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As we catch our breath from yesterday's ballot box results (Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont), it seems a good time to reflect upon our values. Here at My Rural America, we frame ours like this:
- Independence – Honoring true patriotism, national security and the United States Constitution.
- The Great Outdoors – Cherishing our land and water, saving nature so that it can remain as glorious as God made it.
- Family – Children, good neighbors, friends helping friends, working together to solve problems … teamwork.
- Prosperity – Honest work, education, sharing wealth, critical thinking, healthcare...making sure that our Middle Class is working smarter to remain strong.
We place "Independence" first on our list of values because we see it as key to keeping our country safe, while offering protection, a level playing field and resources for our families to grow and prosper. Without honesty in government, without free speech, without freedom of religion ... without the balancing commitment our U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights makes to provide for the general welfare and much more, our country would be very different. Still there are people who debate whether our Constitution is a document frozen in time, or whether it contains lessons that stand the strength of time. George Washington, first President of the United States, chaired the convention which wrote the U.S. Constitution that 39 of the 55 delegates attending signed.
On Saturday, Brian O'Malley wrote a story that offers a sample of George Washington's wisdom that is still current today. We offer it as a sample of why we believe that our values -- Independence, the Great Outdoors, Family and Prosperity -- are inter-related. We also offer it as a challenge to our readers: Lessons on Iraq from a Founding Father, as published in the Washington Post on 3/1/08.
As you read it, we ask you to reflect upon how we as a nation have gotten to the point that our priorities are so mixed up that we have spent almost $500 Billion dollars on the Iraq war. This war has cost every U.S. family more than $4000 and at the same time, has run up a national debt of over $30,000 per family that at one time or another we are going to have to pay. And for what? Al Qaeda was not in Iraq but our going to war so destabilized the region that now they are -- making things worse rather than better; oil prices have sky rocketed -- think $4 per gallon coming soon; more than 4000 U.S. soldiers have been killed and more than 60,000 have been wounded. Regarding our soldiers -- remember that rural America is paying almost double the price since there is a 60% higher death rate for rural soldiers as compared to the soldiers who come from urban America.
Meanwhile, President Bush and the conservatives that support him have placed the President and the Executive Branch above the law ... ignoring the Constitution ... as Bush and the conservatives support the use of torture, illegal wiretaps, secret courts where "secret evidence" is used against defendants who don't even get to know what they are charged with and much more. It's a dangerous time for our country.
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Remember those old three legged stools -- the kind that some of our dads sat on to milk the cows with? I found myself recalling that old milk stool recently as I thought about how last week Congress voted 223-32 to hold former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas to testify before Congress in regard to the firing of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006.
The way I learned about the balance of powers required by the U.S. Constitution was with a drawing of the three legged stool -- Congress, Judiciary, Presidency/the Executive Branch. Take one leg away, and the stool falls over. Take one branch of government away and our government is in danger. When the checks and balances don't work as required by the Constitution, it's a serious signal that our democracy is at risk.- Miers and Bolten's failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas requiring their testimony under oath, is exactly the kind of signal that the writers of our Constitution were worried about, i.e., one branch of government cannot be allowed to run amuck.
"Amuck" ... that's the most polite word we can write here. For our purposes, it means that Congress was exactly right in holding Miers and Bolten in contempt. Steve Fox of the American Freedom Campaign described the situation as, "In order for our system of checks and balances to be effective, Congress must have oversight over the executive branch. When Bolten and Miers -- with the encouragement of the President -- refused to comply with the congressional subpoenas last summer, they were tacitly saying that this oversight power no longer existed. If they are not held in contempt -- and prosecuted in the courts -- our Constitution will have been defiled."
Amuck. "Defiled." Both accurate words in this case. One unresolved question is what happens next? Since Bolten and Miers said "No" because President Bush asked ... told? them to do so, our question is: Does he have responsibility, too?
As reported by Roll Call, Bruce Fein, a former counsel to Congress in the Iran-Contra probe and an ex-deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan, has predicted that Congress is likely to win one out of the two battles that come next. These upcoming battles will be one in criminal court and one in civil court. Fein described the situation this way,
"Thsi is the more aggressive executive privilege claim ever. It would be the equivalent of Nixon telling John Dean he couldn't testify."
As we follow this continuing story, readers may expect us to add more detail regarding which Members of Congress voted to protect the Constitution.
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