A Few Good Questions

[HARDCORE]

ON HOMELAND SECURITY?

Sometimes a potential cure can evolve into something as damaging as the disease itself if one is not extremely vigilant. This is my biggest concern about the power being vested into ?Homeland Security!??

This is indeed a time when the world seems to be morally and ethically unraveling at the seams, at least as relates to man?s inhumanity toward man, especially in some foreign sectors! As such, and through a necessity of our times, a new idea was put forth - it being ?HOMELAND SECURITY!?

Some drastic changes in security were indeed needed and overdue, but could the potential for unquestioned abuse by some within this newly created agency truly exist (some in Congress may have thought so)? As such, who or what within our legal system would have the power (or be there) to prevent this should it occur?

By creating a ?Super Agency? to oversee all existing intelligence and security networks within the United States and abroad, information gathering could indeed be efficiently centralized and shared, and that is both good and bad at the same time, in my opinion! As privacy is the skeleton-key to America?s freedoms in many instances, could that privacy be unilaterally compromised, or utilized to cause undue personal injury, or to detract from the nation, it?s people, or it?s ?Constitutional Law??

If this is at all a possibility, then this scenario could indeed become a danger to everything that we have stood for, for well over two centuries! And if just such a controlled invasion of our personal privacies is undertaken, ?PURELY? as an excuse (a means to a vested end) to control even the honorable and lawful among us, then does not this agenda become an evil of monumental proportions?

I just saw a piece on television in which Tom Ridge, the man slated to head up Homeland Security, assured the viewers and Congress alike, that his (new) department would not infringe upon Constitutional Rights and guarantees. This is a splendid promise indeed, but again, what guarantees do we have that this solemn oath will remain viable? ?Good intention and common need, after all, oft time are quickly abandoned as the whim arises!? In other words, who will oversee the overseers, and what power will they have to set this new department back on course should it mutate into something far more ominous or
democratically damaging than it?s original intent?

After listening to President Bush and Mr. Ridge as concerns this issue, they impressed me as being extremely genuine and honorable men! And as for the need to combat domestic terrorism, no one can deny the urgency of this matter! But again I ask (and redundantly so), who will maintain control over this organization, and where in the chain of command will the people perch?

In other words, should Homeland Security ever (unintentionally) overstep itself, what power will Congress and the people have in order to set it back on course, especially should it ever outgrow it?s mandate, parameters or current limits of power?

?Will this agency forever remain the servant of the American people and their security, or will the people and their government itself ever become (even partially) subservient to this agency?? We are after all, a system of checks and balances, and as such, I feel this to be a logical concern and a justified question! ?And also, what controls are in place to protect the innocent and the trusting from unrestrained absolute power should it ever go astray??

As a "Proud Citizen of the United States," all that I am requesting here is a little clarification and peace of mind!

VERITAS :cd: :cd:

[reconeil]

Sorry Old Friend. But, given history and current realities,...I certainly can't help you. Sure I could lie and politically rationalize and justify most deadly absurdities like many others do. However, that's just not my thing.

Besides, and since the theories that: "All is fair in love and war" and; "The slip of a lip can sink a ship" have been historically proven to be true, and to which Politically-correct America is the only nation on earth no longer going-along with such sage wisdom and common sense,...I'm starting to feel like a looser.

Sorry Buddy, and I most certainly hope I'm wrong.
Maybe I'm being to damn sensible and logical? Vas thinks du?

Neil