The New England frame of mind, God love it

I heard it on the NBC Evening News late last week:

Warren Buffett, one of the top three richest Americans, claimed we are now, unofficially, in a Recession. And I must say I'd rather trust a self-made billionaire like Buffett, than a careless spender of our money like George W., whose sole achievements as our two-term President have been largely negative. Starting his first term in office with a large surplus, George has over the years run the U.S. into a sizeable debt. It must've been quite an effort to spend so much money so foolishly, but I always knew George could do it.

I was struck this past Wednesday by an article by Associated Press writer John Curran. Writing from Brattleboro, Vermont, Curran was reporting on some of those spoiling-for-a-fight New Englanders' attempt to approve "a measure calling for the indictment of President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney for violating the U.S. Constitution." Thank heaven some of our citizens (probably the elderly) revere our Constitution and think those Americans who violate it, like declaring war one morning, just because they feel like it, and think they need some such martial victory in order to get their name in the history books, should be made to pay a steep price for their crime.

If such a plain-spoken objection to the way our president runs rough-shod over our laws and law-abiding citizens, is to be expressed, you can bet your bippy it'll be by a New Englander, those thorny, up-standing folks who, in the late 1770's, were largely responsible for the liberty we so casually accept as our due today. Unfortunately, the printed ballot relegated the Bush-Cheney hoopla to the last page, so many missed it.

"Turn over Ballot and Indict Bush," read the signs carried by a large crowd of folks who liked the idea, who, it was agreed, carried the large signs as "an opportunity to express their frustration over the War in Iraq and Bush's tenure in general. " One 74-year-old retired photographer Robert George expressed himself this way: "I'm really angry about us getting involved in the war in Iraq and Bush disrespecting the will of the people." Some Brattleboroians, however, thought it a bad idea. Ian Kelley, a 41-year-old radio DJ, for instance, wrote, "It's not a good reflection on the town," he said. "Do I like either of them, and would I vote for them? No, but I don't think it's cause to arrest them." I find these last two citizens of Brattleboro very interesting, although I find the reaction of the second deplorable. It's not a "good reflection on the town" that its citizens have finally had enough of the scoff-law kind of professional hucksters who pretend to speak for American citizens while guiding them again and again and again into national disaster? Sorry, I think it speaks volumes in their behalf.

Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Paine -- they'd applaud the Brattleborians' pluck! We've forgotten how to hold our duly elected public officials responsible for their actions and inactions. Let's not forget that democracy is not a form of government you win one day, and then sit back and enjoy forever after. Rather, it's a form of government that needs defending over and over and over again.