On Monday, September 17, 2007, police at the University of Florida tasered Andrew Meyer, a 21-year-old student, for asking Senator John Kerry challenging questions. As Mr. Meyer writhed on the ground in agony, most of his fellow students sat passively in their seats and Senator Kerry, the only man in the building with the power to stop the torture, made no attempt to intervene. This sad incident is much more than just an isolated attempt to squelch one dissenting voice at a small speaking engagement in Florida.

Indeed, the tasering of Andrew Meyer is a microcosm of the United States of America in the year 2007.

The four players in the present-day American political drama were all represented at the University of Florida on Monday:

1) Andrew Meyer writhing on the ground in agony represents the Constitution and the freedom of speech and the protection from unlawful arrest that it enshrines.

2) The police holding Mr. Meyer to the ground and inflicting torture with 50,000 volts of electricity represent the fascist forces in America led by George W. Bush and their attempts to kill the Constitution.

3) John Kerry droning impotently on in the background and allowing the torture to occur through his shameful lack of courage and principle represents today's Democratic Party.

4) The majority of the students who sat passively by while one of their own was tortured for speaking out represent the largely apathetic American populace.

And, of course, after the fact, the fifth and perhaps most important player in the drama made its inevitable entrance: the press. Major press outlets and even some supposedly left-wing political blogs were united in suggesting that Mr. Meyer actually deserved to be tasered because of his history as a prankster. Thus, the American media has sanctioned the torture of an American citizen who exercised his freedom of speech. In this they stand firmly in the tradition of all fascist states, in which certain undesirables and those who dared to speak out were officially sanctioned as targets of violence.

As Naomi Wolf has rightfully pointed out, the tasering of Andrew Meyer will be remembered as a watershed moment in American history. That much is certain. The only thing that remains to be seen is how we, as Americans, react to it. Will we sit passively by while our Constitution and our Democracy are murdered right before our eyes? Will we demand that our supposed political leaders take meaningful and principled action? Will we allow our press to make excuses for the fascist takeover of our country?

The choice is clear: either we fight fascism right now with all our power, or we will be the next ones on the ground with a policeman's knee on our throats and 50,000 volts of electricity coursing through our bodies.

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