The Southern Illinoisan: "We need our country back, not what we have become
To the Editor:
We need our country back. We need the one we grew up in, that was the land of the free and home of the brave. Not the one that is spied on by its own government and thinks torture can protect it from harm.
Just a few short years ago, we were the country all the world looked up to. We were the example of every freedom fighter, the champions of human rights, the people protected by the Bill of Rights and the country founded on the Declaration of Independence. Now every dictator, from Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, uses us as an example and an excuse. “We’re fighting terrorists,” they say.
How did it come to this? Terrorists, throughout history, have sought to commit acts so shocking that the regime and the people would change. The regimes would become more draconian and the people eventually turn against them. In a constitutional democracy, the leaders are supposed to resist the temptation of authoritarian and repressive means to protect the security of the people. Our government did not resist the temptation, nor the unconstitutional methods.
The result is that our President, his Cabinet and the Vice-President now claim that the Executive can commit any act in the name of national security. They claim impunity. They can arrest U.S. citizens without warrant or trial. They can hold prisoners incommunicado. They can torture. They can kidnap and have prisoners sent to other countries to be tortured. They can listen in on our phone calls, open our mail, read our email, track our web searches and follow us to the library. There are those who see nothing wrong with this. They are afraid and want to be safe. To them I say this: There is a name for a place where people are absolutely safe from terrorists and crime. It is called a police state.
Every government seeks to defend itself, provide security and fight back when attacked. There is no glory in that. Glory is in defending the nation and liberty at the same time. We need to be brave enough to be free.
We must start by making clear to our representatives that we still insist on being a nation under law, not men. Lawbreakers, elected to government, must be impeached. That is a hard thing, but it is our duty to our country, that, as Benjamin Franklin put it, is a republic, if we can keep it.
Jim Carl, Carterville"
