Elected Officials - What Do They Owe Us?

One of the greatest things about the way the Founders of the United States set up the functioning of our government was the idea that the government acts as our servant. Some will argue, and I tend to agree, that we are not a true Democracy. Indeed, we are, in my humble opinion, a Republic, and that means to me that we elect officials who are to represent us in the halls of our government.

So, the President, Vice President, every member of Congress and all other people who stand for and are elected to public office, are indeed supposed to be working for us.

The most important, and if I may use the word, sacred, documents of our nation all speak to the ideals of liberty and the subservience of the government to the will of the People; That is, People with a capital P.

This government as we have come to see it either stands or falls solely upon the will of We the People. If we participate and demand excellence from our leaders, if we hold them to a higher standard because they are OUR public servants, then the ability of any one of them to try to get away with breaking the law will be greatly reduced.

If, however, we act like sheep and allow our leaders to act as if we work for them, things will go badly awry.

In my humble opinion, we have generally been sheep as of late. Things done by elected and their choices of unelected officials have, also in my opinion, broken the covenant between the governed and the public servants we send to represent us.

Our founders stated that when a government no longer represents the people being governed, then the people have the God-given right and duty to do something drastic to remedy that situation. In the 1770's that remedy was revolution and war.

Today, how should we reply to the harm done to us by the people we send to act as our public servants? What would people such as George Washington say about the public servants in our government in 2008? Would he be proud and tell us how lucky we are to have such noble and honest souls to lead our nation to future greatness? Would he applaud the actions of people such as Alberto Gonzales and Dick Cheney?

Or would he, as I suspect, chide us for allowing things to get so badly out of control? Would they tell us that we need to act responsibly and demand greatness from our leaders? Would he tell us, as others back then said, that leaders subserviant to politicla parties could never truly be public servants, servants acting with the good of We the People in mind?

It doesn't matter if we are Republicans or Democrats, Greens or Libertarian, or of any other party, or not aligned with any party at all - there is something rotten in the United States today, something that demands of each and every patriot to stand up and be counted.

I am a Air Force veteran and I truly want to love and be proud of my country. There are indeed many great things we have done and are doing in the world today, but we are also slowly falling into the grip of special interests and people who do not have our best interests in mind. I speak not only of politicians, but also of those who hold influence over our elected leaders. I speak also of ourselves, for we, ultimately, hold or fail to hold the true power in this nation.

If we truly are the government, as the Founders intended, then we have no one but ourselves to blame if the government fails to act responsibly.

I for one do not agree that lobbyists and special interest groups trump my position as citizen, voter and participant in the government of the United States of America. I, like you, alone and by myself, am infinitely much more important than any special interest group. At least, that is how I see it, because my Constituion and BIll of Rights tells me so.

If it is different, if we no longer believe those precious documents to hold sway over our government, then tell me so, and I will do as George Washington did and demand that things be changed. I will wage a war of words to try to point out what is foul in this great nation; what needs to be done to restore power to We the People.

And as a modern day Patriot, one of millions across the land, and as a citizen who votes in each election, again one of millions across the nation, and as one who like you has rights and liberties, as well as responsibilities, I demand that our government remember that We the People are the only reason they sit where they are in Washington D. C., and that our business is the ONLY business they need consider when enacting laws.

I don't want lip service - I don't want to be patronized - I want the elected leaders to be put on notice that I, along with millions of other citizens, am angry, on guard and ready to do everything I can to restore the basic tenents of our government to where they belong - inthe hand of We the People. I will no longer allow any person to lie to me and tell me that they know best.

If they do otherwise then they have given us every excuse and every right to overthrow the status quo, to upset the applecart and create or recreate a government that truly, as Lincoln said, is "of the People, by the People and for the People," so that it "shall not perish from the earth".

If they fail to uphold the law and represent We the People, then they are, in my opinion, traitors. That is not easy for me to say, because like many of you, I want to believe that all is good and that all is right. But my eyes and ears and every sense of patriotism in my soul tell me that things are far from being all right.

I hope you will read this with an open mind and understand that you, and me, and all of us, are the government of the United States. It is ours to keep, or ours to throw away, and whichever action we take, the survival of our government rests solely upon our shoulders.

Our leaders are there to serve us, and if they fail in that regard, it is our right, and more importantly our duty, to make sure they do not remain in office.

If that means removing them either through the ballot box or by impeachment, the Constitution and other laws of the land give us the right to make that happen. Search your conscience, learn about your rights and responsibilities, and then act as the Founders of this nation would have done - do what is right and good.

Being a concerned citizen is neither easy nor simple. Much is demanded of us, and if we fail to do our duty, the nation as we revere it will not stand.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.