As I read the morning papers each day, I wonder what has happened to our country. I could go on for pages about things that trouble me from torture to holding people with our charges.
It seems that everywhere I look our freedoms are in danger mostly from those who say they are protecting us. There is no need to argue the point that the world has undergone some changes since the Declaration of Independence. Yet why do we need paramilitary SWAT teams to make arrests that have nothing to do with terrorism, gangs or drug lords?
I'm all for protecting our policemen from criminals, but we need to make sure we protect innocent people from the police and even over zealous prosecutors.
What worries me is that we seem to be evolving into a people who are willing to trade safety and comfort for our freedoms. In a world heading in this direction, I keep looking for a rock where I can put my back. I am to the point that I think we have retreated far enough.
It is time that we realized that it is impossible to have a completely safe life. You can Lysol spray your life into worthlessness. I know we live in a world where kids sometime get snatched away. That is not a reason that all kids should be locked away in their houses playing video games.
While I can perhaps excuse the kids for not knowing how to be kids, I have real trouble letting the politicians who refuse to stand up for what is right off the hook. That is why I keep looking for today's Sam Ervin. No one who has stood up seems to come close to filling Sam's shoes. Today's politicians care only about getting re-elected.
Just what do they stand for execpt re-election and figuring out new ways to pick our pockets while telling us they are cutting taxes?
This quotation from the Washington Post article about Sam Ervin's death pretty well sums up what I think we need.
Ervin became so popular that "Senator Sam" T-shirts and buttons appeared all over the country, but he was far from being a pop cult figure. At a time when Americans were buffeted by the Vietnam War and Watergate and increasingly distrustful of their leaders, Ervin came across as a stern father figure who wasn't confused about what was right and wrong, moral and evil, and who took for granted the moral courage to stand up for what was right.
Is it wrong to hope that the tough times we're seeing will bring us some smart but tough leaders willing to defend the constitution instead of rolling over like well-trained dogs whenever the President says boo.
In the last few weeks, there seem to be a few sparks of life among our elected officials. I have seen nothing to indicate that a single politician has even earned the privilege to shine Sam's shoes.
You would think there would be one politician willing to fight for what is right, especially considering one poll said that 91% of the people who listened to the President in the State of the Union speech were not swayed by his arguments.
It's almost like the people are dragging the politicians behind them since we seem to run out of Sam Ervins to lead us.
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