DEATH PANELS/DEATH BOOKS?

I don't usually post work by someone else but I believe this is important enough to deserve the widest possible dissemination.

Much has been made of Sarah Palin's use og the phrase "Death Panels" in describing the Presidents plans for us. The media would have you believe it was over-stated -- so here is another view:

DEATH BOOK FOR VETERANS AT THE VA, By JIM TOWEY
(Comments at end by Bob Clements, BG, USAF Ret & Fred Langston,MSgt USAF Ret)
(Underlining and emphasis by the sender: Fred Langston) If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care. Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices." Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing. "Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living." The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?"
There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family." When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel? One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender. I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update "Your Life, Your Choices" between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as "Compassion and Choices"). This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable. Worse, a July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to "Your Life, Your Choices." Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients.. America's 24 million veterans deserve better.
Many years ago I created an advance care planning document called "Five Wishes" that is today the most widely used living will in America, with 13 million copies in national circulation. Unlike the VA's document, this one does not contain the standard bias to withdraw or withhold medical care. It meets the legal requirements of at least 43 states, and it runs exactly 12 pages. After a decade of observing end-of-life discussions, I can attest to the great fear that many patients have, particularly those with few family members and financial resources. I lived and worked in an AIDS home in the mid-1980s and saw first-hand how the dying wanted more than health care—they wanted someone to care. If President Obama is sincere in stating that he is not trying to cut costs by pressuring the disabled to forgo critical care, one good way to show that commitment is to walk two blocks from the Oval Office and pull the plug on "Your Life, Your Choices." He should make sure in the future that VA decisions are guided by values that treat the lives of our veterans as gifts, not burdens. (Mr. Towey, President of Saint Vincent College, was director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives (2002-2006) and founder of the nonprofit Aging with Dignity)------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Comment by Robert V. Clements, BG USAF RetGood God..What next? OK, General Shinseki, since you came into power under President Obama you obviously are buying into this. As head of the VA do you buy into this for your fellow comrades at arms? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment by Frederick G. Langston, MSgt USAF Ret
The President, as was evidenced in his recent address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix, indicates a Presidential mind set intent on securing the veterans vote. The above commentary by Jim Towey reflects and indicates a Presidential mind set which also pursues and supports an unconscionable "hurry-up-and-die message" at the VA. This duplicity is worthy of reproach. His VA message to the defenders of democracy of all wars is that when you have served his purpose you are a financial liabilty .... a liabilty that he would prefer to eliminate. As Towey says: "America's 24 million veterans deserve better".
"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse." --James Madison
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358590107981718.html
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Submitted by: Frederick G. Langston, Legislative Affairs Officer
San Diego Chapter 128
The Retired Enlisted Association (TREA)

The Error of our ways

What I am thinking about this morning is political disagreements. We can’t get away from them and we shouldn’t but lately some of us have taken them in a very bad direction.

If I think you espouse a wrong-headed political I should do one of two things:

Ignore that because your politics are your own concern.
or… Present you with my better and more logical beliefs and persuade you to accept them.

What seems to be happening lately is that some of us have adopted the attitudes and behaviors of the most backward and dictatorial regimes in modern history.

There is the urge to hurt or punish those who disagree with us instead of attempting to educate them so that they will recognize the error of their ways. This is the way of the worst elements of the human race. Shut down dissent. Lock up the newspapers and TV stations that publish things we disagree with. Those who will not “toe the party line” will be punished either through imprisonment or being put out of business and impoverished.

This is not the American way. We are encouraged (rightly) to celebrate Diversity in matters of Race and Ethnicity – we should add “Diversity of Opinion” to that list. We should celebrate Freedom.

I will get off the stump now – it is your turn.

The Constitution: Part Two

By D.C. Wright

OK, here it is Tuesday and time to continue this discussion. Since I’ve heard nothing to the contrary in the comments you have been kind enough to make to me, I am presuming agreement on the purpose of the Constitution and the definition of rights.

