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"
2 comments:
Followed your link, thoroughly enjoyed the post. I couldn't agree more.
My mother was a life long republican who grew up fearing the Russians for their nuclear arsenal and a government intrusive enough to even consider a national ID card. A child during the years of the great wars, she would rail about anything remotely resembling the behavior of Nazi Germany. I know it is reprehensible to compare anyone or anything to the Nazis or Hitler, but I must say some of the behavior or our elected officials is very frightening.
If bush succeeds in taking all these powers for himself where will it end? Can he order an assassination on an American if he suspects the person has terrorist ties? Can he suspend elections in a time of national crisis? If so, all he has to do is claim that he has knowledge of a credible threat to our country (which he need not disclose for national security reasons) and he can remain president as long as the so–called War on Terror” continues. I know how ludicrous this sounds but who expected he could get away with waging a war on what is at the very least intentional disinformation, or domestic wiretaps or outing a CIA operative or endless internments of Americans and foreign nationals.
And, where is the outrage? Certainly not in the camp of eunuchs we call Democrats.
Did I mention I resent the distraction of the immigration “crisis?”
While I am on a roll, I also cannot believe that this administration has a religious bone in their collective bodies. Name one Christian value that they have championed. You can’t because they haven’t. I have come to believe that it is all a ruse to bait a large body of voters who are easily cowed into submission by waiving the flag of righteousness. What a bunch of bull. The more I look at the things this administration does the more I realize there is always a money angle. Always.
You should blog more often.
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