My Freedom of Speech

Interview with Fox News:

MICHELETTI: You cannot change the constitution ever.
VAN SUSTEREN: Ever?
MICHELETTI: Ever.
VAN SUSTEREN: There is no way to amend it?
MICHELETTI: Since 1980, (inaudible) is who made the constitution. And they thought that someday there was going to be big man who would try to change the rule in our country, is why they support two, three, four articles in the constitution that it's not allowed to be president again.

Email we got from the US Embassy today:

The Embassy advises citizens residing in and visiting Honduras that the
de facto regime issued a decree suspending certain rights under the
Honduran constitution on Sunday, September 27, 2009. This decree
affects all people in Honduras, including non-Hondurans. Specifically,
the following articles of the Honduran Constitution have been suspended
for the next 45 days (until November 11, 2009):

Article 69: The right to personal freedom
Article 72: Freedom of Speech
Article 78: Freedom of Association
Article 81: Freedom of Movement
Article 84: The right to due process _

For the next 45 days, the defacto regime has stated that the local and
national police, at times to be assisted by the military, will arrest
individuals for the following reasons:

* Disobeying announced curfew, or appearing to engage in
suspicious activities
* Gathering in public without prior approval from police and
military forces
* Carrying out media announcements violating the law or government
resolutions , or offending human dignity or any public official

The de facto regime has also stated the following:

* Individuals that are arrested for violating the above listed
restrictions will be detained
* All public installations which are occupied by demonstrators or
which are occupied by persons carrying out activities prohibited by law
will be cleared

Congress has asked Micheletti to annul this to which he responded he would talk to the congress at an opportune moment in the next few days. So the last president was impeached because of trying to rewrite the constitution, and now the next president is taking away basic human rights. What is this country coming to? Taking away the rights of people is not going to fix the problem at hand. The government wants to feel that they are in control therefore they tie everyone’s hands behind their backs and take away their voice.
We had school today. We dismissed at 2 instead of 2:40, otherwise it was a ‘normal’ day. Out of my 140 students only 2 were absent. I was very shocked so many students came. They had stories from the past week. Being in the wrong spot at the wrong time and fearing for their lives. One student’s grandfather lives right across from the Brazilian Embassy. He told stories of the protesters demanding water or they would urinate on the house; taking things from the yard to throw at people, demanding to come into the house to escape from the gasses. The grandpa at times stood in front of the door with his gun telling people to back off. Some students admitted that taking the bus home was scary. The military was yelling at them for being out past curfew. But everyone made it home safe. We did our best to create a normal school environment; a respite. The rest of the week we are dismissing at 12:30 so that our buses will have adequate time to get the students home if by chance the curfew would be moved up. The majority of the students are Micheletti supporters but there are Zelaya supporters. They are mostly respectful of each other; though they can talk about politics like many of us can talk about sports. It is fascinating.
Keep praying for this country. There are random acts of violence and innocent lives being taken. The government will not allow OAS members to come into the country, Micheletti keeps delaying the meeting. The presidential candidates met with the US ambassador today. Pray that God will use various leaders of the OAS and leaders of nations to walk alongside the government and find a peaceful solution. Pray that both Micheletti and Zelaya will stop being stubborn and agree to work out a solution. Pray for our students, bus drivers, and nannies as they travel the streets each day. Pray for the parents as their kids are away from them. Pray for this country!