What I HAVE heard from you is along the lines of “What do we do next?” and “How can I help?” In my mind, and as a reader passed on to me, in others’ minds as well, the Founders provided essentially four boxes for us to open as needed to protect our Republic and our Constitution. They are, in order:

First: The Ballot Box. We need to always THINK about our choices in elections and always choose LESS GOVERNMENT, rather than more. (So far this has been problematic, as we have often failed to do our due diligence and gone along with the MSM’s pick for us. This last election cycle was abysmal with respect to our choices in the election and in the ultimate result.)

Second: Along with and often tied to the Ballot Box is the Soap Box, where we give public vent to our opinions, feelings and even an occasional dose of reality-based logic. This box can be opened on its own, as I am doing now, in order to persuade others of the rightness of MY views and the wrongness of the views of those holding the reins of power. Whether or not this will work remains to be seen. If not, there is the

Third: The Jury Box. In the history of America, there’s a tale often told by the media, particularly the print media, but mostly to themselves, not to the rest of us. It’s also a tale known to liars, oops, I mean LAWYERS, yeah, that’s it, who pray to whatever god they worship that we, the People, will stay ignorant of it. That is the story of one Peter Zenger, a newspaper publisher in Colonial New York. There was a law passed in Parliament, back in Jolly Olde, which made it a crime to talk bad about the King or any of his minions, the Colonial Governors. Truth was no defense. Well, Peter Zenger published a factual story about one of these muckety-mucks and was duly imprisoned and tried (in about that order, if I recall the tale correctly). During the trial, his lawyer turned the matter on its head by putting both the law and the King on trial with the jury. He pointed out that Zenger had only printed truth and that a law such as that was unjust on the face of it. You can see where I’m going with this, as the jury acquitted Peter Zenger on all counts and the law became essentially a dead letter. Today, of course, if you want what’s known as a Fully Informed Jury, you’re bounced by the prosecutor AND the judge, as they think THEY should be the final arbiters of what the law is and should be. They will tell jurors that they MUST listen to the judge as to what the law is that the accused is said to have broken and judge only guilt or innocence of that. In reality, the jury is ALSO the judge of the LAW itself and can find that the law is flawed or unjust or unconstitutional and acquit on that basis. Once a jury acquits someone under our system, he or she cannot be retried for the same crime. This can be a powerful tool and for further information look up the Fully Informed Jury Association at http://www.fija.org/. This is THE definitive site for prospective jurors, as far as I am concerned.

Fourth: The Bullet Box is the LAST one we want to open, for it is the one most fraught with peril for us as individuals AND for our nation. Yet it is there because the Founders realized that it might well be necessary. They understood tyranny, for they had most assuredly just pushed their way out of one of the most tyrannical of the time and they had no intention of setting up their OWN tyrants. So they put in a clause specifically requiring the government to recognize (but not GRANT) our right to keep and bear the arms of our choice in the event we had to either fight off an invading horde or protect ourselves and our families from our own government. THIS is the thing our current masters (for want of a better word) would have us forget. They do not want us to even DREAM about taking up arms to protect our liberty from them; in fact so many of them (Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Frank Laughtenberg, The One, his minion, Eric Holder, et al.) want nothing more than to see ALL OF US PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS totally and completely disarmed and at their mercy. Oh, yes, they have their protection, you can bet the ranch. DiFi, as the senator is known to us in California, is one of the biggest gun-grabbers in the Senate, yet SHE had (or maybe still has) a carry permit from San Francisco County, where they are like finding a diamond in a bird dropping; possible but about as likely as getting hit by a lightning bolt.

