I, like many others of my generation, still have the letters we received as kids, letters from our relatives in Germany. Each envelope bears the censor’s swastika stamp of approval. Each one opened and resealed.
I have seen it before, and now I am seeing it again: a government that spies on its own citizens, censors and approves their mail, and changes the law to make legal what was formerly illegal. At the time, we all sat here in America, wondering how our relatives back in Germany could have ever let this happen to them. How did they loose their rights and their freedom?
And when the end came we believed that the world would never again see a government rise and become as hopelessly twisted, distorted and lost, as was the one in Germany before and during the War.
We know now, in retrospect, how it happened. It happened slowly, law by law, each law weakened and altered in such a way as make legal what was previously illegal, and in doing so, to slowly erode the rights of citizens under the constitution.
Perhaps if enough of my relatives had gotten together and at some point, stood up and said in one loud voice, “Nein. Das geht nicht!”, they could have resisted the gradual but steady loss of their rights. They could have made a difference.
We also know, in retrospect, how none in the government or in the citizenry spoke out when they had a chance. By the time they realized what was happening and where the government was going, it was too late. Resistance was futile, impossible.
President Bush’s contempt for the law is well known and amply documented, as is his record on the abridgment of citizen rights and protections.
The President and his Team must not be treated as if they are above the law. If laws are broken, then the lawbreaker—in this case, the Telecom Companies––must be brought to justice, regardless of who told them to break the law. What they did was illegal, and “following orders” is no excuse.
The President’s assumption that he and his Team are above the law must be challenged. This cannot be allowed to pass without a fight. I believe we must draw the line somewhere. If not here, where? If not now, when?
And so, as for Telecom Immunity, I most emphatically say, “Nein! Das geht nicht!”
Grüss Gott
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