by
Carl Hampton
08/04/2006
With Mid Term elections just around the
corner maybe it's time for us to start
taking a harder look at what has happened to
“OUR” civil liberties. What we once took
for granted as the cornerstone of being an
American would seem to be in the process of
disappearing on an almost daily basis.
The White House got more than a little upset
with the New York Times when it broke the
news on their highly classified program of
monitoring bank accounts. This story came
just as the storm over “Wire Taps” had
finally began to ease off. President Bush
called them (the New York Times) disgraceful
and said the story had caused “Great
Harm” to America.
Can we or should we continue to allow
“OUR” Presidents the right to use their
constitutional responsibility for national
security to trample over “OUR” civil
liberties. Our First Amendment allows the
press the freedom to question the
government, Jefferson believed that
democracy could easily descend into tyranny
and a vigorous free press was necessary to
prevent our future leaders from getting too
full of themselves. We (the press) have not
always got it right, but without us such
matters as the Pentagon Pages, Watergate and
the most recent tragedy at Haditha would
never have seen the light of day.
In the coming months, we must listen closely
to the debates on this subject. The
government's assertion that we must leave it
unhindered in how it uses its powers to
protect our security could very well
camouflage their desire to increase
Executive Power. Justice Oliver Wendell
Homes famously wrote, “The best test of
truth is the power of the thought to get
itself accepted in the competition of the
market”. They (our leaders) would do well
to remember, we are the Judge it is us (the
people) who are the makers of “OUR”
government.
Let’s look at a few of the issues we are
facing at the moment. We have tens of
thousands of Americans still displaced after
last years storms, hundreds of thousands of
our elderly going without food to pay for
over priced medicine and a homeless problem
that would put a third world country to
shame. Surely it's time we (the people)
STARTED to demand solutions from our leaders
to these problems. How can we put the rest
of the world to rights when we can't even
put our own house in order.
There's an arrogance of incumbency that
comes from a 98% re-election rate. These
people (our leaders) will spend billions of
dollars between then to get re-elected. I
have never understood why we allow these
people to spend this type of money to get
elected. After all for the most part these
jobs pay less than one hundred thousands
dollars a year.
If they can raise these vast amounts of
money for election campaigns WHY are we
still living with the same old problems ?
Have we issued one blank check too many!
Have an opinion or a question you would like
me to answer, then write me!
Http://www.CarlHampton.com
