Well, yesterday when I should have been working, I was listening to the latest Democracy Now! Podcast. And let me tell you, I was incensed. What is our government doing? Phone tapping without a warrant? How is it that they feel they can use fear to intimidate the American population to give up our freedom so easily? Do we really believe their lies? Do we believe this apparently unlimited power to “protect the American population from the threat of future terror attacks” is not terrorism itself? They have terrorized the American population into believing that this is necessary. And we, in turn, have quietly (and in some cases, not so quietly) handed over our freedoms. These freedoms that people fought and died for us to have seem to us less important than preventing another attack. But whose word do we have that these attacks are coming? We have the word of those who would like to have unlimited power to control the American population. So how long will this “war against terror” go on? Or will we be giving up our liberty indefinitely? When will the despotism end? When will we feel safe enough to demand our privacy back? And will it be too late then? I am ashamed, honestly and truly ashamed, of the hypocrisy of my government, speaking about freedom and democracy in the world, and then not ensuring that that freedom exists for its own people. And as the government continues to cut funding to social services and as a result impoverishes more of our people, and increases the funding for defense, the war in Iraq, and the reconstruction of Afghanistan, I ask you, when they are finished, what will there be left to protect? What will be left after the new nuclear weapons program causes a world wide escalation in the arms race? What will be left in a country that can spend billions of dollars to bomb foreign nations and much less to rebuild its own city destroyed by a hurricane? What will be left when the government is listening in on our phone lines, jailing those who dissent, allowing the environment to be destroyed and eroding women’s right to chose? Why are the priorities of the American people being defined by special interest groups and former CEO’s of companies that stand to make a fortune as a result of these priorities? How insidious is this government? Why do the religious beliefs of some begin to influence how we all must live our lives? What is happening to our Constitution, and the rights that I grew up being taught were so inherent to the American Ideal that they could not be destroyed? I feel that the current government has done more to destroy the American image and lifestyle than anything that has come before it. And I am ashamed that our people voted this government into office despite the indications that we should do otherwise.