Sedition Act

I've noticed in the Seminole Heights area multiple expressions of peoples opinion regarding the war and George Bush. Stenciled on the pillars under Hanna/I-275 overpass are some anti-bush sentiments. There is a road sign at Hann and Florida with a tiny anti-Bush comment and of course there is the Military ? signs I posted about before.

I've been reading Jeff Shaara's "To The Last Man - A Novel of the First World War." Today a particular set of passages struck me, in regards to expressions of the anti-Bush/war sentiment noted above. Pages 470-472 involves a discussion between General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing and Colonel Billy Mitchell regarding George Creel, the Committee for Public Information and the Sedition Act.

Billy Mitchell has issues with George Creel and the Sedition Act stating:

"General, he's lying to the American people. What you call rambunctious can also be called zealotry. He's inflammatory. Without his rabble-rousing, it's doubtful Congress could have passed the sedition act. . . But now with this Sedition Act, anyone who objects t othe war or president. . . . can be put in jail for it. People are getting beat up, killed because they said something that some of Creel's self appointed deputies thought was anti-american. . . It just seems to me that the government is resorting to extreme measures to convince the American people that there is a good reason for so many casualties."

As I'm writing, while watching the TV news tonight, there was a story about Cindy Shehan and it made think about Billy Mitchell's comments in the book and the person who ran over the crosses at the camp that Cindy Shehan was at outside the President's ranch in Texas.

Sedition Act of 1918

United States, Statutes at Large, Washington, D.C., 1918, Vol. XL, pp 553 ff.A portion of the amendment to Section 3 of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917. The act was subsequently repealed in 1921.

SECTION 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, . . . or incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, or . . . shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States . . . or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production . . . or advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....