In 1776, the "Founding Fathers" faced that choice. Now, Americans face it again.
President Bush has officially declared a "national emergency" in the U.S. The text of his proclamation is as follows:
"A national emergency exists by reason of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, New York, New York, and the Pentagon, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.
Now, therefore, I, George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I hereby declare that the national emergency has existed since September 11, 2001, and, pursuant to the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), I intend to utilize the following statutes: sections 123, 123a, 527, 2201(c), 12006, and 12302 of title 10, United States Code, and sections 331, 359, and 367 of title 14, United States Code.
This proclamation immediately shall be published in the Federal Register or disseminated through the Emergency Federal Register, and transmitted to the Congress.
This proclamation is not intended to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any person.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-sixth.
George W. Bush
The wording justifying this acceptance of UNLIMITED POWER IS a "the terrorist attacks ...and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States,
There have, of course, been terrorist attacks on the United States (overseas bases, embassies and consulates, commercial airliners) for at least the past 25 years. The one that occurred on September 11 dwarfs in magnitude anything that had gone before, it is true. It is also the first attack which has resulted in a large (horribly large) loss of life and property WITHIN THE BORDERS of the United States.
The threat of a terrorist attack on the United States has been ever-present for decades. It has now happened. The President of the United States, with almost (1 dissenter in the House, none in the Senate) unanimous consent, has now taken COMPLETE control of EVERY aspect of the daily life of every American citizen.
To use Mr Bush's own words: "Freedom has been attacked!"
On September 11, 2001, a number of fanatics who boarded four U.S. commercial airliners snuffed out (along with their own) the lives of thousands of unsuspecting and innocent American citizens. They left, in the wake of their atrocity, thousands more American citizens to mourn the death of their loved ones. They left countless millions of people all over the world to come to grips with the abomination they had perpetrated.
They also obliterated an immense amount of property.
"We hold these truths to be SELF-EVIDENT: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS; that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to SECURE THESE RIGHTS, governments are instituted among men, deriving their JUST powers from the CONSENT of the governed."
(Thomas Jefferson - The Declaration Of INDEPENDENCE - July 4, 1776)
Please realise that because of the actions of a handful of fanatics, and "cashing in" on the understandable anguish of his fellow citizens, the President of the United States, supinely followed by the "separate" Legislative Branch of government, has taken into his hands TOTALLY DICTATORIAL powers over the lives, liberty and happiness of every American citizen. And because the U.S. is such a powerful nation, the same INALIENABLE RIGHTS of people around the world are duly threatened.
And what of the third branch of Government, the Judicial branch? The Supreme Court has not been heard from. Nor is there any likelihood that they will be heard from.
We would ask ANYONE reading this, whether you are an American or not, to reflect on the origins of the United States, the "LIVES, FORTUNE AND SACRED HONOUR" of the great men who gave it birth, and the beacon it became and has been to the world for more than two centuries. We would ask you to remember the millions of people who came to the United States and found a TRUE paradise - a nation where they could make a new life and become whatever they chose to become, without let or hindrance from those who governed the nation.
We ask you to remember the people whose minds and moral courage could not be broken by most vile and tyrannical dictatorships that history records, all of whom took comfort in their darkest hours from the certain knowledge that not only was freedom possible - but that it EXISTED - and its exemplar was THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
We ask you to remember what America was - in considerable part remains (what dictatorship in history could ever produce men and women of the calibre of those who fought off the fanatics aboard the aircraft or those who rallied to fight the disaster at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon?) - AND COULD BE AGAIN.
We ask you to remember all this, as you reflect on the fact that a President has become a Dictator, a possessor of powers which George III, the man who the 13 colonies rebelled against, could never have imagined and would not have taken if they had been offered him.
The fanatics who perpetrated the atrocities of September 11, and the evil men who sent them forth, have already "achieved" more than they could have hoped. Now, they are on the brink of achieving what a Totalitarian Dictatorship bristling with nuclear weapons failed to "achieve" in over 50 years of trying.
You cannot love a thing without knowing its essence. The essence of America is freedom, liberty, and JUSTICE. These are ideas, and as such imperishable. America has NEVER been conquered from without. It is now in the worst danger in its long and shining history of being conquered from WITHIN.
Gold is the substance that was chosen by men as the physical means by which they could live and trade with each other in peace and harmony. The idea which America brought into existance is greater than that. America was the nation which was born of the ideas which set men free. DON'T LET IT GO!