America’s Disappearing Democracy

When this nation was established, The Founding Fathers wanted to create a new Nation with limited government power and control, free from the abusive tyranny they once lived under. Slowly however, this new government keeps slipping back into the spirit of autocracy.

Many believe we Americans live in a free country but we don’t. Our country was meant to be, but it’s slowly becoming more and more unnecessarily oppressive and restrictive. Law makers unwittingly make the wrong decisions and keep implementing more needless laws that do more to restrict basic freedoms then create decorum. Laws and regulations are continuously being made and enforced that only work against the people.

One of the main ways in which they very cleverly take our rights away is by appealing to our values, or the threat of safety.

There’s an unseen hand that wants a one world government with inhabitants that are owned and controlled. In our ignorance and idleness, we inadvertently keep allowing it to become a reality. We're incessantly shown images and encouraged to be disgusted and angry at members of our society for over hyped infractions, and we're steered toward the belief that more laws, regulation and punitive action is needed. Below are a few court cases showing how America keeps slipping away toward totalitarianism.

The war on drugs is perhaps the most absurd, rampant, and hypocritical suppression of human rights in America today. The use of drugs lands millions of people in jail daily. What they don’t ever tell you is this; the worst drugs in America with the worst statistics are cigarettes, alcohol and prescription pills.

If you turn on any police show, fictional or reality TV, 90% of the criminal cases dealt with are drug related. You can see countless shows involving police kicking down doors and arresting people for none other than drugs. We have a culture that brain washes us to believe that drugs are an all evil scourge, every drug from marijuana to heroine are all lumped in the same category, and anyone remotely involved with any drugs are deserving of shame and strict punishment.

Marijuana is natural, safe, and hardly has any negative statistics. Yet they keep arresting people for it every day. However, I’m free to get drunk and possibly dangerous, become addicted to prescriptions that are heavily promoted and encouraged by the pharmaceutical industry, or smoke myself into a cancerous state, or endanger those around me with second hand smoke.

We’re brainwashed to believe some drugs are detestable, and others are socially acceptable. Coke and weed are common but remain illegal simply because the government can’t tax or control it. Smuggled in from other countries, the government punishes its own people for its possession for the principle. Furthermore, if something is truly dangerous or bad for your health, rationally it carries its own punishment. Being fined or jailed for it as well serves no logical purpose other than to punish, and to forcefully modify behavior and prerogatives.

Police rarely go after the big drug lords wearing suits who smuggle drugs into the country. They can’t seem to touch them either. Instead they pluck weeds and pull guys off the street who are completely insignificant to the drug trafficking industry. As long as it remains illegal, It will remain a wide open industry in which money can and will be made. When drug traffickers are apprehended and taken in, several others fall right in to take their place. Law Enforcement is accomplishing absolutely nothing.

Police also keep arresting kids and people who aren’t criminals and filling up jails cells with ordinary citizens. When anyone is arrested, they’re cuffed and police rifle through people’s pockets, pull out all their things and inspect them, and increase the charges if drugs are found.

The inescapable fact of the matter is millions of people all over the world use and will continue to use drugs. For most it's harmless and recreational, for some it's dangerous and a problem. All things considered, it's case sensitive, and there is a different way to handle drugs and drug abuse problems rather than resorting to force, fines and jail. All drugs aren't bad, it's drug abuse, or the abuse of anything for that matter is the real problem. For many, drug abuse is an addiction, a disease that won't go away easily. Constantly fining and arresting people, giving them criminal records, letting them out and arresting them again is senseless.

The war on drugs is a scam that is raking millions of people into jail this very second.

The program D.A.R.E. is a prime example of this rampant stupidity. Most of the kids that D.A.R.E reaches out to are going to grow up, go to HS and college, and realize how corny and behind the program is. The organization comes to schools and attempts to frighten and brainwash children about drugs, tells them of the worst case scenarios, and it encourages the children to turn in their family members and friends. And it's happened. A tax paying, law abiding, working couple had a child whose school was frequently visited by D.A.R.E. The child turned his parents in because they smoked marijuana and he brought some old joints to a school officer. The parents weren't wild drug addicts, they're a working young couple that smoked weed every now and then. The parents were arrested, they lost custody and social services removed the couples children from their home----because of a joint.

