CO Author Debbie Boen, founder of FreeThinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties in Clarksville, comments on Rep. Blackburn’s August newsletter
Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says in her August newsletter that “the liberal majority of Congress will not deliver these promised goals: curb government spending, secure our nation’s borders, and institute the most ethical Congress in U.S. history.”
Congresswoman Blackburn is right to blow the whistle on these urgent matters!
We desperately need to curb government spending. Our government charges the taxpaying citizens of the United States a daily fee of $200 million dollars to support the invasion and occupation of Iraq, while corporations such as Halliburton are getting rich off both the war, oil production and the average American.
We need to secure our nation’s borders! It’s not just a matter of illegal immigration, or the threat that can sail through porous ports and land in our airports nationwide.
We need to stop corporations from outsourcing their work to sweat shops in other countries. Wal-Mart alone is putting all of its potential competitors and smaller local companies out of business by offering the lowest prices while paying its employees poverty level wages with no benefits.
We need to elect and install the most ethical Congress in U.S. history. All those elected and appointed folks who do not follow, uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America need to go. It’s our job to vote them out of office.
We cannot stand for or afford any more gross violations of our civil liberties. Illegal war, illegal wiretapping, illegal seizure without representation, torture, lying to and using the American people to attain personal war profit — all need to be dealt with severely, with imprisonment and heavy financial penalties as part of that package.
Representatives who would dehumanize, demean and discriminate against citizens of the United States by labeling them and using that label to ignore them need to go. What we need are people who have good judgment and look beneath the surface for the truth.
We need to get on the same page in history. As a country we are in crisis situations that cannot be ignored:
- Our soldiers are facing a third deployment when they are already psychologically damaged and receiving no treatment. The loss in Iraq is beyond belief. Other countries are completely sour with us and we are not being the humanitarians that we preach. It is such a an overwhelming atrocity that we casued and continue to fuel.
- We are in a global crisis. Global warming is gradual and the evidence of it is all too clear. There isn’t that much time to reverse the effects of it. It is a serious crisis to know that we continue to use the same sources of energy at great risk to our entire planet. It’s a crisis to think about changing those sources and getting people to go along with it.
- Our country is in a civil liberties crisis. Our freedom of speech, privacy, right to representation, right to jury, has been pulled out from under us in the name of war. Our ability to trust the government to help us in any crisis is not believable anymore. In the name of the United States of America, we carry out illegal invasions, illegal torture, illegal seizures, killing, rape, looting and unethical lack of concern for other nations, our nation and mankind.
- The mandated “No Child Left Behind Act” is teaching children to the tests, frustrating them and teachers, creating a crisis in education. Our children, and even our adults spoon fed lies and half-truths by a biased corporately-managed media must learn to ask questions and think for themselves; both skills are quickly becoming lost arts in our society. When children become increasingly restless and unhappy in school, we resort to controlling them with drugs and punishment. Teachers who love to teach are frustrated. Desperate for funds, schools who receive money from the No Child Left Behind Program are obligated to hand over to military recruiters all the information in the files of our children. It’s a positive formula for future armies, but not for us as freethinking American citizens with dissenting opinions. Our right to chose is being revoked.
- Threat from terror is only stifled as long as Iraq is in a quagmire within itself. I do believe they will hate us forever and we will always need to fear them.
- Fox news promotes distrust of and intentions to attack Iran. Fox news conditions us. It is not news but propaganda; its proclaimed “no spin zone” is itself perpetual “spin.”
- Mainstream media has been silent to the atrocities going on in Iraq and in our government. It is only by reading alternative media sites, and browsing international sites such as the BBC, Canadian broadcasting, international newspapers and radio broadcasts do we get alternative points of view and a clear perception of where America stands in the eyes of other nations around the world. It’s not a very pretty picture, and the very charges we level at people like Saddam Hussein, and officials in North Korea and Iran are no different than the perspective other nations have of our leaders. We are not always viewed as saviors or rescuers but as power hungry, money hungry war mongerers. Our status in the world view has fallen into disfavor, particularly in terms of the Iraq War.