I HOPE it isn’t yet time to open the fourth box, but preparedness is a good idea. Besides, going to the range is FUN. And it’s another skill for you to master. OK, so I learned from the Marine Corps. Big deal. ANYONE can learn to shoot if you have a good and patient instructor and a willingness to learn. And having a good firearm in the home (or on your person) and the skill and knowledge to use it, but most importantly to know WHEN to use it, is an extreme confidence builder. Not cocky, not bullying, not ready to shoot anyone, anywhere. THAT is not the purpose. The purpose of a firearm is to protect you and those around you from ANYONE who would do them harm. Those of us who are veterans know all about that, as that was the oath we took… to protect and defend our Constitution from all of its enemies, foreign and domestic, and by corollary, to protect the PEOPLE, on whose authority the Constitution rests. We swore no allegiance to the President, the Congress or the Government, for it was known when these oaths were written that those institutions could become the enemies of the Constitution and the People. We did swear to obey the LAWFUL orders of the President and/or officers appointed over us, but the key word is LAWFUL. And that means that they must be, at the bedrock, in compliance with the Constitution and then the laws and treaties governing war and the military.

OK. Here’s some more to think about. Things you can do. Prepare for war but pray for peace. Find like-minded folks around you and start making new friends. Stock up on certain things that might come in handy in hard times. I live in earthquake country so I’ve heard that advice for years. And it’s good anywhere in the country. PROVIDED that you do NOT make a big production out of it in front of your neighbors. We may never need these emergency goods. I pray not. BUT if the worst comes to pass, you do NOT want to have made yourself a target.

If you decide to start shooting, perhaps you can learn to reload your own ammo. It’s fairly simple and can be as cheap or as costly as your budget permits. It’s also fun to go out and shoot up the stuff you’ve made yourself!

But that’s enough of this for now. I am not trying to be an alarmist, just a realist. There may well be other things we can do prior to open warfare to take back OUR nation. And it is OURS, for we the People are the sole source of any authority the government has and we can revoke that grant of authority anytime the government gets too far out of bounds. In fact, it is our duty and obligation to do so. Let’s try the Soap Box for a while longer. Go to the townhall meetings, if your congresscritter decides to be brave and hold one. Also, if your state is like Vermont, Arizona and New Hampshire, consider openly packing a piece when you go out, whether it be to a protest, a townhall or even shopping. You know by now that you are NOT going to use your weapon to threaten someone except in the only permissible way: BY HAVING IT ON YOUR PERSON. This makes the liberal gun-grabbers wet themselves for some reason, and it works. Look at New Hampshire over the weekend, I believe, and Arizona yesterday, near the Obama speech at the VFW or the townhall, I’m not sure which. All I can say is that as a VFW member, I’m glad the folks there gave him the cold shoulder he deserves…

Next time, ya’ll.

My latest article

The Constitution: Quit Whining About It and Start Enforcing It

by D.C. Wright

I hear too many so-called “conservatives” whining about how people don’t understand the Constitution and what it means and how Congress and the Courts surely ignore it and how the Executive tries to do end-runs around it and how impossible it is to get people interested in seeing it enforced.

Well, Bunkie, let’s do first things first, then we can make some real progress at recovering our Country. We, who wish to CONSERVE the Constitution and the Republic it created, must first agree on some fundamentals:

First and foremost, the Constitution is what it is, the bedrock and foundation on which the Founders built the Republic. It is a neutral document, that is, it does not favor any person or group; it recognizes and requires the government to recognize INDIVIDUALS and their EQUAL rights. It rightly treats us as GROWNUPS, fully capable of making our own decisions over our lives and responsible for the consequences, good, bad or indifferent, of those choices. It most emphatically does NOT give government the authority to make choices FOR us. Sadly, there are many people who believe otherwise. Some call themselves Liberals and think that Government must make decisions about how much money we are allowed to make; how healthy we are allowed to be; and with whom we are allowed (or mandated) to associate.

Those who call themselves “Conservative” want the government to dictate such things as with whom we sleep and why; what sorts of substances we may possess and ingest or whatever; and, since they can’t be sure just how much we love our country, often they want to compel us to serve in the forces that protect this nation.

