There was a time when the people trusted the government and the government trusted the people. When was that? Sometime before Vietnam. Sometime before the Assasination of President Kennedy. It is not really important when the reciprocal trust shared by the people and its government ended, but the point is it did end, and we have seen the result.
The result is this:
Prosecutors asked a judge to rethink granting 9/11 families suing airlines access to evidence gathered for the criminal case against al Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema's April 7 order requires prosecutors to provide copies of all unclassified aviation security documents to attorneys representing September 11 families in a civil lawsuit pending in New York.
Prosecutors called the order "unprecedented" and urged Brinkema to withdraw it.
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Brinkema's order would allow the families' attorneys access to "highly sensitive" law enforcement documents and could compromise the continuing investigation into the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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The order would require the government to begin turning over copies of documents two weeks after a verdict is returned in Moussaoui's trial.
The plaintiffs have struggled with the Transportation Security Administration to obtain pre-September 11 aviation security documents.
"It is amazing what some agencies think is secret," Brinkema said before issuing her order last month. "As a culture, we need to be careful not to be so wrapped up in secrecy that we lose track of our core values and laws."
At some point, the government began to not trust its own people. The citizens it served were deemed to stupid, dumb, ignorant or childlike to comprehend the horrible complexities of the information they held. Such information had to be kept secret. From the people.
Sooner or later the people found out, for you see, secrets and lies are always revealed. And that was when the people stopped trusting, and started looking out for themselves. That was when the government began becoming the enemy, the problem. And that is why the Conservatives were able to use their theories of "rugged individualism" to gain power in this country. For the people only trusted themselves, and worse, they distrusted the government.
That is why I embrace the new slogan that has bantered about recently by persons far more intelligent than I.
"The Common Good."
It has been suggested as a theme, a meme, or a frame for Democrats in the upcoming elections in 2006 and 2008.
"The Common Good" captures the underlying principle, or idea of governance, that makes all of us Democrats or at the very least, liberal.
We seek the common good. We stand for the rights of all because we all want to be free, for if one is not free, then none of us are free. We stand for the poor and impoverished, for if one of us is hungry, or sick, or homeless, or poor, then we all are.
We seek the common good because we are all Americans. We are all in this country together, thus, we are all in "it" together. What happens to one of us happens to all of us.
To me, the "common good" describes a feeling in this country that harkens back to the New Deal, to JFK's New Frontier, and to LBJ's Great Society. The principle stands behind the famous speeches of great Democratis Presidents past.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by what is right with America."
Democrats wish to empower all the people so as to advance the common good. And when the people were empowered, when they had a stake in this country and in the fight being fought for the common good, it engendered trust. The people trusted the government. The government trusted the people. For the goal of both was the common good.