Comments on: House Members Spent Over $20 Million Dollars on Junk Mail http://jonathanturley.org/2007/12/28/house-members-spent-over-20-million-dollars-on-junk-mail/ Res ipsa loquitur ("The thing itself speaks") Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:00:42 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Vincent Caminiti http://jonathanturley.org/2007/12/28/house-members-spent-over-20-million-dollars-on-junk-mail/#comment-5171 Vincent Caminiti Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:25:30 +0000 http://jonathanturley.org/2007/12/28/house-members-spent-over-20-million-dollars-on-junk-mail/#comment-5171 This article on mail abuses could easily serve as a model for dozens of other wasteful practices that Congress and governmental agencies in general have grown accustomed. But ... this is not where the story actually begins - the true starting point is when we, as citizens, casually pre-approve this continuous looting of National assets ... in fact its built into our citizens' lexicon. Employer withholding, the entire complexity of the IRS and the culture and industry built around it lend to the citizens' 'softening-up.' It may not be a beating by Tony Soprano, but the effect is the same. We fork it over. When we Americans, end the moratorium on the Bill of Rights ... perhaps a National discussion of Alexander Hamilton's original objections to the Bill would help re-boot the collective mindset and tamp raging apathy. Hamilton's objections had merit, "why disallow what has not been allowed?" - was his contention - considering the Bill of Rights from a literary perspective veers off course from the very first. It begins with Rights of Citizens and immediately the language changes to "No Government Shall ...." It is a document, in my humble opinion, that could use some considerable tightening up. While approaching a basic understanding of the Bill of Rights, it is quite disheartening to eventually realize that in one 15 minute meeting at Starbucks, Federal judges, even Supreme Court judges can treat the Bill of Rights as a menu where substitutions are permitted. Tea Parties notwithstanding, it seems that we treat our government representatives with more freedom and prerogative than we do our baby sitters. We hold them less responsible then the local car wash. And, we've permitted the government to treat a great deal of its citizenry with a lack of humanity and hope. Then again ... in theory, in a Democratic Republic - we are the government. Perhaps if we cared about each other a little more than we care about our images - we would be in regular dialog with our elected representatives and future candidates. There's always today. This article on mail abuses could easily serve as a model for dozens of other wasteful practices that Congress and governmental agencies in general have grown accustomed. But … this is not where the story actually begins – the true starting point is when we, as citizens, casually pre-approve this continuous looting of National assets … in fact its built into our citizens’ lexicon. Employer withholding, the entire complexity of the IRS and the culture and industry built around it lend to the citizens’ ’softening-up.’ It may not be a beating by Tony Soprano, but the effect is the same. We fork it over.

When we Americans, end the moratorium on the Bill of Rights … perhaps a National discussion of Alexander Hamilton’s original objections to the Bill would help re-boot the collective mindset and tamp raging apathy. Hamilton’s objections had merit, “why disallow what has not been allowed?” – was his contention – considering the Bill of Rights from a literary perspective veers off course from the very first. It begins with Rights of Citizens and immediately the language changes to “No Government Shall ….” It is a document, in my humble opinion, that could use some considerable tightening up. While approaching a basic understanding of the Bill of Rights, it is quite disheartening to eventually realize that in one 15 minute meeting at Starbucks, Federal judges, even Supreme Court judges can treat the Bill of Rights as a menu where substitutions are permitted.

Tea Parties notwithstanding, it seems that we treat our government representatives with more freedom and prerogative than we do our baby sitters. We hold them less responsible then the local car wash. And, we’ve permitted the government to treat a great deal of its citizenry with a lack of humanity and hope. Then again … in theory, in a Democratic Republic – we are the government. Perhaps if we cared about each other a little more than we care about our images – we would be in regular dialog with our elected representatives and future candidates. There’s always today.

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