THE NEW TRAITORS; WOODWARD AND BERNSTEIN

Now that some Congressman has suggested that we charge the New York Times with Treason, and now that Congress has passed a resolution that chastises newspapers for printing articles concerning "National Security", it may be bad news for Bob Woodward and Leonard Bernstein!

So many Americans have considered them heroes for exposing Richard Nixon in their Washington Post articles, holding clandestine meetings with "Deep Throat", and printing articles that resulted in the fall of the lying, corruption-ridden Nixon Administration, that it will be difficult to think of them as Benedict Arnolds!

But, if the New York Times is to be called "treasonous", certainly Woodward and Bernstein and the Washington Post were just as guilty! And, if they had not had the courage and perseverance to nose into the activities of Richard Nixon, who knows who would have been damaged by his "Enemies' List", his nefarious abuse of power, his lies, his secretive activities?

It boils down to the bitter truth. To try to inhibit newspapers and reporters from doing their jobs is a huge step toward a government-run Media. We have examples of this in the world, in countries like China. There, people are limited to hearing only the news that their leaders select. These rigid rules leave the Chinese uninformed and ignorant as to what is going on in the world. They just work their low-paying jobs in factories sewing clothing or ripping off American products and must ask no questions!

Who would have believed that this could happen in the United States? Who would have believed that a group of people, the Christian Right, would want to inflict rigid, totalitarian rules on the American people, destroy civil rights, inflict their religious beliefs....which in no way resemble Christianity....on the government, and approve such atrocities as the Patriot Act, torture, punishing the poor, ignoring the abysmal minimum wage, as well as an invasive War?

Now they are trying to destroy the freedom of the press. They look forward to jailing reporters and publishers and editors, slapping them with charges of treason and the Espionage Act, and making them fearful of reporting and publishing stories they feel the public has a right to know.

My rightwing friend says, "But this is wartime. No National Security Secrets should be revealed during wartime!"

In this case, someone should have informed President Bush, because he has talked about tracing the bank records of terrorists since Day One, September 12, following the attack on the World Trade Center. He has talked about it on television, not once, not twice, but many, many times! And as for this organization dedicated to tracing bank records, called SWIFT, they have a website and publish a magazine, describing their activities.

It is a bit like Richard Nixon speaking of the burglary of the Watergate building on television again and again, and the Pentagon Papers robbery described on a website for all to see.

Americans had better wake up. In the blink of an eye, freedom can fly out a window into space and never be seen again. Following our current trend, we could easily end up a country ruled by rigid enforcers, our Middle Class reduced to ragged peasantry, scrambling for jobs, our poor grateful for crusts of bread retrieved from the trashbins of the super Wealthy!

And our newspapers would blather daily bulletins about the victories in the Middle East, the glories of Republicanism, the holy activities of God's disciples sitting in the White House, guarding their secrets.

This group of people make a habit of being blind to corruption, excusing and ignoring the financial highjinks of Tom DeLay and Abramoff, as well as other Congressmen and other lobbyists. They excuse Rush Limbaugh with his daily diatribe of drivel and his drug dependence, as well as his little trip to the Caribbean out of the eyesight of the watching Feds with his bottle of Viagra tucked in his luggage!

This group of people not only ignore and excuse all this, but they call themselves "God's Party", evidently enjoying their invention of God as a conscienceless ogre.

Realizing their penchance toward blindness, it is hard to believe that there are moderate Republicans, who are not dedicated to a religious Crusade through the Middle East, who deplore the methods being used in government today, and who are decent human beings. Where are they, these members of the Republican Party, who were formerly conservative, but not crazed?

We have become fanatical, radical, silly, with our Jesus soap, our Jesus perfume, our Jesus water, our boycotting, our flag-waving, our tossing aside the fact that thousands and thousands of innocent civilians are being slaughtered in the Middle East, both by insurgents fighting Americans and each other, and the bombs of the Americans themselves.

How many orphans are we leaving behind? How many families have lost loved ones? How many people live in quivering, shivering fear?

Charge the New York Times with treason? We are going after the wrong people, because the treasonous ones are there, in full view. Any newspaper with courage enough to print just what is going on in this country today has my admiration and support. Perhaps they could explain why our airlines are to be bought up by foreign enterprises, and why Americans cannot provide Security for their own ports! Perhaps they could explain why, despite the threat of terrorism, that Southern Border has been left wide open!

An election is coming up in November. Ask yourself this question? Why do we live in a country where our politicians spend hours and hours discussing the nonsensical, nonexistent problem of "burning the flag", but spend no time at all establishing a paper trail for the voting machines, or the abolishment of the easily-hacked, undependable voting machines?

I think it is time for every American citizen to ask..."What is going on in our country?" And it is time for us all to hope that some courageous newspaper gives us the answer!