About Americans losing their rights
Said the government is tapping our phones
Reading our emails, invading our homes
Oh, why should I care, when I've got noting to hide
How else we gonna figure out who's on our side
I wrote those lyrics years ago during the previous administration. Now they seem more appropriate for today.
To hear the whole song, "I guess that’s OK," go to: http://www.myspace.com/valentunes/music/songs/i-guess-that-39-s-ok-mp3-93367605
But this issue of security vs. safety is really nothing new.
Even Honest Abe suspended citizen’s legal rights during the Civil War (or as folks here in the South like to call it: “The War of Northern Aggression”) People, even presidents, panic in the face of a crisis that threatens lives and the future of the Republic.
The fact is, the people in charge will take as much power as they think they need, and are allowed to seize. What’s to stop them?
Well, remember in school we were taught that government excesses are supposed to be curbed by the checks and balances of the three branches (executive, legislative and judicial).
Two-thirds of that equation are controlled by us. We can’t let apathy and fear deter us from demanding better.
Freedom has always demanded courage. Complacency just gives us the usual.