Neither group wants the rest of us to realize that there is NO SUCH AUTHORITY GRANTED to government by the Constitution to do ANY of these things or a host of others that they want it to do. Somehow or another, they want us to believe that the rules laid out in the Constitution do not limit what GOVERNMENT can do, but what We, the People, are allowed to do. Whilst the “conservative” side won’t admit it as the “liberals” openly do, I believe both are agreed that our Constitution is a “Living” Document, capable of being interpreted in whatever way suits the moment.

Now, how do we combat this perversion of our foundation? How do we turn this back right side up? There’s no easy answer, but first we MUST agree that the Constitution is, as I have described here, a limit on GOVERNMENT, not a limit on We, the People. Without that fundamental agreement, we’re wasting our time and we may as well just step peaceably into the chains FedGov is forging for us.

We MUST agree that all rights are INDIVIDUAL rights and we must agree on a definition of the term. My definition, which I believe is the correct one, is that a right is anything one wants to do that does NOT involve the involuntary participation of another human being, as in a “right” to health care mandates that a doctor MUST provide it and someone ELSE must pay for it; hence that is in no way a RIGHT. A right to have sex does NOT include a right to: force one’s self on another; have sex with a child or other person incapable of giving voluntary consent; or an animal. Otherwise, it would be whatever an individual could coax one or more persons into VOLUNTARILY agreeing to.

Pretty much, whatever one wants to do is open. Whether or not one SHOULD do something is a matter for that person and his conscience (or his God, if he or she, like me, is a believer). The constraint is that NO ONE may initiate any act of force or aggression against another person. The old saying, “Your right to swing your fist ends at my jaw” is right on the mark, excepting only in self-defense. So, for GROWNUPS, rights are pretty extensive and Government was created (in this nation, uniquely) as an institution to PROTECT those rights. And our Founders considered, for the most part, that the citizens of this new nation WERE grown and capable of accepting responsibility for their actions.

So if you’re with me to this point, we can say that We, the People, are pretty much unlimited under the Constitution, whilst FedGov is VERY limited. This limitation is spelled out clearly and specifically in the Tenth Amendment, which, refreshingly enough, is getting quite a bit of play this year. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Clear and simple.

The Founders ALSO believed that CRIME was a matter for the Several States to handle, since they allowed FedGov original jurisdiction over only three categories of crime, outside the absolute jurisdiction Congress has over the military. These categories are Treason (as defined in the Constitution), Piracy (on the high seas, but now in the air age, air piracy is included) and Counterfeiting. These and these ONLY are what the central government may properly (and solely) handle.

There is one other point, which I consider crucial to any discussion on the limitation of authority of government (and this applies across the board). That is, the notion that ours is a government by and with the CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. As it happens, I agree wholeheartedly with this concept. I believe that it goes to the heart of the United States of America and is what makes it unlike any other before or after it, though there are some that give lip service to the notion and some (England) who made a valiant try at it (the Magna Charta, for example).

However, I also believe that the concept is widely misunderstood, even by pro-Constitution Conservatives. Granting consent to something implies that one has the AUTHORITY to do that in the first place. We, as individuals, can only consent to someone doing in our names and on our behalf that which WE MAY PROPERLY DO FOR OURSELVES IN THE FIRST PLACE. I can, for example, consent to having someone arrest, try and punish a murderer or a robber or a rapist because I have the legitimate authority, under my absolute right to self-defense, to act against such a person MYSELF. Though I would most likely commit that person to his final rest, I can properly consent to the establishment of courts and prisons and so forth.

Likewise, I can properly consent to LOCAL rules on conduct in public places. For example, LOCAL governments may properly establish rules about when and where someone may discharge a weapon in non-emergency situations (though that is ALL that government may properly do with respect to weapons, at ANY level, since the Second amendment is pretty specific). Local government may also establish rules against public intoxication (by any substance), though no level of government may prohibit the use of intoxicants, since no INDIVIDUAL has the authority to consent to such regulation of OTHER PEOPLE’S behavior. If an individual may not infringe on the rights of others, he cannot get government to do it for him.

