled unpatriotic. This powerful book explores what it really means to be patriotic by introducing readers to 20 Americans who love their country enough to be critical of it. Rand Beers, former special assistant to the president, explains why he could no longer support George W. Bush's antiterrorism policies. A man and wife express their confusion at being arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts at the president's Independence Day speech. The book explores a wide range of subjects, from free speech and the relationship between government and big business to abuse of civil liberties to the importance of political satire. Recommend this one to poli-sci students and readers concerned about the post-9/11 political climate. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1.00 edition (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592288162
• ISBN-13: 978-1592288168
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,334,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

what would be my three desert island books? thomas merton's seven storey mountain, tolstoy's anna karenina, and the portable faulkner...though i could go on and list another several hundred books, but that would be tedious and pedantic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get it. Give it. Live it., April 10, 2006

By 

Martin James Higgins "American `Nam Vet" (Taliban-occupied Marin County, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out (Hardcover)

Patriots Act reveals a unseen world of political experience, guiding you through the lives of people who've made their dissent the functional center of their life. John Sellers' Ruckus stunts (actually brilliantly executed media events), Randi Rhodes' fearless denunciations of George Bush, a TSA security manager's frustration with airport inadequacies and illogicalities, a next-door-neighbor couple's confrontation with anti-First Amendment goons at a July Fourth event with the prez, and 16 other "oral histories" gave me an in-depth - and occasionally shocking - view of protest as patriotism.

What Katovsky has done here - as in his previous book, "Embedded: The Media in Iraq "(buy it!)- is to let the people on the forefront of our culture, media, and society tell their stories in their own words. I'm always amazed at how articulate and erudite people can be when they speak with passion about the issues they care most about. But Patriots Act is not a compilation of transcribed complaints. Each of the interviewees brings another piece of the puzzle to light. How is it that the most American trait of all - the right and ability to dissent - is often looked upon as anti-American? Why does a whistle-blower have to lose his or her job when attempting to bring problems to the public's attention and solve endemic problems? Why do Americans put personal comfort behind the need for honesty, truth, and accountability?

The first copy of this book I bought, I sent directly to a politically active friend who experiences chronic bouts of "what's the use?" When we spoke on the phone days later she sounded as invigorated as she was when I first met her, twenty-some years ago.

Get it. Give it. Live it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Dissenting Review, September 17, 2006

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out (Hardcover)

"Dissent" ranges from simply disagreeing with the status quo, to running an opposition campaign, to actually facing up to the Man physically. Since we're dealing with such a wide-ranging and crucial form of expression, this book showcases an interesting variety of dissenters, from politicians to provocateurs to just folks, and it's hardly necessary for the reader to agree with all of them. With that being said, the book does little to advance the American ideals of free speech and dissent, due to its unfocused nature and reliance on autobiographies rather than in-depth analysis. On the good side, we get tales of Nicole and Jeff Rank, Nadin Hamoui, and Max Mecklenberg, who were all badly harassed by the authorities for merely having an unacceptable opinion or even for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We learn of the unfair struggles of courageous whistle-blowers like Bogdan Dzakovic, Colleen Rowley, and Jay Stroup, who yearned to protect the public but were eliminated by inflexible bureaucracies. These are several moving examples of American dissent and government harassment, but these great and humble tales are surrounded by cases of self-aggrandizement and soapbox sermonizing.

The book gets off to a horrendous start, as eco-provocateur John Sellers rambles on and on for 37 pages about hanging cheesy banners off of tall buildings and how you should join his organization. Tweeti Blancett, who has stood up to energy companies and their pocketed politicians, spends most of her article talking about her right-wing Southern and Texas ancestors, with the implication that this makes her a unique or politically acceptable dissident. This is actually a recurring problem throughout this book, as the respondents (probably egged on by the editor Katovsky) feel the need to give a long and questionably useful autobiography and talk about how they're not your "typical" dissident, before rattling off their particular episode of interest right at the end of their essay. Meanwhile, you can dismiss Mort Sahl's useless rants about the modern political comics that have made him obsolete; while even the eminent and hugely respectable Daniel Ellsberg eventually rambles off into dystopian visions and a confused political agenda. This book has many great stories of citizens and leaders who have bucked the system or spoken their minds, then unfairly suffered the consequences, and they are worth reading. But many of them deserve to be surrounded by better material. [~doomsdayer520~]

4.0 out of 5 stars A interesting collage of short stories, December 7, 2010

By 

Constantin (US) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Patriots Act: Voices of Dissent and the Risk of Speaking Out (Hardcover)

This book illustrates the very real risks associated with standing up to the status quo within the government and describes the folk that did so in very good detail. While the space is limited for each story, every chapter reads like a great short story - creating a cast of characters, motivations, etc. to explain why the government and the individuals acted the way it/they did.

I highly recommend this book if anything to illustrate the very corrosive impact that political appointments can have within the federal bureaucracy. The book also illustrates why federal whistleblower protections are not nearly adequate to protect the average employee from shenanigans. What is also galling is that the folk who knowingly perpetrate illegal proceedings will never be held personally accountable.

So, in a way this book can be quite depressing. On the other hand, the stories of the folk who stood up for what is right are quite inspirational. Some even have happy endings. Naturally, not all stories are created equal, and as one reviewer noted, some are worth skipping altogether. But that said, I still think the book is a terrific read.