The Government Is Not Our Friend

When I was growing up I believed that I was truly fortunate to have been born in this country. Both the standard of living and the degree of free were extraordinary. I read of the fear people felt for the government in the Soviet Union and the countries it held in thralldom. I never feared the government here. Government agents didn't burst through the front door here killing family pets and dragging adults away into secret and indefinite detention. It didn't happen here because the government wouldn't have dared. We had a constitution; we were secure in our homes and property; we could say what we wanted with no fear of reprisal.

Then something happened. We saw an assault folllowed by a massacre in Waco. It didn't begin a trend, however, because two years later two men struck back in Oklahoma City. The government was afraid of the people. That's the way it should be; that's the mark of a free society. When the people fear the government, on the other hand, it's the mark of a tyrrany.

Today the government can go to Amazon and demand a list of the books you've bought. They can forbid Amazon from telling you that there was an inquiry. The government can arrest you and detain you indefinitely. They do it legally; the Fourth Amendment is gone. Government publications have described what they consider suspicious activities. These include such things as opposition to new gun laws, support for Ron Paul's writein campaign, and definitely participation in the Tea Party. There is a plethora of documentation for this.

You may say that people who have these views need to be taught a lesson, that they have no rights. I saw a handbill in Detroit delaring that racists should have no right to free speech. This is the same sort of propaganda that government agencies spread with their allies in the various entertainment media. Members ofoh political parties in Congressss overwhelmingly supported legislation to gut the constitution. Torture is legal today. They try to sugarcoat it, but it's a fact.

This isn't the country where I spent my youth and even at a young age knew that the government better treat me as the boss. Now, in this travesty of a once great nation, I fear the government.