- There was a time when I felt that this was the greatest
nation on Earth, allowing individuals more freedom, more wealth, and more
private property ownership for the average citizen than anywhere else.
Our traditions, customs, history and founding, were all very unique to
this great land. Every individual in the United States enjoyed maximum
freedom and security. Sure there were always threats from criminals
and the more serious threats from organized crime. And of course
there was the ever-present threat of nuclear attack from an enemy state.
One of the USSR's leaders threatened to "bury" US, but he was
merely making that statement in an economic sense and not offering it as
a warning of either invasion or military attack.
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- There was a time, when I was really young, that our first
television set allowed us to view the live proceedings in the US Congress
when the "Kefauver Committee" was exposing the reach and dominance
of organized crime in America. I remember the impression those broadcast
hearings had on me. As only a child, I started to fear crime and
criminals. Something was terribly wrong with our country such that
the enormous threats from Hitler and "the Japs" could be eliminated,
the invasion of our country prevented, yet dangerous organized crime was
already within our borders.
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- There was a time when I did indeed believe that George
Washington was "the father of our country," and that "Honest
Abe" was really honest. There was a time when I believed totally
in America's founding documents: The Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights. I still
believe in the Declaration, for most of its truths are still, at least
for me, self-evident.
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- But reviewing the reckless and immoral government that
has emerged from the Constitution, it is becoming increasingly clear that
the Founders were either fools or hopelessly naïve. The Constitution
is meaningful only when its provisions are strictly adhered to, and are
applied by political leaders that are morally oriented and wholesome.
This morality can only manifest itself in an informed citizenry, which
requires of their conduct, and also in the conduct of their leaders, an
internationally recognized beneficial society. It portrays a responsible
and humane society that chooses its leaders well, and not based upon speech-making
capabilities, lofty promises and "political experience."
Such a moral and informed society selects leaders that have demonstrated
moral values and a love for both the people and the land.
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- There was a time, at least for me, when our nation and
its government were inseparable: one for all and all for one. But
our formerly secure borders now allow illegal invasion by both non-citizens
and the fully-armed armies of foreign nations, and permit government-hired
mercenaries replacing both our own military and police, affording neither
safety nor security for Americans. It is clear that our leaders no
longer care for US or our land.
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- As we proclaim "an Army of one," we are no
longer a nation of one. Our military serves only as a political expedient
to carry out torture and the mass murders of the people of other nations
that have displayed neither bad intentions nor hostile actions toward US.
We have written "laws" legitimizing crime, so long as those crimes
serve the political expediencies of our corrupt and immoral leaders.
Organized crime in America is now its own government!
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- In spite of the ever-present threat of invasion and attack
by enemy nations, there existed a comfort zone that we would always prevail
because of our inborn morality, our righteousness, our faith in the Almighty,
our great strength, our unity and power, all to be unleashed only when
in response to an actual overt threat to our safety and security.
We would all stand together and "pay any price, and bear any burden"
to ensure the common defense and the security of our nation for US and
our posterity.
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- But our "more perfect union" has become too
perfect. And as politicians publicly state the outrageously ridiculous
notion offering: "You can't say you love your country and hate your
government," one conjures up visions of Germans, Jews, Catholics,
gypsies and other German citizen "undesirables" being arrested,
tortured and murdered for no other reasons than their religion, their national
origin, their family ties and political connections. Wasn't it Germany's
government that did that to its own people? Wasn't it the Soviet
Union that mass murdered and imprisoned its own people in making their
perfect socialist omelet?
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- I once believed that criminals should not be "coddled"
as offered by strict conservative interpreters of the law. I strongly
favored not only the death penalty for murders and other despicable malefactors,
but felt totally comfortable if they suffered greatly from a faulty electric
chair that made their eyes pop and their hair catch fire. Caryl Chessman
and Theodore Bundy come to mind. In fact, considering these two freaks,
I strongly favored the death penalty and mandatory long jail sentences
for criminals. Guess what I still do!!!
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- But I do not favor a death penalty carried out by the
new organized criminals of our very own government! I no longer trust
any punitive measures against citizens, good or bad, by a government that
is morally bankrupt and incapable of recognizing justice. For
as egregious the crimes of Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, Caryl Chessman,
Richard Speck and other mass murderers were, nothing perpetrated by criminals
of their kind will ever come close to the carnage and suffering caused
by the organized criminals that comprise the political State.
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- As I had stated first, and is now repeated by others,
Hitler, Stalin and the brutal Japanese, never justified their kidnappings,
torture and mass murder via publicly issued, stated policy. None
of those evil-doing warmongering nations ever used internationally-banned
weapons of mass destruction on innocent, unarmed civilian populations.
No warring nation, save one, used nuclear bombs, napalm, white phosphorus
and poison gas on non-military masses. And Saddam's regime never
manufactured poisonous gas; it was given to him by another nation.
In fact, it is doubtful during the reign of any dictatorship or military
conflict, that such barbarian practices were openly announced as unilaterally
originated acceptable policy. And no other dictatorship or police
state that I know of, other than our own, openly advocates censorship of
its own press and the media of other nations. .
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- There was a time when President Bill Clinton's question
regarding the inseparability of loving one's country and loving one's government
might have caused some hesitation. I remember that I reflected upon
those Germans victimized by their own Nazi government as a good example
of the need to separate country from state. That line of reasoning,
as well as its time, has long since passed.
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- Ted Lang is a political analyst and freelance writer.
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