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Probe the Past To Protect the Future
March 5th, 2009 Government, Random, Society & Self none Comments

“Not only do we have a right to know, we have a duty to know what our Government is doing in our name.” Fabulous point-on closing to this article. Andrew, even those who may know all which you presented above, it still begs being brought forth in a single and powerful presentation as this – providing the argument to stir passion in the reader to spur change, which is the ultimate goal of your writing. As much as I would revel to see those in our Government who have wronged us over the last 8 years “do the walk” as HopelesslypartisanDEM states and even expand it to include those in the private sector who have wronged us as well, revenge historically only suits our hedonist tendencies. We can and should leverage the excellent punishment of those in the past to set new standards in the future and send a strong and clear message to future wannabe violators and those currently corrupt that these behaviors will not be tolerated; being swiftly and justly punished as we do with the more tangible moral and blue collar crimes. A form of “pest-control” as Andrew so eloquently puts it.

But the greater outcome of probing the past is taking those learning lessons and modifying future behavior to avoid history repeating itself. This is far more desirable than revenge or just desserts, the problem is, this step is commonly missed when justice is served, or this step is used in lieu of doling out punishment, as Andrew adamantly agrees.

In probing the past we need to carefully take notes, then translate these notes into a well thought-out rule book. That’s the beauty of hindsight, it’s always 20/20. It does allow us to fix the future for the most part, in an imperfect but reasonable way. Riding that sensitive line between confidentiality and transparency, that grey area, is and always will be the most controversial and difficult part of any Administration as it is an inherent struggle of any democratic government. This is also where the crooks like to hide and corruption breeds… like a mold it’s in that dark dingy place right past the edge of that disinfecting sunshine. So make transparent all we reasonably can. Bring the people into the decision-making process and increase accountability and oversight. Do not provide absolute power to oversight committees, but rather close the loopholes through which those they oversee may use. Create committees based on the Team of Rivals concept, though united through a common cause. But most of all, we NEED to reinvigorate the citizens of the United States of America to take control of their government, their needs and their right to know. This is a duty, just as paying taxes is a duty so is being informed and involved. We’re a free country, so I suppose you don’t have to… and there will be folks that feel that way. But as we saw during Obama’s campaign, there are more Americans that would gladly take a hold of that Torch of Duty than shirk their responsibility.
Thank you for a revitalized history lesson with collaborative forensics, demonstrative analysis of our values in the current state and deliberative argument for our choices for the future!
And as it does in the comic strips… Good shall prevail.

Sincerely,

–
Scott Stevens
@wirelesscott IM and twitter

 

More on Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost