UNDER SIEGE

The impeachment of President Clinton is the culmination of an expanding
right-wing extremism that threatens the very essence of our democracy.
These extremists strike with McCarthyistic zeal, ignoring basic tenets of
decency and fair play.

Each year, Republican zealots in Congress pass un-American laws targeted
like cruise missiles at our private lives. Rulings by right-wing Supreme
Court radicals like Chief Justice William Rehnquist have allowed
unprecedented intrusions into our personal lives by government and business.

Americans are now herded to drug testing labs to be humiliated and
scrutinized. They submit to lie detector tests and allow themselves to be
interrogated for hours in job interviews. Those who do not meet the
extremists' moral codes are relegated to low-paying, dead-end jobs. This
unholy union between business and government can be demonstrated no more
clearly than at international airports. Airline ticket agents are singling
out law-abiding citizens for inquisition by federal agents.

Americans are being detained, whisked away, body-cavity-searched, X-rayed
and forced to drink powerful laxatives. Their money is stolen by DEA and
customs Agents who are no longer burdened by the confines of the Fourth
Amendment.

Our fragile democracy is under siege from Republican radicals in Congress
and on the Supreme Court. Democratic leaders, including Clinton, have sold
out. Our forefathers can only watch from the grave with anguish and disbelief.

T.A. Ballard, Cleburne