- Health care, the holes in health care services, and in many cases the complete lack of health care, is a crisis eroding the heart and soul of everyday American citizens. What is so difficult about a wealthy industrialized nation offering health care to all? Oh yes, insurance companies, HMO’s, those corporate lobbyists and that wealthy top five percent…
- America’s voiting machines are not verifiable. Our most important voice is not trustworthy. We cannot guarantee the votes are counted correctly, or that the machines are not tampered with; nor are we being allowed a paper trail of truth.
I believe Marsha Blackburn is saying to us “How can smart people not face glaring truths that are staring them in the face?”
WAKE UP
These are serious times that require urgent action. We are in this together and there is no time for name calling.
More than ever we need representatives, regardless of party affiliation, who will, like Marsha Blackburn says, have the guts to stand up to the bullies in government, speak up for the people, and not bleat out the same rhetoric that is used to distract everyone and keep them from looking too closely at the facts.
Contact Representative Blackburn
I encourage everyone to let Representative Blackburn know how you feel about what is important.
You can contact Ms. Blackburn at the following offices:
Washington DC
509 Cannon Bldg. Washington, DC 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2811Clarksville
1850 Memorial Drive Clarksville, TN 37043 Phone: (931) 503-0391Memphis
7975 Stage Hills Bvld. Memphis, TN 38133 Phone (901) 373-5811Franklin
City Hall Mall 109 3rd Avenue S. Suite 117 Franklin, TN 37064 Phone: (615) 591-5161Marsha Blackburn’s Voting Record
For information on Rep. Blackburn’s voting record, visit http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b001243/
Unfortunately — despite the few who hold fast or stick to their word and play honorably — too many of the inept, the bad, the corrupted, the unconcerned, the rich enough to run for office, and the just plain dumb exist on both sides of the Congressional aisle, to the detriment of the American people. Congress has long since been aligned with special interest groups and become deaf to the wishes of the people who put them in office.
The Republicans continued the push for and expansion of the Iraq War long after public support began to wane, and the Democrats have been unable or unwillingly to take an unwavering stand to end this mess. Hey Dems! Make a little noise. Please. Hey GOP. It’s okay to change your mind and admit the wear was a mistake!
We, in addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, now stand on the brink of crisis with Iran as well; the stage is set for a Bush strike at still another country, this one nuclear, and with the erosion of our civil liberties under his watch, GW’s shot at implementing a dictatorial stance when (I say when, not if, and GW did refer to himself as a wannabee dictator) America is thrust into crisis.
We have elected too few honorable people to office, and they in turn have utilized the services of too many dishonorable people. I define honorable as people who speak truth and stick by their promises; it is not necessary that I always agree with them, but that they are true to their stated beliefs and work for toward them and toward the good of the country and its citizens. It is our job as voters to put them in office, and to remove them from office by casting our votes when we do not approve of their actions or intentions.
As Americans with unique priviliges in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, we have failed our founding fathers by allowing our right to vote to falter in the form of low voter turnout, corrupted voting processes, and a disenfranchising that has many feeling their vote will make no difference so why bother. We need to re-establish that integrity, and if cleaning out Congress is required, then maybe that is what we need to do.
If Ms. Blackburn does what she promised and holds true to her beliefs on our behalf, more power to her. That would indeed make her a rare breed. Perhaps unique in the realm of Congress. (I am feeling cynical today)
The links in the article slam the Dems, but the fact is that members of both parties can lay equal claim to questionable funding of programs (the pork barrel stuff et al), silence when a bit of yelling is required, yelling when it is time to shut up and listen (to the people), and ridiculous jockeying for power by attaching unrelated specialized amendments to the important bills — tactics that often keep real work from getting done or simply waste money.
I would like to find a handful of truly honorable people in office, and two handfuls of newbies who would be able to run for office and shake up the hallowed halls of Congress. Maybe then we could once again have a government of the people, by the people, for the people …
It is supposed to be our country …
The real number one enemy of the traitors in the United States Government is themselves and their actions of the past.
Why would anyone even consider negotiating with anyone that never gets around to keeping their word on any of the immigration laws of the past?
What would be the point?
This is like the people that got caught by their own rules while playing games as children. Every time they would get caught in one of their old rules they would start in on a big speech for a new rule. They never would pay up on being caught on the old rule.
No one plays with them long.
Just what are we still doing dealing with these liars?