During the last year, there has been much criticism of the war in Iraq, the treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, the treatment of “enemy combatants” at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay and, most recently, our government’s use of “wiretaps” of American citizens in the United States without obtaining court-approved warrants.

Such criticism has frequently been characterized as un-American, unpatriotic and-or accompanied by disparaging remarks bordering on character assassination. Worse still, this criticism has been followed by attempts to silence such points of view.

Unfortunately, our nation has experienced these kinds of responses to unpopular questioning and criticism in the past, especially during the 1950s. At that time, the country was enmeshed in the Cold War, communism – rather than terrorism – was the threat of the day, and in February 1950 Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy burst onto the national scene charging that 57 communists had “infested” the State Department.

Marked by unchecked accusation without evidence, an unbridled campaign of anti-communist hysteria, known as “McCarthyism,” continued for four years. In December 1954, however, the Senate condemned McCarthy’s conduct by a vote of 65 to 22.

Therefore, it might be particularly instructive to re-read the “Declaration of Conscience” – a speech delivered to the United States Senate on June 1, 1950 by Maine Republican Sen. Margaret Chase Smith. The following excerpts summarize the content of that timeless speech which is just as applicable to all members of government today as it was then.

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“The United States Senate has long enjoyed worldwide respect as the greatest deliberative body in the world. But recently that deliberative character has too often been debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity.

“It is ironical that we senators can in debate in the Senate, directly or indirectly, by any form of words, impute to any American who is not a senator any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming an American – and without that non-senator American having any legal redress against us – yet if we say the same thing in the Senate about our colleagues we can be stopped on the grounds of being out of order…

“Surely the United States Senate is big enough to take self-criticism and self appraisal…

“I think that it is high time that we remember that we have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution … that the Constitution as amended speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation…

“Those of us who shout loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism: the right to criticize; the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the right to independent thought.

“The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs…

“I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horseman of Calumny – Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear… As members of the minority party, we do not have the primary authority to formulate the policy of our government. But we do have the responsibility of rendering constructive criticism, of clarifying issues, of allaying fears by acting as responsible citizens…

“It is with these thoughts that I (and six additional Republican senators) have drafted what I call a Declaration of Conscience:

“We are Republicans. But we are Americans first. It is as Americans that we express our concern with the growing confusion that threatens the security and stability of our country…

“Certain elements of the Republican Party have materially added to this confusion in the hopes of riding the Republican Party to victory through the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance and intolerance…

“It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking politically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques – techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”

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Many years earlier, in the famous 1919 sedition case of Abrams v. United States, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “… the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas – that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market …,” adding, “I think we should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions we loathe and believe to be fraught with death….”

Furthermore, Justice Benjamin Cardozo, Holmes’ successor on the court, stated, “Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition, of nearly every other form of freedom.” And centuries before that, Napoleon Bonaparte observed, “A people which is able to say everything becomes able to do everything.”

Accordingly, I suggest that the above-cited events and writings be studied, discussed and debated vigorously, by students and teachers alike, in all of our elementary and high schools, if they haven’t been already. Indeed, the issues involved in the current debate over governmental eavesdropping cry out for examination in today’s classroom.

Dick Dimond lives in Southwest Harbor.