I've been contemplating adding my voice to that of others in the Brave New World of the "information age," but the recent activities by the White House and the Congress have
made the decision for me.

As a "New Deal" progressive, I find truly disturbing the attitude that the way to "balance the books" for the feds in order to pay for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after natural disasters is to cut services for the most needy in our society, rather than rollback some (or all) of the tax giveaways to the wealthiest taxpayers and the wealthiest corporations.

As a person who considers themselves religious, I find offensive and threatening the New Right's push to have overt religious trappings in our Pledge of allegiance,and now, to have the President of the U.S. make, very public, pronouncements that his selection for the post of Justice for the United States Supreme Court partially hinged on the fact that he saw her being a congregant of the Right Religion.

As a citizen, I find appalling the practice that the security of the United States can be so casually compromised, as in "Plamegate," because deceitful grounds for starting a war, where U.S. service members will be called upon to kill and be killed, that serves no real purpose but the aggrandizment of the Chief Executive and a very small circle of friends. Or even more appalling, and frightening, that this same war is viewed by some as an opportunity to hasten the Bibical "end times" and bring the world to an end.

I started my "political consciousness" by requesting (and getting) a change in my draft status from A-1 to A-1-O, yet still considered myself as a middle-of-the-road conservative. Since then, I have seen the nation maim itself through its participation in a war to "spread democracy" and (more important to some planners) to "fight communism."

I saw the government, my government, support and, in some cases, install, out-and-out dictators whose "governance" made the Stalinist regimes in the old USSR, Bulgaria and the Balkins look benign and enlightened.

I saw the dismantling of the safety net for our citizens, not to be replaced with a newer and more effective one that would give greater access to education and advancement, but to be replaced with one that takes away opportunity, and tries to gear the administration of these programs toward those who will make the most profit, or who will gain the largesse because, again, they are of the Right Faith.

These have each been reasons for me to despair for my country, and to raise my voice to be heard.

I harbor no illusions about how loud a voice it will be, nor how influential it will be.

But If I do not speak up now, when I see the need, when else?