Rights to Petition Revisited

There were amazing stories about visitors to the Nation's capital yesterday. “Like the liberal Woodstock of the ’60s, thousands were rumored stranded on freeways. Some walked in to DC, ditching their cars and busses. I walked with a 5 deep 6 block long column of protesters from Pennsylvania Avenue who had walked miles from where they had to leave their busses.”

For all this trouble, the Washington Post described "tens of thousands" in attendance for the great Tea Party in the streets of Washington. ABC News admitted to an estimate of two million. I've seen crowds on the Mall, and I saw the crowd from yesterday. I think ABC nailed this one.

I was going to go into the office to catch up on code work, but I assumed there would have been no street parking anywhere in that part of town, located within a mile of the National Mall.

It is not enough for citizens to direct their wrath at the Nation's President. The head of the executive branch is too easy a target, and his being vanquished would accomplish far less than one might imagine. No, the Nation's citizens must do their homework on the relevant issues. They must ask the hard questions of their local representatives in Congress. They must show to those whom they confront, in overwhelming numbers and in no uncertain terms, that they are not liars, that they are motivated solely by a quest for the truth, and that their elected representatives can be voted out of office as easily as they were voted in -- some of them as early as November of next year. They must stay informed. They must stick to their guns. A government of, by, and for the people, requires their participation, and their vigilance.

And they must behave. This requirement may entertain a double standard (inasmuch as it is not expected by the mainstream media of their opponents), but if all is fair in love and war, this is the playing field in which they find themselves.

Featured today is a clip prepared by the folks of the Tampa Tea Party. Our Founding Fathers have much food for thought. We need to listen to them again, as if for the first time.
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