Title: Waving the flag?
Writer: Jim Crispino

Article: In response to comments on the tag board:

I support our troops fully. I don't know if I believe in this war, philosophically, but I am definitely on the side of our troops until it's over, and they are home safe. Because they are risking their lives doing what the nation has asked of them, they are heroes, one and all, and deserve every ounce of support we can give.

My only problem is with the constitutionality of what we have asked our troops to do. I'm not sure that we have the constitutional authority to engage in a pre-emptive war. While I know that Sadam's regime was a threat to world peace, does our Constitution authorize congress to use our men as world police? Not anywhere that I can see.

Once this is all over, I hope all of America takes time to ponder just how far outside the limits set by the Constitution, we want to let congress and the prez operate.

One of the problems I see arising out of the "well I like the idea, so I think it's OK for them to engage in extra constitutional activity" mentality is that everyone has their own ideas, and if we give congress a free pass on the ideas we like, then we have to give them a free pass on the ideas other people like, and before long, the Constitution is a meaningless piece of parchment. Actually, it already is. Congress acts as if there is no Constitution, because we have allowed them to operate this way for far too long now. Because we all have our own ideas about how "other people" should live, we let them rule over "other people". But now we are all "other people" to someone.

What sucks about living in a free country is that you have to let other people live just as freely as we want to live. Even if we find their way of life appalling, as long as they are not infringing on another's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we have to let them live as they please.

Take the right wing talk radio hosts for instance... they insist on strict constitutional adherence in a lot of areas, but approach the subject of the unconstitutional war on drugs, and they hemmorage. They don't think Americans should have a choice about whether or not to use drugs, and they fully support this extra constitutional waste of time, money and lives because of that. They use all sorts of strawman arguments to support their position, like, "if we legalize (read that, "if we remove unconstitutional prohibitions from")drug use, do you want drugs being sold from convenience stores to 3rd graders, or have kids smoking pot in the bathrooms at school?" along with a host of other plainly idiotic ideas...

It is of little use to say to them that "beer is legal, and is not sold to 3rd graders, why would pot be different?"... it blows a fuze in their head.

Then you have the absurdly unamerican policy of implementing zoning laws, to keep people from using their property as they please. I see support for this crap coming from all directions, left right and center, even from bikers... "someone might build a factory next door"... "someone might start a pig farm next door..."

So to most Americans, infringing on another's rights is morally OK, if we ourselves can benefit in some perceived way? It's kinda sickening...

I see American flags flying on houses that also sport a sign that says *"Stop The Plant" or *"Fields Not Fairways" and ask myself, "Do these people even see the hipocracy here?"

* (St. Lawrence Cement Co. wants to build new plant in NYS, and these people live in CT are opposed, and some farmer in Canaan, CT want's to build a golf course where his farm is, and they would prefer to see his cornfields. In both instances, people want to use government force to prevent these land owners from using their land as they please.)

I got into a bit of a discussion at a biker event this weekend about the unconstitutional seat belt road blocks, and some dude had the nerve to say, "So what? If your not doing anything wrong, why does it bother you?" This from a supposed freedom loving, patriotic American biker? Seat belt check points should make every American want to break out a rifle and go to war.

And you wondered when I'd get back to the war thing, eh? hehehe

To me, that is a very constitutional use for a weapon... Fighting for OUR freedom from oppression. We are oppressed folks, and it's getting worse every day.

While it's all well and good and very appropriate to wave the flag, and tie the yellow ribbons for our troops that we sent far away to kill and die for us, I'd really like to see people start flying the flag in support of the principles that made America once the greatest nation on earth.