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February 28, 2005

Big Brother or We the People? Who runs this country

Vermonters are scheduled to engage in an intriguing exercize in representative democracy that could potentially put the question of where ultimate power in this country resides to the test.

One fifth of Vermont's towns and cities will consider resolutions asking what role Vermont National Guard troops should play in the Iraq War.

The Vermont model "brings into discussion the very people who should be discussing the impact of this war: National Guard families, local politicians, police departments, school officials," says Nancy Lessin, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, an antiwar organization. The group is planning a state-based campaign that urges local officials to study the effects that the war, especially the deployment of National Guard units, is having on communities from Oregon to Maine.

Of course the various state National Guards don't ultimately answer to their state government's leadership. They answer to the Pentagon. And the Pentagon answers to the President. However, the President is vulnerable to political pressures, which is how our system was designed to work. So, these Town Hall meetings are not as toothless as they appear to be on the surface.

Abraham Lincoln famously stated, "... this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

Vermonters intend to test the truth of Lincoln's assertion on who holds true power in this nation.

Posted by Kevin at February 28, 2005 02:45 PM