Bernstein in conclusion wrote:
So Vicki, go enjoy your independence, celebrate your freedom. Government will be there making sure you can do so!
Johnson writes:
Seems that Bernstein is crediting the government with maintaining the freedom and independence we have. I suppose that forgetting American history allows the attribution of our freedom and independence to the government rather than to the full measure of devotion of the troops who have fought and died for that freedom and independence, starting with the Revolutionary War and continuing to this very day.
Bob Johnson Cedar-Riverside West Bank W2/P10
How strange....I always thought that those troops served at the direction and behest of the government. Or at least whoever was there to uphold the Constitution of the United States at the time. And it was government that declared the 40 hour week, abolished child labor, ended discrimination based on race and gender, created the safeguards like EPA and the FCC to look after the public interest.
Except when the neo-cons get into office and turn regulatory agencies away from enforcing the laws of the land and into mouthpieces for the very industries they are supposed to be overseeing.
It is this idea of "bad government" that the right has been so successful in touting since Reagan came into office 23 years ago. Bad for whom? At the time, government was bad for giant corporations who found that ordinary citizens could outstrip their lobbying efforts through effective grassroots organizing. So for 23 years they feel they have to elect "their" people who will ignore the grassroots and fall for the greenbacks and not the greens. And since they own most of the media and can control a great deal of the message and have the advertising and PR experience to craft campaigns selling us on these messages they have had a great deal of success. This means that the average citizen is being told that to be a grassroots advocate is bad and to be an unquestioning docile consumer is good.
Where is your freedom then?
Government is supposed to be US, We the People. But it is those who think that government is bad who are turning it over to CEOs who only worry about their own bottom line and have no concept of doing anything for the common good.
Steven M Nelson
Willard Hay
http://citizenshipchronicles.blogspot.com/
Get UP! Get OUT! & GET INVOLVED!!!
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