&letterheadOccasion for protest

TO THE EDITOR: I respectfully offer these reflections in response to a letter on the topic of "Patriotism, not protest" printed this past August.

The Fourth of July is a holiday commemorating ideas written and witnessed in the Declaration of Independence. It is significant that ours is a nation that celebrates its founding ideas while it struggles to understand them and aspires to realize them.

The declaration itself is an article of protest. I do not regard protest as a frivolity. This particular executive administration has egregiously violated both the spirit and letter of the Declaration and Constitution and is worthy of protest, investigation, rebuke, and censure. The Declaration asserts independence from a rule it characterizes as "despotism" and "tyranny." Despots and tyrants rule with absolute authority unchecked by any formal system of accountability.

The current Bush administration has successfully acquired a freedom from accountability unprecedented in our nation's history. It did so by pandering to fear and misleading our Congress. The neo-conservative ideologues in this administration have actualized Nixon's toxic assertion that "if the president does it that means it's not illegal." Ford affirmed this by pardoning Nixon without requiring acknowledgement and apology for the actions which warranted his impeachment. Freedom from executive accountability has been a focus to the Neoconservatives that was realized at last in the Patriot Act. Sadly, two branches of our government have been hijacked by ideologues who wrap themselves in the flag while displaying disdain for our founding principles and an utter contempt for the people.

Protest is a voice for the people to use to guide their governance. It is more a responsibility than a privilege. The celebration of Independence Day 2008 was certainly occasion for protest.

Bryan Kieser

Keeseville

&letterheadBackbone needed

TO THE EDITOR: You finally have a judge that gets it. Judge Lawliss is to be commended for trying to protect the children of your county from the lowest of the low, sexual perverts. It's too bad that other judges in the North Country do not have a little stronger backbone.

If judges do not protect the children from the scum of the earth, who will? Their dads, uncles and brothers?

Some of the sentences I've read regarding sex crimes against children almost makes the case for vigilante justice.

If judges keep giving out powder-puff sentences for this type if crime, this just may come to pass which would be an indictment of our legal system.

Phil Spurlin

Biloxi, Miss.