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latest update: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 at 08:54 AM EDT   click photo to enlarge  Philip and Norma Sherry Rappa pose in the backyard of their home on the St. Johns River on Thursday, May 1 2003. The Rappas are working to put together a nationwide town meeting to discuss the National Patriots Act. By PETER WILLOTT, Staff Fighting for the Constitution Filmmakers believe Patriot Act II will be a disaster By PETER GUINTA Senior Writer Peter Guinta staff bio send email RIVERDALE -- Emmy-nominated filmmakers Philip and Norma Sherry Rappa want Americans to reconsider their civil liberties, which the Rappas believe are slipping away like beach sand through the fingers. The Rappas, both award-winning writers as well as documentary directors, are using their home on the St. Johns River as informal headquarters for their new, nonprofit organization, Together Forever Changing Inc. They formed Together Forever in an effort to preserve civil liberties they believe are threatened by federal legislation enacted and proposed after Sept. 11, 2001. Patriot Act 2001 passed after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. It provides for victims of the attacks, increases translation facilities and forensic cyber-crime capability. But it also reduces privacy in on-line communications, allows for roving wiretaps, permits military tribunals to hold closed trials and expands surveillance with reduced checks and balances. Waiting in the wings is Patriot Act II, which the Rappas said will complete the erosion of civil liberties started by Patriot Act I. Norma said Together Forever's first goal is to organize a national town hall meeting -- uniting attorneys, theologians, educators, journalists, politicians, constitutional scholars and civic-minded citizens -- that would discuss and debate civil rights. Phil Rappa said, "We'd like both sides of the issue talked about, and we'd like to see the networks and cable broadcast this across the nation simultaneously. It's never been done before, but it will really show democracy at its finest hour." Norma said support has been offered by Republicans Dick Armey of Texas and former Georgia congressman Bob Barr, as well as Democrats such as Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. In addition, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is also interested and has offered to help. "The Bill of Rights and the Constitution are at risk," Norma said. "I've read Patriot II. It's fascist and frightening." That bill, called the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, would expand the government's surveillance and detention powers. Among other measures, it calls for creation of a terrorist DNA database and allows the attorney general to revoke citizenship of those who provide "material support" to terrorist groups. Despite assurances to lawmakers that no bill was in the works, the Justice Department internally circulated a confidential 120-page summary and text of the act in January, and the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity published a leaked copy of the bill. Phil Rappa said few people know about this bill and its provisions, which he said negate five of 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights. The rights to be limited include an attorney's right to confidential discussions with a client, allowing roving wiretaps, ending the probable cause requirement for warrants, dumping search and seizure standards and ending some due process procedures, Rappa said. "None of that would apply anymore," he said. "I'm not picturing. I'm guaranteeing." The Rappas come by media and political savvy by hard work and long experience. Phil was an actor in New York City doing off-Broadway plays in the 1970s when he decided to learn directing. He rose from production assistant to production designer, then directed several successful commercials, such an award-winning national ad for Alka Seltzer. Then, in 1977, his car was rear-ended by a drunk driver and he was permanently disabled. In the hospital, he met Norma, who had been admitted after having an allergic reaction to medicine. "He was a sit-down comedian in search of a stand-up audience," Norma jokes now. "We had a torrid romance." A year later, they were married and became involved in the handicap awareness and drinking and driving issues. They went to high schools and colleges, giving lectures. At a party, they pitched an idea for a documentary to an NBC producer. The network took the bait, and their film, "Our Largest Minority: The Disabled," came in under schedule and under its $160,000 budget. It won eight humanitarian and a United Nations Award, airing four times nationally in three years, everywhere but Jacksonville. "The affiliate here thought it would be offensive and didn't pick it up. The morons," Philip grouses. But Rappa had a knack for planning and finance and made some money on the stock market, playing options and futures. He's also written four screenplays. "I realized I had more control as a writer than did the producer or actors," he said. Norma, however, hasn't played second string on their writing team. She's won a Clarion Award for Women in Communications, a United Nations Award, a Silver Quill Award and Blue Mountain Arts Award for her prose. Now, to get Together Forever off the ground, they are asking their many show business contacts for support. Some, such as Ray Charles and Tony Orlando, worked with the Rappas since their first documentary. Locally, they also have help. For example, Dr. Peter Lardner, retiring chairman of the natural sciences department at Flagler College, said his father lost his career during the McCarthy Era blacklisting. He said, "I'm very concerned, as many people in government also are, about our attorney general and some of the things he is doing. We have to be concerned about how government involves itself in our lives." Criminal defense attorney Tom Cushman said that when the first Patriot Act passed in October 2001, he thought about joining the American Civil Liberties Union. "I could see it coming," he said of Patriots I and II. "Law enforcement will do what it wants and then say, 'We can do this. It's authorized under the Patriot Act.' But if you're in jail, it doesn't matter if it's the Gestapo or the local sheriff's office. Your civil liberties are still gone. The public has a tendency to believe these kind of arrests will only happen to criminals or bad people." Law needs limits, he said. "Somebody's got to start," Cushman said. "The Rappas took the lead and I'm proud to be with them. This is life or death for our democracy."

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Links to Our Pages

The Purpose and The Vision:

Our Purpose

Our National Proposal and Vision

In Defense of our Civil Liberties  

Articles by Norma Sherry 

The Day Democracy Was Put On Hold by Norma Sherry

Freedom is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose by Norma Sherry

Ain't Gonna Work on Maggie's Farm No More (Outsourcing American Jobs) by Norma Sherry

Bye, Bye Miss American Pie (Outsourcing American Jobs) by Norma Sherry

Dear American Worker  (Outsourcing American Jobs) by Norma Sherry

Once Upon a Time in America (Not a Fable) (Outsourcing American Jobs) by Norma Sherry

I Believe (A Retrospective and a Promise) by Norma Sherry

We Can Make a Difference by Norma Sherry

What Price Glory?  by Norma Sherry

Six Steps to Get The Vote Out by Norma Sherry

Not So Gay Times by Norma Sherry

...And God Said by Norma Sherry

Where, Oh Where Have All The Jobs Gone? by Norma Sherry

Never Again by Norma Sherry

A Deadly Secret  by Norma Sherry

Pathology of Malpractice by Norma Sherry

Reality TV by Norma Sherry

One for the Gipper  by Norma Sherry