In future articles, I’ll delve deeper into how we can go about getting our Constitution restored as the Supreme Law of the Land. For now, we need to ensure that we understand the mechanism that created it and the thoughts of the Founders when they were writing this marvelous document. Their contemporary writings pretty much, in my opinion, show that they were in agreement with the line of thinking I have portrayed here. They did say that the Constitution was something that would only work with a “moral” people, that is, a people who accepted that there are such things as right and wrong and that one should always strive for the right. This matter of morality is something that cannot be legislated (NO government has either the authority or the capability to do that), but must be learned and accepted through family and church. Today we have the forces of Liberalism which have done their utmost to destroy BOTH institutions and make morality a thing of the past. “Anything goes,” or so they want us to believe. And, sadly, some do.

On the other side we have those who believe that MORALITY can be instilled in folks at the point of the government’s gun.

Both sides are terribly, tragically and EVILLY WRONG. But more later on these things.

Words & Pictures & Sacred Honor

Words & Pictures & Sacred Honor
A Veteran’s Pledge
By
Doug Todd

I dreamed that dream again last night. That same old dream I have dreamed so many times down the years – same picture – same jumbled up mess of words and feelings – waking in the same cold sweat to the knowledge that I would not sleep any more tonight.

In this dream I always see the same picture but I wake thinking of the words and the picture is usually just background.

Words are important to me. Words mean things. I have always been impressed by the words we started with (as a country, I mean) “We hold these truths…” and you know the rest of it right down to that part about Divine Providence and the pledge of “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident” – by my seventeenth year I had read them so many times I could read them with my eyes (and the book) closed.

In that year we had a young President who spoke other words – words that were, in their own way, just as impressive. Yes I know they were not his words but were written for him by a man named Sorensen who was paid to write – but he made them seem to be his own.

He may have been somewhat less “Great” than some of us believed him to be at the time; he may have been a womanizer and other things he has been accused of but, on that cold and snow-covered January morning he was the man who took Mr. Sorensen’s words and made them live!

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill,
that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any
friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of
liberty.

This much we pledge--and more.”

Something reminded me of that other pledge of "our lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor" and I felt then that anyone hearing these words as he delivered them with such clarity and conviction -- such force -- would know immediately that these too were words that would be remembered and repeated long into the future.

Many of us (I mean us old Veterans) were young then and idealistic and some of his words (Liberty – Freedom – Democracy) left a good taste in our mouths. Some of us seemed to know instinctively that we held the future in our young hands and that we could shape it into something better than the world had ever seen before!

Some of us pledged our own "Lives and Fortunes" holding up our right hands and swearing our oath:

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the
orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers
appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military
Justice. So help me God.

These were the words we started with – words written for us by someone whose name we didn’t know – but we made them our words. The words we started with when we were such young men (boys becoming men) and setting out to change the world.

We tried. We took up our burden, we fought where they sent us to fight and did what we could do to assure the survival and success of Liberty. Some of us lived through it and are still here in a “Future” that none of us could have imagined.

I dreamed that dream again last night. It was the same dream although some of the details were slightly altered.

In this dream I always see a picture of a young man in uniform – he is emerging from a rice paddy carrying a body (his best friend I always think) across his chest. A heavy blanket of smoke hangs over the whole scene but there is a thin place in the smoke where you can see a helicopter hovering over a tree line behind him. He is of indeterminate age; in that time and in that place young men became old men very quickly. The body is cradled in his arms with the face turned away from me so that I can’t even see what he may have looked like. There is a lot of blood.

The young man’s face is turned slightly skyward and the smoke and grime that covers it are streaked with what must be tears. He wears a flak-jacket with no shirt under it so that the bulge of his biceps is clearly visible. He may have been a weight lifter or an athlete in some other life in some other far away world. The over-all look is simply inexpressible anguish.

The words are there almost like a caption but now they are a question; “Any Price? Any Burden?”

Could he have known? Back on that cold January day so long ago could he have known it would come to this?

Could they have known when they pledged their “several lives and fortunes” that it would always come to this? That it would always be two strong young friends – one to pay the price and one to bear the burden? Did they know, did anyone/everyone ever/always know?

