After assessing letters from your readers expressing both pro and con opinions on the controversial tea party movement, I decided to examine their mission statement and core values and make my own judgment.

I was perplexed almost immediately by their statement supporting “freedom of the individual to spend the money that is the fruit of their own labor without high levels of taxation by government.”

Where, I wondered, was any compassion for the millions who are unemployed, senior citizens, the disabled, our returning veterans and countless others, who, through no fault of their own, no longer have the “fruit of their own labor” to spend?

If the tea party is successful in eliminating “high levels of taxation” while shrinking the size of government as they advocate, what is to become of their fellow citizens who survive only because of the benefits provided by that government? That would “throw out the baby with the bath water.”

They go on to declare, “A free market is the economic consequence of personal liberty,” and they “oppose government intervention into operations of private business.”

How quickly they have forgotten the disastrous role government deregulations during the Bush/Cheney administration played in the complete collapse of our financial infrastructure.

Influenced by their master gurus of negative and divisive politics, Dick Armey and Sarah Palin, these modern-day “rebels” with their call for “freedom” seem to have embarked upon a confused attack against what they would have us believe is an oppressive “socialist/fascist” administration in Washington.

I could only come to the conclusion that the tea party’s principal goal is not to “save our country” but to remake it in their own self-centered image — a truly frightening prospect.

Sam Kamin

Cumberland

 

 

So, when did we become terrorists?

A friend and I considered this question, recalling that when we grew up as boys in President Eisenhower’s 1950s’ America, patriotism and our U.S. Constitution were taught in our public schools. Christianity was accepted by most adults as the ultimate in personal, spiritual maturity.

Last year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said potential terrorists include members of pro-life groups, constitutionalists and Iraq War veterans.

And then, in February last year, the Missouri Information Analysis Center Report notoriously listed Christians, home-schoolers and constitutionalists as potential terrorists.

Although the United States is supposed to be a “constitutional republic” ruled by law, we see that it’s not even a “democracy” (ruled by majority) when 55 percent to 75 percent of the people oppose the Obama/Pelosi health care bill and it’s shoved down our throats anyway! Who are the “terrorists” now?

Never before has America stared totalitarianism in the face! Isn’t it time for us to impeach Comrade Obama before he impeaches our Constitution permanently?

Robert Bruce Acheson

Dixfield

 

 

Over the past decade I’ve watched and listened to our government officials act and talk like primary school children (although that statement may be demeaning to primary school children).

I’ve heard many people state that after seeing the actions taken in retaliation toward those who challenge the behavior of Congress and the presidency, they are fearful of speaking out lest the same happen to them. “When the people fear the Government, there is tyranny, when the Government fears the people, there is liberty” (Thomas Jefferson).

I’m not afraid of our government, or any who would try to silence me and take away my First Amendment rights. I firmly believe “The government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed” (Declaration of Independence).

And, “We, the people, are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution” (Abraham Lincoln).

This I believe was the intent of our founding fathers, and I believe this to be the situation we are now facing in our Republic. In November we will have an opportunity to begin to bring our country back to the values put forth in our Constitution.

Don’t blindly vote for one political party or another. Research the beliefs of those running for office. Will they truly adhere to their oath of office and uphold and protect the Constitution? Will they truly do the will of the people and not pursue their own agenda of power and greed?

Vote with knowledge and confidence. This is the only way true and honest change can be accomplished.

Robert W. Brandenstein

Buxton

 

 

This will straighten out Washington — a proposed 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the President, Senators and the House of Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the President, Senators and the House of Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.”

Carl C. Miller

Woolwich

 

How is a teasing child like a TV show’s producer?

 

The other day I was standing in line at the grocery store. In front of me was a mother with two children in tow.

While the mother was placing fruits, vegetables and other items on the belt, one child kept trying to add candy bars from the adjacent display. The mother just kept saying “no,” despite the child’s persistence.

Eventually the child started calling the mother mean and unfair. The mother, gathering her patience, still ignored the child and completed the transaction.

As she was leaving I couldn’t help but think she must be a Republican and the child a budding Democrat.

Kurt Christiansen

Windham

 

 

Could the cancellation of the show “Law and Order” possibly be that its creator, Dick Wolf, is a liberal ideologue only too willing to spin everyday events into his own liberal outcomes, becoming too much even for what’s left of NBC’s audience?

Anita Cornish

Buxton