Conversation Point

We Hold These Truths: An Open Letter to President Bush

Mr. President,

Why do you feel compelled to read my personal mail?

I'm having a hard time with this concept, so please, bear with me as I get my facts in order. You have claimed some broad, new powers to open any American's mail without a judge's warrant. Having signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act into law on December 20, 2006, you then issued a signing statement that declared your right to open our mail under "emergency conditions." Most of this act dealt with basic reform steps, but it also explicitly reinforced protections of first class mail from searches without court approval. Your claim to be able to access our privacy as American citizens in this most profoundly invasive way goes against current law and contradicts the bill you signed less than a month ago. It also surprised the people who voted the bill into law. " Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a personal privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairperson, who co-sponsored the bill.

This all feels vaguely familiar to me. Perhaps it is because last year around this time your focus was absorbed by tapping into personal telephone conversations. Having been caught illegally eavesdropping, I trust you have corrected that lapse in judgment. Assuming you are no longer listening to me arrange vacation cat care with my neighbor, I would like to say thank you and please continue to mind your own business. I am not appreciative of those who are not willing to deal with me directly and honestly, and that seems to be your trending behavior. You have to know that what you are doing is simply wrong and disrespectful in both the short and the long run of things, but I am not so sure. I think you have forgotten by whom you were elected and in whose service you are now called to act.

Luke's gospel tells us that the temple leadership had become, shall we say, a bit full of themselves, and rather concerned that Jesus was becoming more than they wanted to deal with. As Jesus' popularity grew, their own power began to wane. "One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to him, 'Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?' He answered them, 'I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?' They discussed it with one another, saying, 'If we say from heaven, he will say, Why did you not believe him? But if we say, of human origin, all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John is a prophet.' so they answered that they did not know where it came from. Then Jesus said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things (Luke 20:1-8)."

Mr. President, your authority does not come from your ability to manipulate facts, fears or the United States' popular need to believe it is the best country in the world. It does not come from your own sense of entitlement to shape your time in this office you now hold to suit your own needs, spoken and unspoken, whatever they may be. We the United States citizens you were elected to serve, are not on trial. We do not need to prove our innocence or proof text our constitutional rights. My understanding is that you swore to uphold the constitution that guarantees us the liberties and freedoms you say we are fighting for in this war in Iraq that has gone on far too long. I am deeply concerned that you have lost sight of your role in our country's present and its future. Trying to label your fellow citizens as wrong, and sneaking behind our backs to do so, indicates to me that you have aligned yourself with political chief priests, elders and scribes who see the truth, but choose to ignore it.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 8:59 PM