What is Tyranny?

Tyranny is the subversion of democracy by the powerful against the weak. This President, George W. Bush, has clearly shown himself to be a tyrant through his abuse of the military, his abuse of the powers of law enforcement, and his total disregard for the mandates of Congress, as evidenced by his so-called "signing statements". His latest "signing statement" is the worst yet, asserting that he and his agents have the right to open our mail at any time, without a warrant.

This is a crime.

These so-called "signing statements" are a direct challenge to the power of the United States Congress to make and pass law. By claiming in these statements that provisions of the laws passed by Congress will not be enforced, or will be contradicted by agents of his administration, George Bush is spitting in the faces of every elected official in Congress, and by extension, he is spitting in the faces of every voter in America who elected those individuals to represent their interests.

This kind of tyranny is the exact opposite of what we should be living under in this country. America was designed by our founding fathers to have checks and balances, so that no President could ever have so much power that they could terrorize their own people.

By allowing this President to create these signing statements, and to enforce them with his enforcement apparatus, we are essentially giving him license to trash the Constitution and violate his oath of office. We would be fools to continue to allow this to go on.

Thankfully, postal workers are not fools. And we will not sit by and watch this President trash our hard-won freedoms, despite what the right-wing pundits may say. This is not about catching terrorists. If it were, the President could get warrants to search our mail, just like he has to to tap our phones or to read our email. This President has all the tools he needs to catch terrorists. This is about scaring people into going along with his policies. If they are afraid he will read their mail, they'll be less likely to think "dangerous" thoughts and to organize against him. In this way, his tyranny grows.

If we are smart we will stop this activity now, before it grows so much that we can't stop it. If we stand up to Bush on this now, we might have a chance at making it end. But we have to act now,. and call our members of Congress, and demand that they do something to end this practice of spitting in the face of our collective will. The Congress belongs to us, just like the office of the President belongs to us, and no man, no matter how seemingly righteous, should ever be allowed to take from us our freedom to speak and exchange information.

The time has come to stand firm in defense of our democracy. As patriotic American workers, it's the least we can do.

Let's make the founding fathers proud, and end this violation of our American values. Let's speak on behalf of all those who should speak out, but haven't yet, for fear that they would be targeted by this insane and illegitimate President.

The time has come.