When this nation finds itself between two paths, republic or empire, we are slowly realizing that we have no moral compass to find our way home. Our nation, once a proud representative republic, has had leaders from all walks of life, from all of our major political parties, that have surfaced to guide America and protect her from the excesses that ambition and power can bring to a proud nation. We have managed to tread the waters of uncertainty and fear through threatening times; wars, economic instability, ambitious politicians and even foreign ideologies that have stood in opposition against the principles of what we stand for. Sometimes the road has been difficult and we have made many mistakes as a nation.

There have been times when we as a people have seemingly lost our way, succumbing to excess and greed. We have interfered with other nation’s right of self-determination when it was in our own interests to do so. We destroyed an entire culture that once lived in America, destroying their civilization. We have fought wars that were imperialistic in nature, only to realize later that this nation had no right to impose our will and beliefs on people in other lands that we barely understood. We have made many mistakes as we have traveled on our historical journey, and these mistakes have been recognized and debated in this open society that we have developed over the years since we declared our right to be independent and free.

Sometimes when we seemingly lost our way, it was a long time before we could admit that the path we chose was the wrong path. This is one of the most important facets of our culture. We as a people have been able to admit and understand when we have acted outside of our own moral values. We as a civilization have held this nation to a higher moral standard. This moral standard is embedded in our values and our culture. This morality has a document that illustrates our purpose; The Declaration of Independence, our moral code comes from our Constitution. When faced with enormous responsibility of guiding such a preeminent economic and military power in the world, this nation has always returned to the Constitution as a tool to guide us, not only in legal issues, but in moral issues when the road ahead seems to be unfathomable.

At this point in time, America seems to be lost. We engage in “faith-based principles” instead of the rule of law. No longer are the principles and the law, as stated in our constitution, being followed. We use torture, we are engaged in a war of aggression against a sovereign nation long after our goal in that war, in this case regime change, have been met. We have a government that openly defies our own laws as set forth in our constitution and we are spying on our own people without due process. We have heard charges that some of our elected representatives in Congress and that people in our State Department have been selling nuclear technology to the highest bidder. Sibel Edmonds, a former Turkish and Farsi interpreter employed by our government, has testified to Congress about these matters, and in return she was placed under a gag order and our own press has refused to cover the story. The story had to break in The London Times because our own press decided to censure itself. Our nation’s media seems disinterested in nuclear proliferation for profit, yet we threaten war with Iran for building nuclear reactors for energy as if this was the greatest threat mankind faces.

We are faced with a “thought crimes prevention bill” S-1959 that states the purpose of this Act:

'(1) Examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States, including United States connections to non-United States persons and networks, violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in prison, individual or 'lone wolf' violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence, and other faces of the phenomena of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence that the Commission considers important.

Is this an ambiguous purpose for this Act or am I being overly suspect? Who will make up this Commission and who will be found to promote “violent radicalization” because of their views? This law is very similar to the “Enabling Laws” that were introduced in Germany during the period of the Third Reich. This piece of legislation is much too open to interpretation and has no place in America. We already have laws pertaining to every conceivable act of violence; we don’t need a law to protect society from the people that might offer up radical solutions to major problems. Our own nation was founded by individuals that had leanings that at that time were believed to be “radical”. We have learned by our own lessons in history that the “radical” thoughts and actions of today may conceivably be thought the “voice of reason” tomorrow.

We are engaged in a presidential election that is beset by troubling facts about the way our elections are run. There are many states that use electronic voting that is susceptible to voting fraud by manipulating the way results of the vote can be fixed, with no paper trail to verify the true results. This has been an issue that many in Congress along with many journalists have decried as totally unacceptable. This is an issue that has many people in our country wondering if their vote will be counted. We have seen numerous cases of lost ballots, votes that don’t agree with the exit polling and other voting irregularities that are totally unconscionable in this day and age. Once the electorate feels that their vote may be meaningless, their faith in representative government is gone. This is an issue that must be swiftly and decidedly dealt with, even if it means that election results must be delayed until all votes are hand counted with a verification process that is inscrutable. The fact is that anything less could cause the results of an election to be unverifiable and could be the catalyst for a total breakdown in voter confidence that in some countries has led to revolution.

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