By Mick Youther

I am in Washington, DC this week, and I have good news and bad news to report. The good news is that our Federal Government has not lost its copy of the Constitution. The bad news is that they don’t use it anymore.

The Royalty in Washington say we have to give up some of those old-fashioned freedoms that generations of Americans have fought and died for. We now live under a government, more oppressive than the one our forefathers rebelled against, that allows oil men to set energy policy, timber men to decide forest policy, and the military-industrial complex to control foreign policy. We, the People, have been pushed to the side. We are supposed to pay our taxes and keep our mouths shut.

We cannot afford to do that any longer. We no longer face the slow erosion of our liberties that Jefferson foresaw. The Federal Government is working around the clock, writing laws and breaking laws, to destroy the Constitution. In the immortal words of typing class, “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.” If not, in the words of Samuel Adams, “Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."

The Constitution is the standard to which our government and our laws must always aspire. It is the foundation of America. When enough of that foundation is destroyed, our nation is going to fall–one way or another. The Royalty in Washington don’t care, as long as they end up on top of the heap.

“If we do not spread the word of this bipartisan attack on the Bill of Rights—and insist on our First Amendment rights to protest—we will become accomplices in this war against the Constitution.”
—Nat Hentoff, The Village Voice

“The Constitution is a written instrument. As such, its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted, it means now.”
—South Carolina v. United States, 1905

"My country, right or wrong" is on the same moral level as "My mother, drunk or sober."
—George Orwell

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”
—Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address, 1861

"People keep saying that the world has changed completely since September 11th, but when I checked the [U.S.]Constitution it hadn't changed at all."
—Phil Agre, Red Rock Eater, 2001

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
—Margaret Mead, 1901-1978

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
—Ben Franklin

“We must become involved in civic affairs. As citizens of this republic we cannot do our duty and be idle spectators.”
—Ezra Taft Benson

“… the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.”
—John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it."
--Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), French music teacher

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
—Edmund Burke

“Our Constitution was not written in the sands to be washed away by each wave of new judges blown in by each successive political wind.”
—Justice Hugo L. Black

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
—Edward Abbey

“The price good people pay for their indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
—Plato (427-347 BC)

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do.”
— Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)

"Posterity, you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that ever I took half the pains to preserve it."
—John Adams

Millions of people have taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. President Bush has, John Ashcroft has, members of Congress have, and our servicemen have. Just about everyone at all levels of government, right down to your local City Council, have sworn to protect and defend the Constitution. Oath or not, it is the duty of every citizen to protect the Constitution. It was written to limit the powers of the government. We cannot expect the government to protect it for us.