Matthews, NC police Officer Stason Tyrrell assured the 5th grader that he did the right thing and said,"Even if it's happening in their own home with their own parents, they understand that's a dangerous situation because of what we're teaching them. That's what they're told to do, to make us aware."

"Oh, beautiful for spacious skies...."

Not very long ago, Giants Foot ball great, Lawrence Taylor, was arrested for having sex with a 16 year old prostitute. He was arrested, defamed all over the news, and lost all of his endorsements. Eventually he was released with a misdemeanor charge, fined, and listed as a sex offender.

There are many women groups that feel he was let off the hook and are attempting to use him as a poster boy for sex trafficking issues. They feel that law enforcement should increase arrests and prosecute traffickers, and pimps, as well as the Johns. These groups feel that the more the law converges on people who pay for prostitutes as well as the pimps and prostitutes, we’ll begin to control the international sex trafficking problems with underage girls.

I’ll explain how incredibly misguided and stupid this is. From Hugh Grant, to Charlie Sheen, to your average Joe at the bar, millions of men pay for prostitutes. What will instead eventually happen is mysteriously, mailmen, bus drivers, wall street brokers and men all over who have no criminal pasts will start disappearing, brought in by law enforcement and put through the system. No, internationally, it most likely will not make a dent in sex tracking, but it will succeed in throwing millions of working, non threatening people in jail. This is an excellent move closer to a Fascist state.

In a senseless war on prostitution, the police proceeded with sting operations attracting johns to prostitutes just to set them up. Posing as pimps, madams or working girls, they also told some of the men that the prostitute was underage and asked if they wanted the girl anyway. If the men said yes, they arrested the men for that charge as well and tallied a poll showing that 47% of the johns still wanted to proceed. That’s like the police waving a warm crack pipe in front of a crack head, reformed or not, and arresting him if he gives in and smokes it. Brilliant. Excellent police work; forget fighting crime, let’s go out and create criminals and bag them up like leaves. When police do this, it’s the furthest thing from crime fighting; its entrapment.

I have an unpopular opinion, but it’s the right one. The best way to deal with prostitution regardless what we think is to legalize and control it. The minute prostitution is legalized; we’ve just eliminated the pimps and illegal sex traffickers. Like the perfect model in Amsterdam and Nevada, once it’s legal, you’ve successfully removed the market away from criminals who often force women into it, especially underage women. If it were legal, crime would decrease and requirements could be implemented to make it safer. Women could get tested regularly, monitored and go into business for themselves if that’s really what they want to do for money. Unfortunately however, people can’t think outside their little bubble. People cling to the usual laws based on forced morality. Because society looks down upon prostitution, we stand by stupid laws that punish any participation in it.

The reality of the situation is that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world---and it isn’t going anywhere. And if it’s the woman’s prerogative, I don’t approve, but it’s no one’s business and it’s not a crime. Two adults should be able to do what they want if they are both consenting parties. If it's no danger to anyone else, nothing should stand in front of a persons free will.

What is crime? Punishable, unlawful acts committed that are a danger to society or the welfare of other entities, or is it doing things people rather you not do? We may not like prostitution, but so what. Live your own life to the best of your ability, and go about your own business. I’m in no way advocating prostitution, nor do I intend to pay for a prostitute, but this is the common sense that we need to embrace. Though it's not held in esteem, no it isn’t a crime; it’s prevalent, and it should be legal. Also, the demand will always be there whether we like it or not. Like drugs, alcohol cigarettes or whatever else, most of us may not approve but the market will always be there. And it will get to the people legitimately or not. And when prostitution is legalized, that’s when you can really go after anyone trafficking illegally or anyone getting a prostitute illegitimately.

It’s the exact same thing with the prohibition of alcohol; we’re not children and we don’t need the government to tell us what we can or can’t do, or what we can or can’t have based on an enforced moral code of ethics. Because the demand for alcohol was present whether the government made it legal or not, the crooks and gangsters became the vehicle with which to get it and they grew more powerful. Likewise, keeping prostitution illegal gives criminals more money and prestige.

