Today the US government is willing to strip constitutional protection away from a suspected terrorist who happens (inconveniently) to be an american citizen. What is the next crime or suspicion of crime where we will cheerfully throw away due process?

Someday, when they have run out of suspicious men with bombs, what happens then? Will all the suspicion and paranoia just get packed neatly in the boxes we took it out of? Or will the powerful look for someone else? Some other danger/threat that must be guarded against?

How dangerous will it become in the future to ask questions and hold opinions the government considers “un-american”? Our most powerful politicians have been claiming for months that those asking questions and voicing different opinions are, at best, unwitting stooges of “the terrorists” - letting divisive ideas grow and fester - harming our ability to defend our country. At worst, they are aiding the enemy - muddying the waters so more evil plots can be laid.

I look to the future these days, and I shudder. Out of fear, the american people are placing a great deal of power in the hands of a very few. They are crying out “protect us!” and they don’t seem to worry just now if an innocent is caught in the crossfire - because there are no innocents. The merest breath of suspicion is condemnation, and condemnation equals guilt.

It seems that some soon to be college graduates don’t think that Mr. Rodgers is “elite” enough to give the commencement address at Dartmouth. Are you kidding? I can’t even *remember* who gave my commencement address, (though I got to listen to Geraldine Ferraro at my sister’s graduation, and that was a kicker.) but I’d have paid money to hear Mr. Rodgers speak. Really. He’s up there on my list of officially cool adults.

And he’s not *good enough* for these nose in the air soon to be grads? Ugh.