RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK

Editor: Now we see that the IRS has joined the ranks of those trampling on
civil liberties and constitutional protections by breaking and entering
domiciles and harassing citizens. They operate in sync with the
stormtroopers who jackboot their way across the country, destroying justice
and narrowly defining freedom in their phony "War on Drugs."

Where is the outrage at this?

Have we become so conditioned by mostly insipid TV that our shallow
opinions garnered from emotional responses and inadequate education are
hyped by polls as the "pulse of the nation?"

That pulse is measured by the freedom to consume and only doing those
things expressly permitted by law.

But those who stray outside this purview of consumerism and this narrow
view of straightlaced society are cast aside and left to the growing
gestapo tactics of the DEA and IRS. To talk of the Constitution and civil
liberties is becoming just a tired tautology.

Meanwhile, as more of us accept the curtailment of civil liberties as
justification for "fighting crime and drugs," our country slowly is
assuming those characteristics that engendered the writing of the
Declaration of Independence.

If too many people accept this status quo, the old adage that "history
repeats itself" will come true. We the people will indeed be repeating
history as we cheer and wave the flag while our country sinks into the
miasma of civilizations past.

Stephen M. Barr
Santa Rosa

Checked-by: Richard Lake