Government of the People

This is one of those days when I feel I have to get something out to make a statement. The next national election is drawing near, and I find myself vacillating between fear and hopelessness. I have always been under the possibly mistaken impression that candidates are seeking the right to represent the voters to see that our views and our concerns are reflected in our government's actions. And yet, in defiance of the concerns of 2/3 of the nation's population who feel we should be out of Iraq and the concerns over 70% or the nation's population who feel that our federal government is moving in the wrong direction, we continue to move in that direction.
We are regularly told lies to justify the actions that our government intends to implement anyway. A recent example would be the President's plan to create a "troop surge" to stabilize the Iraq situation. There was a lot of reluctance on the part of Congress to throw more troops into the fray, so the surge was linked to a demand that the duly elected Iraqi government to meet 11 benchmark requirements before a specific date. When that date had come and gone, the Iraqi government had substantially reached three of the requirements and made some progress in two others. Yet despite virtually no progress in meeting over half of the demands, the executive office waited for the word of the the commanding officer in the field, General Petreous, and based on his statement that the situation was improving with the presence of our troops, without any substantial effort on the part of the Iraqi government to meet their part of the deal, our "surge troops" remain with only a token number withdrawn. Is this representative of the desires of the people who elected them? I think not.
A secondary result of our government's failures in dealing with the Iraqi issue is in the changes in the armed forces recruiting policies. I remember as a child and young adult during the period of the active draft that draftees were generally felt to be drawn from those groups in society where there was little chance for self-improvement. High school dropout were readily accepted, and more that one young man arrested for a crime was given the option of going to jail or joining the army. At that time, anyone living in those cities near to a military installation often felt themselves to be living in a crime zone. After the draft was eliminated, the recruiting standards of the armed forces were raised, it became a source of pride to become a part of the armed forces. Unfortunately, as a result of the current disaffection with the war, and the continued need to expand our military presence in the Middle East, the army has had to significantly reduce the standards of quality and conduct that we demand from our troops. Persons with a felony criminal record are now entering the ranks. Persons who had joined the National Guard to assist with natural disasters and similar issues here at home AS WELL AS provide backup to our active troops while retaining their position in the civilian world are regularly being deployed overseas, and their terms of overseas duties are being extended, placing additional burdens on their families, as well as their civilian employers and other civilian responsibilities.
The failure of the American government (I hesitate to refer to it as MY government) to be a representative government, as intended by the Founding Fathers of this country becomes more and more apparent the more closely we examine the actions of government. Recently the CEO's of several of the giant oil conglomerates were called before Congress to justify their huge profit margins in light of the explosive increase in the cost of gas and oil in this country. This investigation appeared just once in the nighttime network news and then disappeared. I don't even know who to contact to find out the result of those hearings. Likewise, I have been unable to confirm whether the provision of the Executive Order signed July 19th by the president that defined any form of war protest as a crime has actually been made low by the provisions of the amended Patriot Act.
Little by little the Civil Rights we fought for and died for have been taken from us in order to "protect" us from protesting or even questioning the actions of our own government both of which seem to have been redefined as terrorist acts. Cindy Sheehan was arrested and removed from the public gallery of the United States Senate for wearing an anti-war t-shirt. she has held in jail overnight without charges. A group wanted to demonstrate in a peaceful public protest against the current administration during a political fund raising speech. They were directed to contain their protest in a blocked in area some distance from the actual location of the speech, an, in fact, one man was arrested for leaving the specified area to cross the street. Most recently, Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor of New York based on information gathered by the Federal Government wiretap that has only been justified by the federal government to pursue possible terrorist leads. Spitzer was included only as a part of a large group who have been defined as potential terrorists due to banking activities involving large sums of money. It leads one to wonder what other paramenters have been set up to identify the targets of this quasi-legal wiretapping effort.
I thank all of you who read this for listening to me expressing my concerns and fears as a citizen of the United States.