So to the groups out there calling for more arrests of working American citizens, I respect the intention, but that isn’t the answer. I know clean cut law students, medical students and stock brokers who’ve all gotten prostitutes at one time or another. Nor do these men check ID’s if and when they do.

And Lawrence Taylor being listed as a sex offender is also another prime example of how we idiotically misuse the intention of laws just to punish people senselessly. People normally get listed as sex offenders because communities have a right to know who lives among them. If someone has a history of rape or pedophilia, neighbors should be aware in order to properly protect themselves or their children. Labeling people like Lawrence Taylor as sex offenders is just mean-spirited. He had sex with an underage prostitute (by 1 year) whom he didn’t know. She told him she was of age, she could have been 30 for all he knew. Having him listed by the state as a sex offender, implying he is a possible danger to society who preys on children, for the rest of his life is uncalled for misappropriation of the law.

Collaring Lawrence Taylor is displacing anger and energy on the wrong target. He’s just a lost man caught up in reckless and stupid activities. Throwing him in jail isn’t accomplishing anything and may push him further off the edge and back on drugs. He needs a different kind of intervention in his life. Sex trafficking of young women is a very huge problem that I would like to see end. It’s a repulsive form of modern day slavery. If you really want to save these women, we have to render the sex traffickers powerless. Enforcing laws based on a code of morality and expecting everyone to comply---or else---will never accomplish the task.

This case is very important. To explain just how important this case should be, we have to go into the history of how we ended up having to pay income tax in the first place.

Originally, the idea of income tax was shut down as oppressive, and totally and completely unconstitutional. It is in fact unconstitutional and completely against what The Founding Fathers would have wanted. The real rulers of this country eventually figured out a way to reword it, make it sound practical, and fool the American people into voting it in. And so came the 16^th amendment to the Constitution in 1913.

American citizens were never supposed to be subjected to income tax. It was initially implemented only for times of war, for non-resident aliens, and American citizens living and working in a foreign countries. Through deception, intimidation, and misleading, the IRS managed to make it seemingly mandatory for everyone, all the time.

Through the years, the public has been brainwashed to feel as if it was their patriotic duty, even resorting to using Disney characters for propaganda. Now in present day society, it’s a seemingly mandatory routine obligation with many punitive consequences for failing to comply.

Wesley Snipes had financial advisors who are aware of this, have unorthodox methods, and are against the manipulation of the IRS. Forced income tax has never been ratified, and is still unconstitutional. Very risky, but Wesley Snipes became an adherent to this philosophy. Wesley Snipes deliberately didn’t file taxes for 3 years which was close to $15 million. Consequently, they tried him in court, sentenced him to pay all the money plus 3 years in prison. He was first tried and the jury acquitted him of federal tax evasion. Then they brought him to court again and sentenced him for failing to file.

This is revolting. The IRS wants the public to feel that what Wesley Snipes did was crazy and irresponsible. Even though Wesley Snipes, conceded he was at fault (though he wasn’t), formally apologized, submitted checks totaling $15 million, and had high profile friends plead for leniency, the courts coldly decided to take the money, hold him accountable for a lot more money in fees and fines, and proceeded to jail him for the maximum 3 years. Wesley Snipes is no criminal. He’s a successful actor who’s never committed a crime. He’s just an American citizen with an opinion that differed from the establishment. They’re making an example of him to purge the fight out of him, and anyone else who feels the same.

Shall we bring back the days of debtor’s prisons? If someone believes he legally doesn’t have to pay income tax, then sure, try him in court. Allow him to plead his case, and then hold him accountable for the money owed, and I’m certain they’d find a way regardless. To seize non threatening citizens like criminals however, is fascist, deplorable and we shouldn’t ever tolerate it. This is one of those cases that should open people’s eyes. Instead I’m betting everyone will stay totally oblivious and make sure their taxes are in. Big Brother wins again.

The Monica Lewinsky scandal was a non issue that never should’ve gone to court in the first place.

What Clinton did in his bedroom, or under his desk in his case, had absolutely no relevance to running the country whatsoever. It was a ridiculous circus in which we allowed our insatiable subscription to gossip bleed into talk of a presidential Impeachment. Next time around, people like Linda Tripp, sneaking, recording phone calls of people confiding in her to eventually stab them in the back, and documenting evidence to entrap people should be the ones on trial.

