John Brand, D.Min., J.D.
Requiem, USA
Thu Apr 8, 2004 20:57
67.1.146.22

Requiem, USA
By John Brand, D.Min., J.D.
YellowTimes.org Columnist (US)
4-6-4

The Constitution is under assault!

The Great Wall of China was breached not by invading hordes of
terrorists but by betrayal from within. The threat to freedom is not the
work of al-Qaeda, terrorists of any stripe -- Israeli, Muslims,
whatever -- or a North Korean dictator. The attack has been launched
from within the bastion of America by self-proclaiming loyalists to our
Constitution. But they lie!

Super patriots, in response to this article, will raise high the flag
and jeer "America - love it or leave it." But 30 second propagandistic
slogans won't cut the mustard. The noose is being drawn ever tighter
around the nation that no longer has a government "of the people, by the
people, and for the people." Demagogues invading our living rooms via
T.V. avow commitment to "freedom" and "democracy." But their empty words
are devoid of evidence that they believe in Constitutional governance.

Flag waving, supercilious morality, display of military might, claims
that the economy is healthy and well do not stop the spread of the
deadly cancer. Its poisonous tentacles have metastasized throughout the
nation's life-stream.

Do we embrace a Constitutional government based upon checks and
balances? Are we willing to grant to everyone the protection of the
Articles of the Bill of Rights? Is Valley Forge engraved in our hearts?

The answer, from all present evidence, is a resounding, "NO!"

While the propaganda machine turns out lofty-sounding slogans, the death
squad is busy strangling America's soul. "Compassionate Conservatism" is
the banner of the skull and bones society numbing our citizens into a
state of insensitivity. "Leave no Child Behind" is the opiate deadening
the soul of our nation to the real needs of our children. "No more
taxes" is the venom destroying the infra-structure of our nation.

The ruling cabal makes a joke of Jefferson's words, "The care of human
life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only
object of good government." Today's conspirators against freedom elevate
stone-cold, heartless, inhumane corporations to the position of the
ultimate god. Everything is being sacrificed -- people, freedom, the
Bill of Rights -- at the altar of the new god, "P and P," profit and
power.

The conspiracy against America has fired three torpedoes sinking the
ship of state. The missiles are not fired by the dispossessed, the
disenfranchised, the disillusioned. The powerful, the controlling, the
ruling have their trigger fingers on the red button unleashing the fury
of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: the conquering imposter, war,
starvation and death.

These, then, are the three destroyers of the founding fathers' dream for
a government of justice, equity, and equal protection under the law.

1. WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

Under the guise of a petty moralistic agenda, America's soul has been
sucked dry by religious charlatans. Let's face facts. Many of our
leaders in the past have been involved in immoral acts. It is no secret
that FDR had a mistress. It was rumored that Ike had a mistress while he
was Commanding General, ETO. There is little doubt that LBJ stole the
election when he first became a United States Senator. JFK certainly had
a number of liaisons.

But none of these private immoral acts caused these men to act immorally
when it came to the interest and the welfare of America. FDR took over a
nation in despair. He brought self-respect and hope to millions. Ike had
a deep respect for Constitutional government and warned us of the
nefarious union between big business and government.

LBJ's "Great Society" was more than a cheap slogan. He infused America
with a sense of hope, of self-assurance, of prospects of a brighter
tomorrow.

JFK, in spite of his indiscretions, instilled in America a spirit of
confidence and hope. The emphasis was upon leveling the playing field to
give the little people of our land a sense of self-respect and a feeling
of participating in the great becoming of a great nation.

Now what have we got? A sense of a petty religiosity allowing
self-righteous Pharisees to beat their chests bragging about their faith
in God while pulling the noose ever tighter around America's soul. They
preach of sin while neglecting the weightier matters of justice and
mercy. They pretend to be pure and clean, bragging about their
self-righteousness but within they are full of self-loathing and want to
bind others to the death they sense in their own bones.

They give us a god who is small, divisive, parochial. They quote a few
passages from the Bible and miss the splendor, the greatness, the
mystery, the awe of God. They know little of love because they do not
love themselves.

They know little of hope because they have no hope inside their entombed
lives. They know little of faith because they have reduced faith to
petty legalisms.

