This article belongs to Off the Cuff column.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their Constitutional Right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. If the founding fathers gave us anything, they gave us that." -Abraham Lincoln, 1865
Honest Abe Lincoln's profound statement from 1865 no longer holds true in this 'future world' of the 21st century, simply due to the fact that 'the people' are no longer on equal footing with their government as they were in 1865, 142 years ago.
Think about it: it is our U.S. government that holds the power of nuclear weapons, bulletproof body amour, automatic weapons, jet fighters and helicopters, DNA tracking and control, telephone surveillance systems and other such clandestine weapons about which 'we the people' can barely guess or even speculate. These weapons can and certainly would be used against its us, since the government is sworn to protect and to defend the Constitution, but not necessarily the 'people.'
As Thomas Jefferson, the main author of the Constitution stated, "When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear the government, you have tyranny."
The American people have not been on equal footing with their government since the development of the Atomic bomb. Prior to that scourge of humankind, 'we the people' had the power of liberty of which Thomas Jefferson spoke of for nearly 176 years. Those years of liberty have sadly waned away into public apathy: the new National disease.
On the evening of December 10, 2007, President Bush announced his refusal to withdrawal our war-weary troops from
Could it be that President Bush and his cronies actually desire the war in
Unless and until multitudes of
Do I bespeak of treason or of tyranny?
Yes, fluently, I hope.
That's off the cuff.
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