From the May 2002 issue

Six days after George W. Bush signed the first major campaign finance bill in a generation, I drove out to the home office of Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin. The interview took place in a conference room lined with framed maps of Wisconsin showing Feingold's "listening sessions," which he holds year after year in county after county. His executive assistant, Nancy Mitchell, who has been with him for twenty-three years, greeted me and sat in for the interview.read more

April 27, 2002

Alia Kate, 16, a high school student in Milwaukee, wanted to go to Washington, D.C., for the protests Saturday, April 20. She was looking forward to demonstrating against the School of the Americas and learning how to lobby against U.S. aid for Colombia. She had an airplane ticket for a 6:55 p.m. flight out of Milwaukee on Friday the 19th, and she got to the airport two hours ahead of time.read more

March 27, 2002

On February 13, a musical group called Alma Melodioso had an Olympic experience. The California-based band, which plays Latin styles of music, was on its way from Monroe, Utah, to a gig in Park City. "Before we got to Provo, we had stopped at a convenience store," recalls drummer Bob Sanders. "While we were in the store, I asked the clerk if he knew about security checkpoints on the way to the Olympics because we were running late and were worried about traffic being backed up."read more

March 23, 2002

Stephen K. Jones, 34, is a graduate student at the University of Maine at Orono, where he's getting his teaching degree. As part of his program, he was required to do a 12-week internship. The administrators placed him at Old Town High School and Middle School, though he never did get to the middle school.read more

March 14, 2002

In Chicago and Los Angeles and other big cities in the 1960s, police departments had Red Squads that were notorious for spying on leftwing political activists. Some of these departments eventually had to pay thousands of dollars to the activists, who successfully sued on the grounds that their rights were violated.read more

March 9, 2002

Since September 11, several journalists have been canned for expressing views that were critical of George W. Bush. One was Dan Guthrie of Oregon, who had previously received an award for being the best columnist in that state. A lot of good that did him. Now another prize-winning journalist has been given the heave-ho.read more

March 13, 2002

Laura Hershey of Denver, Colorado, went to her local OfficeMax to do some copying on March 9, and she was astonished to see a "Notice to Our Customers" that read: "During this time of heightened security awareness, we will report suspicious or questionable requests for printing or document reproduction to law enforcement authorities." Hershey complained to the store manager and wrote a letter to OfficeMax headquarters in Shaker Heights, Ohio.read more

February 28, 2002

Last semester, Bryan Chmielewski, a junior at Thomas More High School in Milwaukee, was required to put up an exhibit for his final exam in art class. The teacher told the students, "You can just do what you want," he recalls. What Bryan wanted was to make a political statement.read more

February 25, 2002

Michael Moore's latest book, "Stupid White Men . . . and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation," is now number one on Amazon.com's bestseller list. But according to Moore, the book almost never saw the light of day.read more

February 20, 2002

On February 8, Vice President Dick Cheney was visiting Evansville, Indiana, to campaign for Representative John Hostettler. One lone protester, John Blair, was walking on a public sidewalk and was carrying a sign that read: "Cheney: 19th Century Energy Man." For this, he was arrested.read more

February 14, 2002

On October 4, William Harvey, 54, was in the financial district of New York City, trying to exercise his free speech rights. Granted, what he was expressing was not a popular view: He was defending Osama bin Laden.read more

Donna Huanca works as a docent at the Art Car Museum, an avant-garde gallery in Houston. Around 10:30 on the morning of November 7, before she opened the museum, two men wearing suits and carrying leather portfolios came to her door.read more

January 4, 2002

You've probably seen American flags or "United We Stand" signs adorning the nation's overpasses. When two organic farmers in California, Amy Courtney and Cassandra Brown, saw the flags over the Granite Creek Road overpass in Scotts Valley, they decided to put up a symbol of their own in late November. According to the publication Metro Santa Cruz, they "hung a homemade banner--reading 'At What Cost?!' and featuring a hand-drawn skeleton."read more

January 4, 2002

The anti-corporate group Adbusters hoisted Corporate America flags in more than 200 cities around the world last summer. The flag, which features corporate logos where the stars are supposed to be, bears the slogan: "Declare Independence from Corporate Rule." One place Adbusters put up the sign was in Times Square, on the front of a theater art gallery called Chashama.read more

January 2002

We've been here before. From the Alien and Sedition Acts to Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus and his imprisonment of anti-war editors, from the suppression of speech during World War I and the Palmer Raids to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the repression of the McCarthy days, the government has seized upon times of peril to scapegoat immigrants and to suppress liberties.read more