I'm afraid -- not of terrorists, nor as President Bush calls them, brutal enemies, Saddamists, murderers, and the like. I'm afraid that we the people have abdicated our control of our government. External threats exist, but they pale in comparison to the real threat -- that of losing a form of government that has withstood abuses and even a civil war, but which is being irrevocably eroded.
A common tactic of governments wanting to solidify their power has been to invoke fear by painting an enemy as more powerful than the reality. At 62 years old, I've seen other examples of my government showcasing an enemy -- Qaddafi, Noriega, Khrushchev and others -- but never have I witnessed the invocation of fear to the degree that the current administration does.
The most distressing issue is not that we have a president intent upon garnishing imperial power, not that we have a go-along Congress -- both Democrat and Republican. It is that the American people, the "we" in the Declaration of Independence, are so complacent that we don't stand up to our corporately purchased leaders whose primary interest is re-election. Is it that we have allowed fear to block out our sense of ethics and justice? Has television so imbued us with propaganda that we are oblivious to the real threats to this nation? Has the manna of wealth, or the illusion thereof, so intoxicated us that our gadgets and three-car garages are more important than our liberty?
We the people have capitulated control of our country to corporate giants. We've done this with the aid and abetment of our entire machinery of government and much of the press. Shame on us.
