Well we've almost finished the first month of 2007 and since my last blog have elected a new Congress with the Democrats in charge now and here's hoping that they will do what needs to be done to bring back the checks and balance to our truly once great constitutional republic that has been literally decimated since 9/11 thanks to things like the Patriot Act and other laws passed by an out of control executive branch. Benjamin Franklin said it best when he stated "those who barter essential liberty for security deserve neither libety nor security". And that is just what has occurred over the years. The Patriot Act was a long time in the making. Ever since the end of WWII the boogey man's been coming to get Americans, communists, criminals, drug dealers, and now terrorists. Funny how the only boogey man that wasn't coming to get us were fascists. The American people have been assualted with a steady diet of fear and as such have demanded laws that in essence are anathema to the US Constitution and more importantly the Bill of Rights. I believe our generation was the last generation to be taught to question authority. And authority that has been usurped from the people must always be questioned.

I miss seeing the fist clenched in the air a sign of power to the people, to me, that is liberty. I think we must ask who is it really that fears a people who are empowered to think and act freely? What was it about the movements of the 60's and 70's that terrified some so much that they would react in ways that have effectively divided the nation and polarized Americans to the point where things are today? What is about equal rights for women, desegragating the south and other parts of the country that so terrified some? What was it about the marching to end and illegal and unconsitutional war that made some quiver in fear? What is it about gays expressing their love that is so threatening?

I mean really if love is so threatening then how much hope do we have of truly leaving the world a better place by our having lived the lives we have. Either we fear liberty and cravenly cower in fear demanding security to which most in power are more than willing to provide. Or we stand up and walk back into the light of love, shedding our fears of each other and living as intended freely, fully, with love regardless of race, creed, religion, and other ideaologies that power brokers have used so effectively to divide and ulitmately destroy the power of the people. That power is simply liberty and love. It's our choice, do we choose to live and love as free human beings or as serfs in a feudal system with an American aristocracy.