No doubt, Bill Clinton committed adultery. So did JFK and countless others. Those conspiring against him knew that in and of itself, nailing him for a sexual fling wouldn’t be enough to sink him as president. This was a well oiled scheme. Somehow, miraculously they found a way to make this nonsense relevant enough for him to have to testify about it before Congress. Like idiots, we all went for it, made it matter when it didn't, and that’s when they nailed him. When asked about it in front of the lights, camera, his wife, child and the entire Nation, he did what many men would do---he denied it. He is smooth though. He said he “did not have sex with that woman”, and he might not have---intercourse that is. Regardless, when he lied before Congress, it was instantly looked at as perjury---even if for a sex act with no relevance to Nation.

Because of Kenneth Starr’s fruitless, unnecessarily graphic and humiliating investigation, $70 million was wasted to try and convict Clinton of perjury at best.

Never again should we tolerate the politicizing of non issues ever again. It was embarrassing, unproductive, uncalled for, and very bad for the country. This case was a perfect example of when we allow politics to run too far without public dissent. The powers that be are constantly trying to pull things over our eyes to satiate hidden agendas. The Clinton, Lewinsky scandal was definitely an issue for the Clinton's to wrestle with, but not the Nation.

If political warfare and trumped up charges can be validated before Congress. and almost unseat the man at the top, just imagine what can be done to the common citizen.

This is one of those cases that almost divided the nation and it shouldn’t have. No need to waste time being PC and explore both sides of the story. The cop was wrong for doing this and there was no reason for any debate about it.

The police were called to the home of Professor Henry Louis Gates after someone called thinking that there might be a burglary in progress. Professor Gates had trouble opening his door so he with the help of his driver, entered the home unconventionally. When the police arrived, the officers described Gates to be very abrasive so they put him in cuffs and brought him to jail for disorderly conduct. Wrong. Regardless what the old man was complaining about, the millisecond the police learned that Gates was in his own home and there was no crime, they should have just left. Instead, they chose to teach him a lesson in behavior on his own property. Sgt. James Crowley put the acclaimed and respected Ivy League professor who’s never committed a crime, in handcuffs and dragged him off to jail. It was a repulsive exhaust of police time and tax payer money. After the humiliation of being cuffed and carted off by police in public, of course the charges were dropped. The person who called the police thinking she was doing the right thing, did not ask for all of this and would never have called if she knew. She was only trying to prevent a possible crime and that should've been the police's only concern as well.

To add insult to injury, people went on national TV desperately trying to explain to the Nation how this was good police work. Umm….no it wasn’t----so much so it made international news within hours. What it did was expose what usually passes for good police work, but isn’t. Some of us decided to judge the cop instead of the instance, which is a flawed way of thinking. People who felt that the arresting officer was an overall good cop, simply tried to justify what happened, completely disregarding the blatant human rights infraction. People resorted to explaining his record, as if a good cop can’t make a bad decision, or if absolutely nothing needs to change about certain law enforcement practices. Regardless what anyone thinks or how good or bad Sgt. Crowley is, it isn’t the job of the police to tell us how to act in our own homes and arrest us if we annoy them. I believe that he may very well be a good cop, but so what? This isolated case was a prime example of policing gone too far and it deserved the attention it got. He'd be a better cop if he acknowledged the situation.

President Obama made a gesture with good intention with his Beer Summit, but gave way too much homage to the seemingly self righteous Sgt. Crowley. Both Obama and Gates seemed as if they were trying to break ground. Crowley however, couldn’t admit to any fault and didn’t seem as if he wanted to meet in the middle. A great opportunity to come together after an incident, and define the peripheries of policing was lost.

A relative of mine has a husband from Germany who was explaining how there is a huge difference between police in Germany and abroad, and police in the states. He was saying that if you’ve committed no crime, the police don’t behave as if they have authority over you. And if you get pulled over abroad, they have to prove to you how you’ve broken the law. If they don’t have anything proving you committed an infraction, they don’t condescend or exude authority over you. In the states however, he feels that many cops seem to expect deference and are used to people cowering to them. I’d have to agree. Here, we do the “yes officer, no officer” song and dance.

