Local Student Group Fights for Rights
By: Melissa Ostrow
For: Long Island Press
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When America came under attack on September 11, the entire nation scurried to protect the country from ever experiencing a similar tragedy. One of the results was the USA Patriot Act, passed in a frenzy 45 days after Sept. 11. The act was designed to help law enforcement officials get information faster and with fewer restrictions. However, many are saying that the federal government has gone too far and is infringing on our civil liberties.
Now, two years down the road, the government is working on an addition to the USA Patriot Act called the Victory Act, which will allow the Justice Department to clamp down on transactions from Arab hawala (informal banking networks), get business records without a court order in terrorism probes and track wireless communication with a roving warrant. All this has a Huntington student group, the Loyal Nine, up in arms. The group began a few months after four friends became concerned about Americans' civil rights because of these acts. Three weeks ago the group went public and has since been holding meetings three times a week.
Currently, the group's main concern is getting the word out. They have been handing out flyers and talking to people at local political meetings, churches and in around places such as Huntington and Manhattan. Around 30 people attend their main meetings held Sundays at Book Revue in Huntington.
"We are trying to do this step by step and work our way up," says Loyal Nine member Melanie Duggam, 18, who will be entering SUNY Purchase this year as a freshman.
No one can accuse these teens of apathy, but hardliners question the depth of their knowledge and understanding. "I think their hearts are in the right place, but the problem is they don't do the research, don't read the actual law," says Mark Corallo, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice. "It's all authorized by the Congress, all overseen by the Congress, and done under the auspices and authority of the federal judiciary. I guess they're not understanding what checks and balances really means."
The group took its name from a group of Boston workers and tradesmen who joined together in 1765 against an oppressive foreign government to fight the Stamp Act. Current Loyal Nine member John Scepanin, 19, a Fordham University sophomore from Huntington explains, "The original Boston group said that if a person's civil rights were ever in jeopardy that the Loyal Nine was supposed to come back, so we brought it back."
On Friday, August 15 at 7 p.m., the group will hold a demonstration on Main Street in Huntington, where they will work to make more people aware of the situation. "A lot of people find it difficult to believe that we can go to war for our freedoms, but Congress can vote them away," says Scepanin. "If we don't question it, when we do it will be too late."
Several other activist organizations in Huntington will be circulating a petition to help the group's cause in getting the Huntington Board to draft and pass a resolution against the Patriot and Victory acts.
"Over 140 cities, communities and villages and three states have already passed resolutions saying that they do not agree with the federal curtailment of constitutional rights in the name of national security," says Udi Ofer, director of the New York Bill of Rights Defense Campaign and an NYCLU attorney.
The group will also hold a benefit concert on Saturday at the Congressional Church on Washington Drive in Centerport to raise money for a website. Like the tradesmen of the original Loyal Nine, the group has been using whatever assets they can, such as copying flyers or performing at the benefit concert, which will include electronica, jazz fusion, swing, ska and punk acts.
Because many of the members are going to college this fall, the website will help them communicate and spread the campaign to other cities. In the future they hope to have the ability to have multiple groups in different cities, meet on the same day and voice their opinion for the same cause. "Once politicians see that people don't want these type of bills, they will be voted out, so they have no choice but to put down the Patriotic Act," says Scepanin.
