TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

TO THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS:
WHERE IS YOUR BACKBONE?

I urge every member of congress, both Democrat and Republican, to wake up, remember your responsibility to this nation, and support Senator Feingold's initiative to censor George Bush for his blatant disregard of our United States Constitution. Thereafter, you should follow up with impeachment proceedings for both he, and Vice President Cheney. This is not merely the right thing to do, it is incumbent upon you. For if you fail to act in a forthright and decisive manner during this country’s time of constitutional crisis, you will forever be frowned upon as the weakest and most irresponsible congress that has ever failed to serve this nation.

And to Democrats in particular, by failing to be more aggressive on this issue, you’re also making a serious political error, in addition to everything else. Your failure to speak out clearly and forcefully against the many excesses of this administration makes you look weak, impotent and ineffective.  How can America trust you to protect us against foreign threats when you don’t even have the backbone to protect us from an even more severe threat right here at home?  If you feel you have to put your collective thumbs up to the wind before carrying out what is clearly your responsibility, you shouldn't be in office in the first place.  We need people in office with backbone, not wimps, and people that are more concerned with their own political careers than what's in the best interest of this country. You’re not there to perpetuate your career. You’re there to promote the interest of your constituency—which, in times like these, is all of America.

If there has ever been a time when this country was in dire need of sober and resolute statesmen, it is at this very moment.  While partisan spin masters are trying to play this issue down, let there be no doubt it, this is one of those moments in our history where this nation is being challenged to redefine itself:  Are we going to adhere to those noble principles laid down by our Founding Fathers to protect this republic, or are we going to desert those principles to embrace the self-serving whims of the moment?  Are we truly loyal to the lofty ideals upon which every American claims to embrace, or in the final analysis, more loyal to political parties, self-service, and the political exigencies of just one man?  

It is a time to choose—a time for all true patriots to set all false rhetoric, posturing and self-service aside, and step forward to protect this nation.  This is one of those moments in our country’s history where the rubber meets the road--a time where all men of responsibility and good conscience must step to the plate, in spite of vicious odds, and speak the words that could possibly bring this nation back from the threshold of tyranny.

No, it’s not easy to step forward and place your life and everything you’ve worked for in political jeopardy, even in a time of crisis. If, indeed, it were easy, we’d all be great men--but that is precisely why we hold those men and women who were willing to do so in a special place of honor. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wisely stated, “It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after one’s own; but the great man is he who, in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness, the independence of solitude.”  So, follow your heart, and your gut.  That alone will be such a novel approach during these days of self-service and cynicism, that your career will take care of itself.

You’ll be hearing from me again during the next election.

Eric L. Wattree, Sr.
American citizen

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