And millions, reduced to dryness and emptiness in their lives, respond
to the shallow emotionalism of these religious charlatans and yet find
little joy, little hope, little light. Their selfhood does not rest
within themselves. These supposedly Christian preachers teach their
followers to compare themselves to "sinners." But the "saints" are
filled with judgment, condemnation, and hatred of all who do not follow
their petty party line. In their hubris they fail to read and/or
understand Matthew 23:15. "For you cross sea and land to make a single
convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as
yourselves."

Most of America does not understand that there are personal immoral acts
and the scandalous iniquities of a social nature. While much publicity
may be given to the former, it is the latter that brings destruction and
death to our society.

I am not defending any acts of immorality. However, social wrong-doings
affect the entire nation. Let HMOs make a profit center out of health
care and all the people suffer. Let industries pollute the atmosphere
and all the people suffer. Let corporations buy the government and all
the people suffer.

The inability to understand that crimes against society are far more
serious than personal immoral acts is a fact that has escaped most
religious fundamentalists and evangelicals.

To preach without applying Matthew 23 to the current political scene is
to totally miss the substance of the biblical message.

Pharisaical religiosity is tearing a gaping hole in the soul of our
nation. How deceived can we be to think that elimination of abortion,
persecution of homosexuals, or considering a constitutional amendment
about marriage, will solve the problems of the lack of social justice,
economic righteousness, and political equity?

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not what I tell you?" (Luke
6:46)

Today's self-styled, popular Christianity is destructive of the
essential character needed to maintain constitutional government. A
self-serving, dogmatic religiosity bears little resemblance to the
biblical prophetic tradition.

2. POLITICAL POWER FOR SALE

The Founding Fathers realized that power corrupts and absolute power
corrupts absolutely. The Constitution's unique political contribution
was to create safeguards so that no one branch of the government could
usurp the powers of the other two.

Present day politicians fired the second torpedo tearing a hole in the
ship of state. Denigration of the constitutional surety to maintain a
government of strictly separated powers is proceeding at a record pace.
Freedom depends upon the strictest observation of checks and balances.
However, an evil and devious coterie of political hacks has almost
totally eliminated this major thrust of constitutional government.

No written words can guarantee compliance with the essential conditions
needed for freedom. The genesis for their fulfillment rests in the minds
and heartbeats of its citizens and leaders. Leaders can scream
"democracy" and "freedom" from the tallest steeple in the land but if
there is no personal commitment to safeguard constitutional balance,
their voices are just so much hot air.

The torpedo tearing a monstrous hole into the sinking the ship of state
is fired by potentates in all three branches of the government. That
which was to be a guarantee against a government of tyranny is being
torn apart and asunder. The Executive Branch is aided and abetted in
this degenerate trickery by the other branches.

What psychological factors cause intelligent men and women to destroy
the noblest of all governmental forms? The time for being nice and
polite is past! The time to call a spade a spade has come. I found a
terse description of the man or woman set upon America's destruction in
the writings of Nietzsche. "What is this man? A mass of diseases that
reach out into the world through the spirit; there they want to get
their prey. What is this man? A coil of wild serpents that are seldom at
peace among themselves - so they go forth apart and seek prey in the
world." (Zarathustra, First Part, 6)

President Eisenhower in an address to The Guildhall, London, spoke these
words, "Humility must always be the portion of any man who received
acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his
friends." The entire political apparatus is standing on the shoulders of
the soldiers who gave their lives to preserve the dream of the Fathers.
However, I see no evidence of humility. Bravado and conceit, narcissism
and vanity are the platforms disgorging disrespect for the Constitution
throughout America.

Whatever deceitful statements serve the purpose to pervert the
separation of powers spews forth from the Oval Office. Whatever
mendacity serves the purpose of the moment hits the morning headlines
and the evening TV news. One moment we are told that Saddam was the
power behind 9/11. Then the tune changes when it is discovered that no
Iraqis were involved in that plot. The panic button of WMD was pushed
one day. When it becomes obvious there were so such weapons, the tune
changes again. Was it bad intelligence that prevented us from
intercepting 9/11? Was it misinterpretation of sound intelligence
causing the terror? Was it blatant disregard of intelligence causing the
death of 3000 civilians? Or is the change simply due to arouse stark,
naked fear in the land? If so, to what purpose?

In the midst of panic, the Executive Office forced passage of an act
totally destroying the balance of powers. The Patriot Act became the law
of the land. A servile Congress, stunned by 9/11, bowed and scraped
before the President and with one fell swoop put a deadly dagger into
the heart of the Bill of Rights.

