Court's whistleblower ruling should alarm all Americans

Court's whistleblower ruling should alarm all Americans
EDITOR:
I read with abject horror in the May 31 Vindicator that the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to remove legal protections and defenses provided by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States from all 20 million American public government employees -- local, state and federal -- if they blow the whistle on corruption in their respective governments.
Writing for the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy said, "[public] employees who speak out while acting in an official capacity essentially forfeit the First Amendment rights they have as citizens, no matter what they say." This step by the five conservative justices is an unbelievable travesty against the citizens of the United States and our governmental public servants. Our federal, state and local governments throughout our country are today riddled with corruption, and we mostly had to depend on honest public employees and the press (and Attorney General Gonzalez is now threatening the press) to find out about this corruption and root it out. And now our five fearless conservative justices have just announced that (after many years) there is no longer any legal protection for those people who put the spotlight on corruption. Gee, I wonder why.
The 27 Amendments to the Constitution were created to protect us from any totalitarian moves by any of the three divisions of our government, the legislative, administrative and the judicial. But the Supreme Court just took one away. Period.
Any congressman, congresswoman or senator who fails to stand up and speak out loudly against this travesty denying our right to uncover corruption in government, whether they be Republican or Democrat, should be defeated this November (and also in 2008). Beware those who fail to speak out.
Wake up, America. One by one our precious freedoms and rights guaranteed to all our citizens by our Constitution have been quietly and stealthily stolen away from us by this administration over the past six years, and most recently by the new makeup of the Supreme Court. If we as Americans do not stand up and stop this madness this November and again in 2008, someday (soon) in the future we'll all wake up as "subjects" of the state (remember Big Brother in George Orwell's novel 1984?) and there won't be a thing anybody can do about it.
JUDY GUY
Boardman
China is buying weapons to extend its already long reach
EDITOR:
A recent article in USA Today, "China's military force concerns Pentagon," says that China is rapidly extending its military reach. It is buying more long range aircraft and weapons that will allow it to compete with the Untied States and potentially pose a threat to other countries in the region. My question is, "Where do the people at the Pentagon think the Chinese Communist government gets its money to buy all of these weapons?" I'd say it's from the trade imbalance of 6 to 1 with the good old U.S.A., and I'd be willing to make a bet that American companies are selling them these weapons.
The Pentagon also states that by China modernizing its military, it is looking beyond Taiwan, the island which China claims is part of the mainland. The last statement is the topper. "The United States is legally bound to help defend Taiwan." Somebody tell me how can we defend Taiwan when we are spread so thin in our own military, meaning Iraq, Afghanistan, troops in South Korea, Japan, Germany and on the Mexican border. The answer I think is to keep our nose out of the world's business and concentrate on the American people for a change because we already have made China richer with our financial assistance and American businesses moving to their shores to take advantage of their slave labor.
BUD McKELVEY
Hermitage