America The Beautiful
With subpoena power now in the hands of the Democrats, investigations are moving forward. Some people are taking a partisan stance on the results of these inquiries but it is really an aberration to judge right and wrong based on the political party of those being investigated. Congressional oversight was established to keep the Executive branch in check. Not exercising such oversight is a breach of trust on the part of Congress.
We have been told for the past few years that the President’s inherent power gave our government the right to invade our privacy without a warrant. The FBI operated with impunity under the Patriot Act to gather information using national security letters authority. Now that authority is under scrutiny as it should have been all along.
Internal watchdog, Glenn Fine, in a review authorized by Congress over Bush administration objections, revealed data-gathering abuses in a 130-page report last week. Fine's review concluded the number of national security letters requested by the FBI skyrocketed after the Patriot Act became law.
In 2000, the FBI issued an estimated 8,500 requests. Between 2003 and 2005 they reported issuing 143,074 requests with 56,000 of those being issued in the single year of 2004. Fine also discovered an additional 8,850 requests in a small sampling of cases in four field offices. These requests were never recorded in the FBI’s database and it is estimated there are many more nationwide.
It is the job of our elected officials to run the country but it is our responsibility to be vigilant in seeing that they do it well. When we find they are not, we need to work toward setting things right and partisanship has no place in this process. Even the FBI admits there have been abuses. In the face of that, how can anyone deny that the lack of oversight in the past 6 years has led to abuses that are damaging to our democratic way of life.
I have a fierce love for this America of ours. It is an honest, eyes wide open love that accepts the reality of what we have contributed to the world – both the good and the ugly. Our country does not need to be perfect for me to love it any more than my kids need to be perfect for me to love them. It is puzzling why some Americans seem compelled to deny the ugly parts of our past and our present. They equate this denial with patriotism but what is the value of such blind patriotism? To be truly patriotic, to love, support, defend, and be loyal to our country requires that we open our eyes to its faults and work to correct them. Honesty is a part of true love.
We can only right the wrongs, move toward the ideal, if we are willing to own the honest mistakes and the deliberate wrongs that some of us imperfect people perpetrate in our country's name. I love the idealism reflected in the words of America the Beautiful but I also understand that we Americans, individually and collectively, have done and continue to do, things that betray every ideal on which our country was founded. To be defensive, to deny any wrongdoing is as destructive in our world and national relationships as it is in our personal relationships.
Wrongdoing crosses all party lines, as well as racial and religious lines. Working together to uncover the wrongs wherever they are and regardless of whom committed them shows we love our country, warts and all. That is how we work toward making her a real America the beautiful.