Did we not have laws on the books to protect ourselves against those who
seek to destroy us? If not, should we not pass laws that with stiletto
precision would seek out and punish terrorists? But what bill did the
Executive Branch present to Congress under the ostensible façade of
protecting America from terrorists? A bill that gives the Attorney
General such broad powers that no man or woman is safe from a personal
vendetta!

Was there ever enacted a piece of legislation as destructive of liberty
as the Patriot Act? With one fell swoop, all civil liberties are subject
to erasure! The A.G. is given unilateral power to declare anyone he
chooses to be a terrorist. No definition is given of what constitutes a
terrorist. Is it someone with a truckload of fertilizer in his garage?
Is it someone hiding dangerous biological or chemical weapons in his
basement? Is it someone expressing ideas critical of the President? Is
it someone writing, "Requiem, U.S.A?"

All interpretations are left to the single opinion of the A.G.

No standards are set. What devious mental attitude does it take for the
highest law enforcement official in the land to promote a law placing
dictatorial powers into his sole hands? No one accused of being a
terrorist has a right to an attorney, a right to have charges read to
him, a right to notify family of his whereabouts. For six months, the
A.G. can keep the accused incommunicado. At the end of that period, the
A.G. without further ado can aver that the individual continues to be a
threat and extend the period of confinement for another six months. This
procedure can be extended in six month increments until the person dies.

What if the A.G. has a physically disabling condition and in this state
decides that someone he doesn't like is a terrorist? He has the
authority, granted by a Congress oblivious of its obligation to maintain
the balance of powers, to issue the order and make a person a
non-person. What if in the absence of physical pain but having gotten up
on the wrong side of the bed, the A.G. decides that someone with a point
of view different from the official party line is a terrorist? Again,
that person becomes a non-person. One fallible individual at his sole
whim is given power to eliminate the Bill of Rights! If that is not
sinking America's ship, then what is?

Congress has not gone back and wiped this Act off the books. Our
Representatives could have said that under the emotional temper of the
moment, they over-reacted. They could have replaced the Patriot Act with
legislation reflecting the hopes and ideals of the Fathers while still
protecting us from terrorists. However, they did not. This, to me, is
evidence that the separation of powers is past history. Congress caved
in to the demands of a President whose press secretary said that to
disagree with the President is evidence of a lack of patriotism. I say
to make such a statement is the ultimate hubris denying the
Constitution.

A President who publicly acclaimed that he would be the President of all
the people shamelessly appoints the most reactionary, dogmatic
individuals to the courts of the land. These justices and judges are
mere rubber stamps for the agenda destroying constitutional precepts.
Our President nominates attorneys to the judiciary who pass a litmus
test based upon nothing more than his own personal value system. That
system embraces the agenda of the wolves in sheep's clothing.

What personal prejudices, what religious convictions are more powerful
in the minds of those justices who place their personal agendas above
the protection of the Bill of Rights? What more evidence of a lack of
respect for the separation of powers is demonstrated when a Justice of
the Supreme Court has a little tete-a-tete prior to hearing a case in
which the Vice President has a personal interest? Even if they just went
duck hunting or whatever, the impropriety screams to high heaven.

The denigration of the Constitutional separation of powers calls to mind
a scene from T.S. Eliot's play, "Murder in the Cathedral." As the
knights kill Thomas Becket, a symbolic vision of the cabal killing the
Bill of Rights, the chorus cries out, "Clean the air! Clean the sky!
Wash the wind! Take stone from stone and wash them. The land is foul,
our beasts and ourselves defiled with blood. Every horror had its
definition, every sorrow a kind of end: in life there is not time to
grieve long. But this, this is out of life, this is out of time, an
instant eternity of evil and wrong. We are soiled by a filth that we
cannot clean, united to a supernatural vermin.Clear the air! Clean the
sky! Wash the windwash the brain, wash the soulwash them wash them!"

3. BEGGARS IN VELVET

The third torpedo tearing a gaping hole in the ship of state is fired by
the beggars in velvet. You do remember the nursery song, "Hark, hark,
the dogs do bark. The beggars are coming to town. Some in rags and some
in tags and some in velvety gowns?" We can readily see images of beggars
in rags and tags. But who are these beggars in velvet?

In our day, they are the executives sitting in walnut paneled offices,
surrounded by accountants and lawyers devising ever more devious ways to
steal money from the tax payers. Under the guise of "private
enterprise,"

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