Could we have known? Could we -- maybe if we had been less idealistic, if we had felt less invincible, if we had not been so sure that the future was ours to shape and to mold and that we could leave the world better than we found it?

If we could have known – would the words have been the same?

Now that we do know, now that we have lived through it and know beyond any doubt that it will always come to the same place – where does that leave us now?

What of that Pledge we pledged – that Oath we swore?

I dreamed that dream again last night but this time it ended differently. In this dream (always before) I am standing on slightly higher ground at the edge of a paddy and he comes toward me with his friend’s body in his arms and that look of unspeakable anguish on his face. I can’t say anything to him. I have no words to speak. The only words I can find are questions “These truths? Our lives and fortunes? Any price, any burden?”. As I continue to wake slowly I realize that it is only a dream and that I am not standing at the edge of the paddy (or anywhere) but am lying on my back in bed and the picture is slowly dissolving in the darkness above me. The words are a jumbled mess of The Declaration, the Inaugural and the Oath and they are the last to go and before I am fully awake and aware that I will not be able to go back to sleep.

This time was different. He has never looked at me before but this time he made eye contact. He looked straight at me and nodded “Yes”. I was jolted out of bed.

Yes! I knew instantly what he meant and knew that he was absolutely right! Yes! They were right – the words we started with. They were right and they still mean what they always said!

The pledge still holds – the Oath is still binding! We still hold these truths to be self-evident! We still pledge our several lives and fortunes!


Yes! Bearing “True Faith & Allegiance” to the one who died in our arms and to the countless others who died in other arms on other fields of fire. Keeping faith with those who still wake feeling the weight of his body in their arms and the grief of his death in their hearts…

The pledge still holds… our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to assure the survival and the success of Liberty – let the word go forth from this time and place -- that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe… to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;

This much we pledge-- and more – so help us God!

Copyright August 2009 Doug Todd & Talkin’ Freedom – All Rights Reserved

NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES

By D.C. Wright

With Rick Chace and Jeff Head

Our “leaders” have turned this whole Constitution thingy right on its head. Instead of being our (well-paid) EMPLOYEES, they have taken it upon themselves to become our RULERS. Take the Congress for example. For the most part (and there are only a tiny handful of exceptions), the laws they pass don’t apply to them or to Capitol Hill anywhere. Sexual harassment? No problem, they’re not covered by those laws. Labor laws? Not enforced here. Time to take a vacation? THEY’RE not too poor to afford to travel in style. Just call the Air Force and get a VIP aircraft for them and their minions. Call it “fact-finding” to mollify the folks back home. Why, there’s even talk of Congress buying as many as 6-8 brand new luxury corporate jets so the Air Force can fly them about in even greater comfort. $500 million tax dollars or so, but who cares? CONGRESS doesn’t have to pay for it.

Then there’s the imperial Presidency. Dates in New York City. Shopping sprees in London or Paris. All on OUR dime. Endless “official” travel all over the world. Special privilege up the old gump stump.

It’s time to say NO MORE. NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES. No more exemptions from laws YOU pass. No more VIP travel at taxpayer expense. No fleet of luxury planes at your beck and call, just because you’re a “public official.” No more conferences at luxury resorts unless the cost comes out of your PERSONAL pocket. No FAMILY travel on the taxpayer’s dime. No more overseas junkets that we, the People have to pay for. I’ll say it again: “NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES.”

We, the People, are sick and tired of Imperial Government. We threw off a monarchy when the King got too overbearing. Then we wrote a simple but extremely well thought-out Constitution and created a republic. A place where anyone could grow up and do whatever he or she wanted, while respecting the right of others to do the same. A place where there were no hereditary “classes.” Where privilege was EARNED by the sweat of one’s brow. Where IDEAS were currency and where dreams could come true because one worked to make it so. Where serving in government was just something one did for a while out of a sense of duty, but one soon put it aside in order to participate in the REAL world, the world of ideas; of machinery; of agriculture; of things of VALUE to society.

