This letter is associated with the following article:
Letters
Saturday, July 19, 2008 12:00 AM

Political harmony v. the rule of law: an easy choice for the political establishment

The belief that high government officials should be exempt from the rule of law is pervasive across the political class

Read other letters about this article

  • Sunday, July 20, 2008 09:43 AM

    @franklymydear

    Even if we assume you are right, the american people themselves have a responsibility to control their own worlds and those of their offspring.

    Where I work, we have an arrangement to hire local high schoolers to give them some work experience.

    I sometimes converse with them ......... how do you go through 12 years of school and know nothing?

    They can't do math without a calculator. If the register did not tell them how much change to give, they would be lost.

    They nothing of the nation's history ....... let alone world history.

    They don't know about the constitution or the bill of rights .... how their local govt works ...... who their representatives are.

    The school system produces nothing but a bunch of consumer clones fit to work within the gears of the machine without questioning anything.

    Their parents have taught them nothing ........ but how can they if they don't know.

    To me, it is a clear abrogation of responsibility on the citizens" part.

    Today is sunday. Today, millions of people sit in front of a tv screen in a stupor ........ in a trance as they watch multi-millionaire professional athletes run up and down the field with a piece of pigskin or shoot it through a hoop.

    They could be leaning something about what is going on in their country or teaching their kids something but they talking about what video they'll rent tonight.

    This is willful ignorance and an escapist lifestyle.

    Hundreds of millions of Neros fiddle while Rome burns.

    The populace is asleep.

    Still, the govt is in fear ........ fear that they will one day awaken to their plight.

    That is the purpose of the Patriot Act and all the other rubbish.

    God damn 9/11 and the opportunity it gave Bush and his cronies to hijack this country thru using primal fear to manipulate the people.

    Over 40 thousand people are killed each year on the highways and over 100,000 are killed from medical mistakes and the "proper" use of prescription drugs.

    But their is no "war" on highway use or doctors or the pharmaceutical manufacturers.

    Never mind the terrorists ...... you want to fear something ??

    Fear the highways and the medical system.

    But the govt is afraid of any possibility of an awakening.

    Would they use american troops against our citizens? No doubt in my mind but if they can't quell an insurgency in a small country like Iraq, what could they do here?

    I really don't think they have anything to fear as long as the average americans idea of meaningul activity is a trip to Walmart to buy something else they don't need.

Most Active Letters Threads

462

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
408

America's regression

It's almost impossible to find a nation with as many torture advocates as the U.S. has.
332

Palin: Birthers have "fair question" about Obama

Of Obama birth, the ex-governor says, "the public is still, rightfully, making it an issue" (Updated)
114

Is my kids making me not smart?

Stay-at-home fatherhood dulls my intellect to a nub. Excuse me while I ponder the subtext of "Hippos Go Berserk"
112

Trig, the anti-abortion straw baby

Sarah Palin's son is being used to demonize pro-choicers

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon