We hear much about power in Government affairs nowadays, at the same
time we hear about the terrible hardships of performing 'government
service.' Clearly, money has become the name and inspiration for
holding government office. It hasn't always been this way. The
founding Fathers of America made provisions to limit an officeholder's
power to accumulate great wealth while serving in government
offices. Nowadays, it is commonly known that politicians supposedly
on fixed incomes, retire from their offices in possession of far more
than their lawful income could have provided. Huge sums are raised
during election campaignsd where candidates incur debts to
contributors far in excess of the candidate's ability to pay, and
various candidates agitate for 'reforn' of this clearly criminal
violation of such laws as are on the books. But 'power bloc' tactics
prevent any effective action from being taken to curb this now long
established practice. This clearly means that the US Government's
offices are bought by political interests-not voted into office by
the electorate. These political interests support each other and
appear to be invulnerable to any efforts to curb their excesses.
But are they really invulnerable? An aroused and informed electorate
could regain control of their government. But this would take
concentrated and dedicated effort by the majority of America's
citizens. The majority of Americans are dependent upon governmental
programs and are thus impelled to continue and support-rather than to
kick the rascals out. This condition may actually make it impossible
for a change to occur in this system. Unless a financial crisis
might occur that would be severe enough to cause a groundswell of
resentment and opposition to continuing domination of the small in
numbers 'elite' by a massive revolt of people long conditioned to
accepting governmental control over their lives.

Time is of the essence in this matter!

Van