A Different Perspective

Ben Franklin said, “He who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserves neither.” I find it an interesting quote for today’s political climate. No doubt the quote is being thrown out so often it will lose some of its power and even become distasteful, if not so already, to certain Republicans.

Quite frankly, sacrificing our liberty for supposed security puts us on a path we do not want to be on. The Republicans who are now cheering for W’s actions will feel quite differently about the precedent he is setting with someone from another party in office.

For the first time, a President has publicly admitted an impeachable offense. Only he seems to think because he says it’s not illegal, it’s not. John Dean, former counsel to President Nixon, has this to say:

There can be no serious question that warrantless wiretapping, in violation of the law, is impeachable. After all, Nixon was charged in Article II of his bill of impeachment with illegal wiretapping for what he, too, claimed were national security reasons. . . .

Indeed, here, Bush may have outdone Nixon: Nixon’s illegal surveillance was limited; Bush’s, it is developing, may be extraordinarily broad in scope. First reports indicated that NSA was only monitoring foreign calls, originating either in the USA or abroad, and that no more than 500 calls were being covered at any given time. But later reports have suggested that NSA is “data mining” literally millions of calls - and has been given access by the telecommunications companies to “switching” stations through which foreign communications traffic flows.

In sum, this is big-time, Big Brother electronic surveillance. — John Dean

This comes from a man who had to cooperate during the Watergate scandal to receive a reduced sentence. “I would expect he would know if such a program was illegal.” (source)

I am not a Democrat. I want our government to function, and I want all people everywhere to be as safe as possible. I do not think that by perpetrating crimes against U.S. citizens we are any safer. If anything, we are less so.

Let’s be very honest about what Bush has done. He circumvented laws which would allow for warranted wire taps done in secret, simply because he chose to. He chose to disregard laws specifically in place for this very situation.

I have resisted speaking out politically as of late, because I feel that our political alliances often become roadblocks to relationships. It is better to get to know others, and when a relationship has developed, then you can broach areas that would have previously divided the relationship. I speak out now against the illegal actions of this President, because I believe: A, One of the worst crimes a President can commit is violating the Bill of Rights, the one thing nearly all of us commonly support (albeit with some differing interpretations); B, the precedent being set by this President could land us in even worse shape than we are currently in with another wrong man in power; C, as a Christian, I want the world to know that the immoral and illegal actions of this Christian President are not supported by the entire Christian Church; and D, the media is giving scant coverage to this and many of you may not be aware of the scope of the illegal wiretapping, and the likelihood that it started prior to September 11, 2001.

This President has given more reasons for impeachment than his predecessor. I felt that if Clinton lied under oath as a sitting President, he should have been impeached. And he was. The vote did not remove him from office, but it took the proper course of action. This country deserves a trial for crimes which are allegedly much worse. And alleged is pretty relative, since George W. Bush clearly admits to what he’s done. He just decided he didn’t have to obey the laws written for this very type of situation.

Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, or neither of the two, please look into this issue. Read the arguments on both sides. Try to treat this issue as honestly as you can, with as much thought and prayer as the seriousness of the charges deserve. Do not ask yourself if you would prefer he break the law for your protection (especially since none of their arguments to date show how getting a secret warrant would be a security risk), but truly ask yourself if what Bush has done and continues to do is legal. If, like me, you believe it is not, please speak out. If you do believe it is legal, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to speak out about it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Faith, Life, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.