Thank goodness 2005 has been vanquished. It is now safely ensconced in the place where old years go to be spiffed up by fading memory.
I wonder how much time will have to pass before 2005 is no longer associated with an American vice president lobbying Congress to endorse torture? Or how much sand will have to spill through the hourglass before 2005 doesn't evoke a president declaring the unilateral power to spy on the American people; or conjure Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - Dr. Frist, if you please - making a specious diagnosis of Terri Schiavo via videotape?
Admittedly, it wasn't all dystopian gloom. There were some bright spots for civil liberties, including a pocketful of notably courageous acts by public officials and average folk alike. In recognition of some of these, I present my third annual "Freeby" awards:
For civil liberties heroism, the runaway Freeby award winner is Army Capt. Ian Fishback.
The West Point graduate spent 17 months trying to get someone within the Army hierarchy to take his concerns about detainee abuse seriously. Finding no one too interested, Fishback and two anonymous sergeants went to a human rights organization to describe the regular beatings and other mistreatment Iraqi prisoners suffered at Camp Mercury, a forward operating base near Fallujah. Fishback also contacted members of Congress, fully understanding that such actions probably would jeopardize his career.
The publicity finally ignited a fire under military investigators. But, surprise, surprise, as Fishback told the New York Times, the investigators questioning him were more focused on getting him to disclose the identity of his two fellow whistleblowers than on the substantive allegations.
Standing for decency and humanity when those around you are looking the other way and encouraging you to do the same is about the toughest thing a man in uniform can do. Fishback brought honor to the military simply by doing, as he described it, "the right thing."
Along that vein, this year's Freeby for the most civil liberties-minded act of Congress goes to the Senate for voting 90-9 to support the antitorture amendment of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. The House also eventually went along, but it was the steely will of former POW McCain and the bipartisan solidarity of the Senate that set the course, despite intense pressure from Dick Cheney.
McCain is the conscience of the Republican Party. His willingness to defy the administration and act as standard-bearer - pulling the country back from its malevolent direction - demonstrates that this war hero is integrity personified.
The Freeby for the court decision that most advanced civil liberties offered some real competition late in the decision process.
A strong contender was the masterful 139-page decision by U.S. District Judge John Jones III, issued on Dec. 20, that sliced and diced the theory of intelligent design. Jones, a Republican appointed by George W. Bush, laid bare the creationist roots of intelligent design and how it is so obviously religion dressed up as science.
Jones wrote with particular contempt about the Dover, Pa., school board's self-described Christians who blatantly lied under oath, trying to cover up their religious motive.
"I challenge (the audience) to trace your roots to the monkey you came from," declared one board member at a public hearing - proving inescapably that devolution also occurs.
But the winner has to be Judge George Greer of the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, who refused to let the political circus surrounding the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube interfere with sound judgment.
For years, Greer had the unenviable task of presiding over the legal battle between Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, and her parents. Greer, a conservative Republican, was essentially kicked out of his Southern Baptist church due to his actions in the case. He received death threats and had to live under the protection of armed guards. Yet he consistently drew on medical science and the dispassionate application of law to come to the correct rulings, even as Florida lawmakers, the governor, Congress and the president used raw power to turn him away from those guideposts.
Greer is an exemplar of the profession.
Others were worthy of distinction this year. In times when our freedoms are under assault, as they are now by this administration, many opportunities for liberty heroes present themselves.
Thanks to Guy Lombardo, the old year is bid adieu with the Scottish song Auld Lang Syne, which roughly means "times gone by." My toast for 2006 is that the past year, and all it represents, is gone for good.