I wish to start with two famous quotes that Mr. Bush may not have learned.
"Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" ~ Patrick Henry
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one. ~ Benjamin Franklin
What is liberty as defined in our Constitution worth if a president takes it upon himself to disobey his own oath of office to uphold and defend that document. What if he openly breaks the laws designed to protect our liberty in the name of protecting those same liberties? What if Congress consistently helps him break the law? Isn't that an oxymoron !
We recruit our citizens to join the military to protect our nation and to defend our Constitution. They are willing to die to do so. Are we who remain at home assumed to be less brave? Are we somehow expected to hand over, without a whimper the very rights our soldiers are being asked to die to protect? Another oxymoron it appears.
Bush and Congress claim to be protecting us from terrorism. But at what cost and are we really safer?
What will those soldiers come home to after our own government trashes what they are fighting to protect?
Whose job is it to protect those same liberties here at home while others protect them with their lives abroad?
* The President
* Congress
* The Courts
If they fail to do so they are NOT patriots. Our famous patriots who spoke those lines above were not soldiers, they were statesmen and founders of this nation. The ancestral beginnings of our government. They understood what was needed to assure the preservation of our democracy. We need the undivided loyalty of our three branches of government to continue the fight to preserve our Constitution at home, even as bombs fall abroad.
If any one of these fail us, as had the present administration, we are to rely on the other two to serve as check and balance to keep our nation in balance. If two of the above fail us, we need even more loyalty to the Constitution from the other, remaining check.
When all three fail us, bring the soldiers home for they no longer have anything to fight for. To ask them to continue to die for a Constitution that our own government no longer considers sacred would be nothing but a disgrace to those brave men and women in uniform. A lie that disrespects their sacrifices since the founding of America.
Patriotism is being willing to accept a risk in order to protect our nation and constitution in spite of the dangers we face. No one who is willing to allow the compromise of our Constitution in the face of danger is a patriot.
I am a patriot. I am willing to accept the possible risk of a terrorist bomb rather than risking the destruction of our Constitution in the name of a dubious temporary safety. America has always had enemies, but this is the first time our own government has sheepishly allowed them to win a victory over us by cowardly relinquishing the very essence of what makes America what we once were. Our own President and Congress has turned us into bullying cowards.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
