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Their power derives from us
Yet we are subjugated by the authority we have given them.
By Troubled Neighbor
Dear Friend,
01/29/06 "ICH"
-- -- Please take notice that the administrators of our union may be
leading us into ruination. Although the ranks of our employ are
many, few are able to fulfill the duties required to safeguard
the trust left us by our forbearers. In our carelessness, it
seems, we have hired mostly those skilled in the art of
persuasion, a temperament unsuitable to the promotion of our
general welfare.
They say, because we vote for them, they serve our will, but in
the words of Justice Jackson - "The very purpose of the Bill of
Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of
political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of
majorities and officials and establish them as legal
principles"-- that such fundamental rights "may not be submitted
to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections."
Why surrender the privacy of your home or the pursuit of your
well-being on a vote of the people? The vote does not make the
public servant saintly, but the power that comes with the public
trust is awesome indeed. It is well documented in history and
elsewhere that it is easier for a camel to pass through a
needle's eye than for a human being not to abuse power when
consequence is absent.
Their power derives from us, yet we are subjugated by the
authority we have given them. Unaccountable, our public servants
have acquired the license of angels and conduct themselves like
gods to be obeyed. They have supplanted justice and liberty with
standards of their own making.
Without justice, force alone maintains the rule of law, and ours
becomes a government of bullies whose every act of unfairness is
a blow to peace and goodwill, fomenting rage and terror in its
injury.
Every liberty lost is power to those who take it. They tell us
it is for our security, but power in the hands of those who
abuse is power used to control or destroy. Informed consent, not
compliance, makes the individual strong, so, too, it is with the
nation. Privacy, not data collecting, is what fosters the
boldness of mind that contemplates Constitutions or seeks to
shelter the vulnerable from perpetrators of witch hunts,
holocausts, and purges.
Perhaps, to those among us, who are not an illness or accident
away from bankruptcy or worse, government intrusion is necessary
in order to remain in this seeming Garden of almost Eden. But
the fruit of the tree we call American democracy is but a
scarlet letter -- a governing of lying, spying, snitching,
prisons, torture, and war, which, if history is any guide, will
inevitably lead us to decline, as is likely to befall a people
who blindly trust in others and place their treasure in pursuits
not based in truth, justice or regard for human dignity.
Very truly yours,
Troubled Neighbor
The January 29 letter is being presented under the pen name
of "Troubled Neighbor," who is exercising free speech in the
long-standing and honorable tradition of advocacy and dissent
via anonymous publication.
"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our
posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America." ~ Preamble, United States
Constitution.
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
People." ~ Ninth Amendment.
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