by Robert Lederman(7/4/99)
provided through OPENAIR-MARKET NET
July 4, 1999
On this July Fourth I'd like to thank the person who, more than anyone else, has taught me the meaning of freedom. I didn't begin to understand or appreciate freedom until Mayor Giuliani began trying to take it away from me.
During the past six years of having my art confiscated and destroyed, of being handcuffed and falsely arrested for holding or painting a protest sign, posting a political leaflet or for making a speech, of being fingerprinted, photographed, interrogated and maliciously prosecuted the Mayor has taught me to love the Bill of Rights. Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom from illegal searches and confiscations, the right to counsel, the right to a trial, the right to face one's accuser in a court of law and the right to have the equal protection of the law despite one's skin color, political affiliation or economic status may be the greatest inventions of human culture.
It's natural to understand and value things by comparing them to their opposites. As sickness makes us appreciate the normal state of health, having one's rights violated by a Giuliani makes simple acts like freely walking on a public street or speaking one's mind seem like precious gifts.
Ironically, his systematic violations of our rights may be Giuliani's only enduring legacy to the people of New York City. Long after his claims to cutting crime, improving the economy and saving New York are fully exposed as the lies they are, Rudolph Giuliani will be remembered for making people who were previously focused on being cabbies, vendors, street artists, CUNY students and community gardeners into patriots; for making welfare mothers into community activists; for making millions of people think for the first time about their own freedom of speech and for making us all much more aware that freedom and equality can never be taken for granted or left to others to defend.
The U.S. Constitution was written and ratified in New York City and, despite our flaws and failures, we New Yorkers have always been at the forefront of what this nation and the Constitution hold up as ideals. On this the two hundred and twenty third anniversary of our freedom as a nation, let us thank our Mayor for reminding us what we have to be thankful for and what we must never allow to be taken away.
-- Robert Lederman
For more information contact:
Robert Lederman, President of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics), (718) 369-2111
Email: ARTISTpres@aol.com
Website: http://www.openair.org/alerts/artist/nyc.html