Change does not come easy.  Our Constitution did not come easy; it came through a revolution, a makeshift government, uprisings, and then a summer of tireless debate and negotiations.  Ratification of the Constitution was similarly difficult as it took about two years to get done.  There were major divisions in the convention and most states did not have enough support for easy ratification. Granted, during the 1700s, technology was a horse-drawn carriage and a canoe, and the news press didn’t have the “story” in a matter of minutes.

The year is 2009 and this is the state of our Constitution:

1.  The rate of racial profiling and an increase in violence against certain groups is increasing, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

2.  There has been a rapid return of a McCarthy-like era of paranoia and subsequent disregard for our constitutional principles, which was brought up by Rachel Maddow and put into context by David Wilson.

3.  The U.S. Congress consistently puts politics and partisanship over our Constitution and representatives often cry “Constitution” when things don’t go their way.  In fact, our elected officials are so far entrenched in partisan and defense industry politics, even with our voting system, it is increasingly hard to reach them.

4.  Last weekend, the ACLU experienced yet another set back in their endless Freedom of Information quest when Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, invoked his newly appropriated power, given to him through an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, to block the release of more torture photos because the public “does not need to know.”

5.  People who are trying to get the truth out are being replaced by people who will not let the cat out of the bag.

6.  The big channel news media could be indicted for gross negligence in responsible news or, perhaps, we should reassess what news is.

7.  The corruption in our justice system has run rampant and is not getting better with a new administration.

8.  The Constitution has been consistently violated in the name of security by the President of the United States (and this is compounded by our torture policy over the last 9 years).

While we should not fail the future with misinformation or use partisanship as an excuse to violate principles of our democracy, people need to be aware that we are dangerously close to losing the media war, to silencing the truth seekers about the abuses of government and losing a generation of young activists because these issues are not easy and can seem to be cyclical.

I believe this is a defining moment for Americans with huge decisions looming.  I don’t know that we’ll succeed now, but looking back at the trials of starting our country, success was never a guarantee.  The founders had the same uphill battle in creating and then preserving their principles and went into it knowing only one thing: failure was never an option.

Tags: Constitution, media, torture, transparency

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.