posted on August 28, 2002 09:35:55 PM new
A patriotic veteran is outraged by
president, attorney general
Sunday, August 25, 2002
During World War II, millions of men, including myself, fought to
remove tyranny from the world. As history will show, our mission
was successful.
The young, bright-eyed, patriotic men who served were idealistic
and perhaps, naive. Their hearts beat wildly in anticipation of
meeting the enemies of freedom and sending them to defeat.
These same men believed that once their mission was complete,
that freedom and democracy would reign forever. History has
exposed their naiveté, as other despots would have risen to cause
discord throughout the world.
Closer to home, our veterans returned to their families as victors.
A return home full of hope for their futures, content to live out their
lives as free people in our great democracy.
For citizens of our nation, unacceptable changes have taken place
in the way of life that everyone expected. Recent events have
changed our freedom of choice, freedom of association, and
freedoms of thought and speech.
A candidate who didn't receive the majority of the popular vote in
the 2000 election was subsequently appointed to the presidency
by the Supreme Court of the United States of America, thereby
becoming our illegitimate president. The choice of the voters of our
country was taken away by a partisan court in conjunction with
voter fraud and ballot counting. This was only the beginning.
The terrible events of Sept. 11 opened the door to further abuses
and violations of our rights as American citizens. The culprits were
the administration as represented by the president and his
rights-robbing attorney general.
Thousands of citizens, especially those of Middle Eastern descent,
were detained without the right of communication or legal counsel.
This was another attack on our rights. Authorized monitoring of
conversations between detainees and their attorneys, when such
counsel was permitted, quickly followed.
Legislation authorizing secret searches of the homes of ordinary
Americans was requested by the attorney general. This outrageous
request was followed by seeking the right to search the mail and
the Internet for information deemed dangerous. What happened to
the rights of privacy and free speech?
When our citizens raised an outcry against these abuses, the
president of the United States labeled us as "unpatriotic" or
"traitors."
The most recent insult and attack on our way of life, is the
"Operation Tip" program proposed by the president and his
attorney general. They want to turn this country into a land of
informants.
Flashback to the Nazi regime in Germany, a country where family
members informed on each other; neighbors told officials of what
they believed to be suspicious activities; and co-workers were not
hesitant to turn in each other to the authorities.
The president and the attorney general didn't live through that Nazi
era; therefore, they are unable to realize the terror and death
wrought by the Nazi "Tip" program. Evidently, they paid little
attention to their history lessons in school. If they had, they would
have known that they are now off course with their latest freedom
suppressing idea.
Every citizen of our great country should rebel when the job
description of mailmen, home repair people, meter readers,
delivery people and others coming into your home, include the
requirements to spy on citizens whom they serve. This is not to say
that we as citizens should not be aware of what is happening
around us.
To the credit of the U.S. Post Office, they refuse to participate in
this outrageous bird-brained activity.
With all these assaults on our freedoms, the young, bright-eyed,
patriotic men who fought to retain these freedoms are now
sad-eyed, old men. These men, like myself, are still patriotic. They
still want to hold out hope for this country, a hope that seems to
diminish daily. We have lost our naiveté, and perhaps, some of our
idealism.
Each of us, as citizens, must participate to stop the assault on the
freedoms and rights that are part of the heritage of every
American. We must raise our voices in unison to express our
outrage at the direction the administration is taking us. We are
now, and forever will be, freedom-loving Americans. The
Constitution guarantees that to us.
By fighting back, we will prove to the president that we are not a
country of "traitors," but rather, a nation of red-blooded patriots.
posted on August 31, 2002 10:50:13 PM new
What fine writing! And from a post in Homewood, which was the next town over from my hometown of Glenwood. Dad had a church in Glenwood, and some of our members were from Homewood. Makes me proud.
