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Health & Fitness

A View From the Deck: What Price Freedom?

In this Installment of 'A View From the Deck', local author J. Wiley Dumas asks if sacrificing our Rights and Freedoms for the perception of Security is worth the cost.

NOTE: The following is OPINION. As such, it is the author's Point of View and his alone.

It’s apparently ‘Open Season’ on Rights and Freedoms as more information comes out on the IRS’s specific targeting of Conservative groups.

Things are certainly heating up in ‘Wonderland on the Potomac’ as Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversaw the unit in question, has been placed on administrative leave,… with pay!

Our Tax Dollars at Work…NOT!

No matter how you spin it, it seems as though she is being rewarded for the actions of the division, Exempt Organizations, that she was director of, while saying that she had no idea of the actions of persons within her division.

Uh huh.

And yet, it was her signature on the letters to members of certain Conservative groups and organizations demanding records, e-mails, etc.

This revelation follows her invoking the 5th Amendment during a Congressional Hearing looking into the activities of the IRS, AFTER she gave an opening statement, thus invalidating her Right to invoke the 5th. It now turns out she was asked by the acting commissioner of the IRS to resign, but refused.

We now know that the IRS targeted certain Conservative groups. That is indeed a fact. But, and consider this for just one moment:

Did they stop with groups, or have they also targeted individuals? People like you, or me.

Considering the far-reaching abilities of this division of the Department of the Treasury, which has recently been described by some as ‘The New Gestapo’, it’s certainly something to consider in this ‘Culture of Cover-ups’ that this administration has fomented.

The targeting for audit of individuals would certainly be easier (and much less obvious) than groups and organizations, and it would certainly follow this particular administration’s ideology.

But there’s much more going on in the IRS debacle that tends to raise a few eyebrows, as President Obama, who has consistently maintained his stance of being clueless as to the goings-on of major players in his administration, announced that the Department of Justice, under AG Eric Holder, would continue to look into the activities of the IRS, as well as those of the DOJ regarding recent actions.

Wait! Stop! Did I read that right? Yup.

This is the same Department of Justice coming under fire for the seizure of journalists’ phone records, and the same Eric Holder who has also taken a stance of cluelessness into the activities of certain individuals within his department as well (Remember ‘Fast and Furious?).  It’s akin to saying “I’ve done something questionable, so I’m going to investigate myself.”

Are we that gullible?

AG Holder has maintained that the seizure of phone records had to do with ‘National Security issues,’ while the Obama administration continues to publicly tout its support for a free press and its defense of the First Amendment. At the same time, it has pursued more leak investigations under the Espionage Act of 1917 than all other administrations before it.  And, in the process, apparently sees no conflict with repeatedly involving journalists while doing so.

Shades of McCarthyism!

I can certainly understand the need to protect America’s National Security.  It’s the single most fundamental responsibility of government. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the path this administration has chosen to carry out that responsibility has little, if any, regard for respecting the fundamental rights of the press, or more importantly, of We, the People.

Again, as I have mentioned before, I believe that the problems we are beginning to see in ‘Wonderland’ and the rest of the nation are continuingly occurring because we willingly sacrificed our Freedoms for a false ‘Security’ promised by the Obama administration. And that ‘promise’ is falling short.

While government’s responsibility is for National Security, it is not they that go into Harm’s Way.

If only…

Anywho, let me get to the point of this long-winded diatribe.

Monday is Memorial Day. It’s a day to remember the brave, young Americans who truly went into Harm’s Way and gave their lives to preserve the Rights and Freedoms that so many Americans now are all too willing to let slip away. That is a travesty. That is a shameful act. They are the ones that truly gave us the Security that allows us to sleep peacefully at night, not this, or any other, administration’s actions.

The lack of outrage over the actions of the IRS and those of the Department of Justice demonstrates that some in our nation falsely believe that “Where one’s Rights ends, another’s begins.”  That is a load of manure. Rights and Freedoms as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States are not specific to one group or ideology. They are for all Americans, no matter their individual beliefs.

And those brave Americans that gave their lives to provide us Security and uphold those same Rights and Freedoms did not do so for the sake of a select few. They died for each one of us. They died for our FREEDOM. They died to preserve our Right to Freedom of Speech, and Freedom against unreasonable Searches and Seizures. Our Right to Worship, or not, as we choose. They died so that you and I can sleep soundly at night.

But unfortunately, it appears that this administration has declared a war against Freedom and Rights for certain groups and individuals, and has declared ‘Open Season’ on those that wish to maintain those same Rights and Freedoms, and in the process, has made the sacrifice of the Americans that died to preserve them null and void.

Monday is Memorial Day. It’s not a day for big store sales. It’s not a day to worry about buying beer. It is a day to remember all of the brave Americans that gave their lives to uphold the Rights and Freedoms that We, the People, are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

I guess that Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his nom de plume of George Orwell, said it best:

“People sleep peacefully in their beds at night, only because Rough Men stand ready to do Violence on Their Behalf.”

Do not let their ultimate sacrifice be in vain.

Si vis Pacem, Para Bellum.  

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