Harvard Law School Forum presented a lecture by both Ralph Nadar and Bruce Fein. They spoke about many issues pertaining to our government violating the Constitution of this great nation they were given the responsibility of leading.
Within Bruce Fein's part of the talk, he spoke about how each citizen is responsible for our government's actions. Fein said it is, "not an option to be a spectator in politics." As John F. Kennedy warned fifty years ago, there needs to be open debate and dissent in order to maintain liberty and an honest government.
One of the issues Fein brought to light is the fact that, according the the Constitution, only Congress has the right to authorize war. This was meant to be a check on the President's power. Within this limit, only Congress can authorize the money for war. Obama has found a way around this check. He has found a way to get money from the Pentagon instead. Since it is not audited, they are able to do this. According to Fein this is enough grounds for impeachment. He spoke about our fundamental rights, that have been laid out by our forefathers in the Constitution, being eroded as a result of non enforcement.
Ralph Nadar highlighted issues that have come to the forefront since 9/11. He pointed out that the United States government waited until after it was clear that there was no chance for a second strike to then declare a war on terror. Since this time "national security" has been a major issue for this nation.
Nadar points out a few items, much more immanent than the dangers being focused on, that should be considered under "national security". Some of these are the 45,000 people who die each year because they do not have health insurance, 58, 000 deaths per year due to work related issues, 100,000 deaths each year from hospital malpractice and more. Hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths to citizens of the United States that are not even considered a part of "national security."Instead huge amounts of money, that this country does not have to spend, is used to kill alleged terrorists who live on the other side of the world. In addition to killing these men, innocent women and children are killed in the process.
Ralph Nadar said, "when it goes on year after year it becomes institutionalized." These practices that are not doing any good for our country, and taking funds and liberty away from the people, become normal over time. In the past decade alone liberty has been taken from the hands of the people, and unwarranted power has been placed in the hands of the government. All of this in the name of "national security."
Below is a link that Nadar and Fein referred to during their lecture. The article highlights how freedom has been lost in post 9/11 America.
John Adams would agree with Bruce Fein and Ralph Nadar. He warned two hundred years ago, "the jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing."
As a nation we need to wake up to this fact. We need to voice our dissent to our Constitution being violated, and fiercely defend liberty.
One way to do this, as Nadar and Fein both advocated, is harassing the government until the National Defense Authorization Act (which allows the government to arrest any citizen they suspect is a terrorist, and hold them indefinitely without a trial) is repealed. Go to the link below, look up your Senators, and email them insisting that this Act is repealed. Then share the link with your friends.
This is one small step on the road to freedom.
Below is a link to their full lecture if you would like to watch it.
(can you locate me at the beginning of the video?)
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