Of course there are many great cops. Many of my friends are cops and there are men that do great work in any profession. I personally have been helped several times by great cops who’ve shown professionalism and respect. I’ve also experienced the other kind of cops that expect you to do whatever they say and cower to them. Police are there to serve and protect. When dealing with innocent law abiding citizens, it’s time to drop the machismo and expectation of subservience. Police are professionals with plenty to do. When Gate’s identity became clear, the police should’ve known they were on his private property and the matter was over.

Instead of looking at the Professor Gates situation sensibly from the right perspective, people began instantly looking at it as a race issue. In the history of this country, and in many societies in the past, race or class was always meant to divide and distract by the hidden elite at the top of the chain. When the people are foolishly wasting their time hating each other, they never see the true enemy. Regarding professor Gates dilemma, take race completely out of the equation and now think about it. Absolutely correct. It is never ok or reasonable for policemen to handcuff and remove any man out of his home for something as asinine as Sgt. Crowley’s reasons. If a man was physically attacking the officers, that’s another matter, but that wasn’t the case. It's not a race issue, that's just a distraction. It was always a human rights issue. There is no man alive that can convince me that bringing the Yale professor and public scholar to jail was a needed and necessary course of action. What we sit back and allow to happen to one of us can happen to any of us in the future.

Despite some negative aspects in history, this country has a very special existence. And since this country’s establishment, initially there’s been a constant evolution of improvement. The Founding Fathers were enlightened men who had a very unique and special ability to see so far ahead of their time. They wanted to create a new nation free from abusive tyranny and government control over the common man. Somehow they simply knew the importance of preventing this from happening. They saw how bad things could be and created a new nation built on the ideals they believed in. The inhabitants of this country were intended to truly be free. Still however, the spirit of tyranny, fascism, and government oppression keeps taking a step closer every day.

Many have heard the saying, ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ In that spirit, we need to stop slipping backward into an Orwellian-esque government in which laws work against the people instead of for the people. Things can get carried away and become unnecessarily oppressive if we allow it. People have rights and deserve respect. However, we keep creating an environment of fear in which anyone of us can be collared at any moment for frivolous reasons. Sometimes for no reason at all, we keep writing senseless laws hell bent on punishment. They’re even trying to implement more severe laws, fines, and maybe even jail time for talking on the cell phone while driving. Furthermore, being cuffed and held by police is primitive, inhumane, and unnecessary in many cases involving non threatening individuals.

Many people don’t understand where we’re slowly heading and what’s at stake. Of course we need laws and structure. And yes, there is a time for force, punishment, and even execution. However, we keep allowing the powers that be to slowly create a society in which citizens are slaves to the establishment both economically and figuratively.

The government needn’t ever concern themselves with who pays who for sex. Nor should we be ticketed for having a beer outdoors. We shouldn’t be thrown in prison if we haven’t paid income taxes and we shouldn’t be dragged in court for a sexual fling with another consenting adult regardless what the situation is. We shouldn’t have to remove articles of clothes and have our luggage rummaged through every time we go to the airport. The war on terror in airports is just a war against the people and privacy. People should be able to marry whomever they want regardless of gender. There are several laws, rules, fines, fees, regulations, and violations that I can keep listing that are suffocating society. Some rules come from religion and moral codes forced on everyone, and others come from some politician’s erroneous solution to a problem meant to curb our behavior.

The powers that be don't want us to be politically sagacious intellectuals. They want us hopelessly shallow, stupid, materialistic, listening to substance-less top 40 pop party songs and watching the Jersey Shore.

There’s a saying that fascism will come dressed in the American flag and holding a cross. It’s a new world and things are done differently. There’s no longer the threat of invading armies coming and setting up oppressive government. Nowadays we’re kept stupid and tricked into doing it to ourselves through law making. In this age, we’re able to interact and communicate more than ever, and you can see just how ignorant, brainwashed and controlled by the interests of the elite we are as a people. There are networks disguised as news stations but rarely report news. They feature news “commentators” and they are just propaganda machines to guide our thought process. You will continue to see people being made examples of, and verbally tarred and feathered before the public. Don’t join the media bandwagon and always realize that it could be you. When you see injustice against anyone member of society, consider it your duty to snuff it out because it’s a threat to your own existence and freedom.