Editor, Times-Union: I have listened to a lot of conservatives on “talk radio” in the last few years. One of them, Glenn Beck, gave a list of “12 Values” and “9 Principles” and these make a lot of sense.
Keeping in mind the incident with that “teacher” (I use the title loosely) who got into a heated argument with a student over Barack Obama, with the incident caught on a cellphone camera, and then downloaded on YouTube. One of the “principles” Beck spoke of is (#8) “It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority, or to show my personal opinion.”
The “teacher” violated this principle dead-on! Even a student in our “public schools” has the right to “freedom of speech” and to speak out to criticize this government, no matter who the president is.
The “principles” Beck spoke of are (1) “America is good.” (With the state of our economy, the violations of the low and public threat, I have a problem with this “principle.”) (2) “I believe in God, and He is the center of my life.” (3) “I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.” (4) “The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.” (5) “If you break the law, you must pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above the law.” (6) “I have a right to help, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.” (7) “I work hard for what I have and I will share it if I want to, when I want to and with who I want to.” (8) “already mentioned earlier” and (9) “The government works for me, not the other way around. They answer to me, I do not answer to them.”
It has always bothered me the way in which people have allowed politicians (elected or not), the courts, the police and others to usurp constitutional rights and authority of “we, the people” and all for greed, lust for power and some self-serving feeling of superiority over the general public.
It’s fitting to end this letter with the story that justice finally came after 33 years for the family of 6-year-old Etan Patz, the first “missing child” to be featured on a milk carton. Police investigations never gave up searching for answers to the child’s fate, and finally caught a suspect who confessed to abducting and killing the child. Thirty-three years! It just goes to show that, if enough people care (family members of the victims, police, other interested parties) a crime long left unsolved can see justice done.