But then one day, the idea was put into the heads of politicians that they could vote privilege for themselves; that they could vote lesser privilege to people who could be persuaded to vote, to do what it took to keep the politicians in office in order to keep the privileges flowing. And the politicians created their own subclass: the professional political class. And the professional ENABLER, the political STAFFER.. Then these two parasitical classes created their own little world wherein PULL was currency and the prestige of one’s political boss determined the amount of PULL available. And it was all paid for by the taxpayer, the milk cow of the politicians. And they passed legislation that made it all but impossible for others to challenge the order of things. Because SPECIAL PRIVILEGE was the order of the day.

Now, however, we, the People, the source of what LIMITED authority government has been granted, are here to tell the Political Class: NO MORE. NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES. No more junkets. No more first class travel at OUR expense. No more sycophants on the public payroll telling politicians just how powerful and god-like they are. YOU ARE OUR EMPLOYEES, not our masters. You exist in office at our sufferance, and not by “right.”

We hired you to protect OUR interests and rights; instead you feather your own nests and those of your chosen cronies, in return for the favors they can do for you. No more. NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGE. If you cannot live under these terms, just say the word. We’ll hire someone who will. We will also seriously consider making yours a PART TIME job and not allow you but one or two staffers, also part time. That way you and the staff can spend most of your time out in the REAL world, eking out a living the way we, your bosses, must.

When foreign rulers, tyrants, and terrorists have sought to destroy this Republic, we have united and spent our treasure, our time, and most importantly our life’s blood and that of our sons and daughters to defeat these enemies so we could vouchsafe and preserve our liberty, our way of life, our moral values and the Constitution, which enumerates those things. Those tyrants and enemies have always underestimated the American people. The politicians in our country should take note of this fact…and the results. A glance over their shoulders at Athens, Tennessee, in 1946, should straighten out MOST of the politicians. You should recall that corruption was rampant in McMinn County, Tennessee, when a group of veterans, fresh from combat in World War II, came home and quickly got fed up with being targeted for ticketing, for arresting, for being fined for the least infraction. They ran a slate of candidates for the various county offices, promising clean, honest government and an end to the strongarm tactics of the incumbents. On Election Day, the sheriff “deputized” a bunch of his thugs (sound familiar?) who then took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting. They opened fire on the veterans who attempted to come in to monitor the count. The vets borrowed some weapons from the local armory and returned fire. When the gunsmoke cleared and the dynamite was put away, the “deputies” surrendered, an HONEST count was made of the ballots and, guess what, the veterans’ slate won. For the best article I’ve read on the subject, go to American Heritage and read all about it.

(The Battle for Athens shows how corruption due to SPECIAL PRIVILEGE can occur at any level of government. We, the People, oppose it no matter WHERE. NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES. EVER.)

And, as for the Presidency, we hire someone to be the chief executive OF THESE UNITED STATES, not president of the world. There should be NO overseas travel for any reason. All your work is here at home, not in Saudi Arabia or Paris or London. If you feel a need to travel there, fly coach class on a commercial liner, just like your bosses. If you want $100/pound beefsteak, PAY FOR IT YOURSELF. If we must eat hamburger helper, for sure we will NOT pay for your beefsteak when you can go to Wal-Mart like the rest of us and pay less than $4.00 per pound!

NO SPECIAL PRIVILEGES.

D.C. Wright is a retired Marine Vietnam veteran who “mean[s] to see the Constitution restored to its rightful place, as Supreme Law of the Land, in MY lifetime, so that I don’t pass the problems on to my sons and grandkids.”

Rick Chace is a Marine formerly on active duty, who just barely missed Vietnam but still honors the oath he took to defend the Constitution against ALL its enemies (and, as we have seen, they are LEGION).

Jeff Head SHOULD have been a Marine. He’s got what it takes. He’s been a Freedom Activist for many years and a writer of no small skill. A good man to have at your back.

© 2009 D.C. Wright All rights reserved