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Editor:
Polite people in Guy Fawkes masks are complaining about how the government tramples our constitutional rights.
Well, I, too, am worried about the government taking too much power. The NSA surveillance and spying scandals alarm me. The drone program is a terrifying example of government overreach — judge, jury and firing squad rolled up into one remotely controlled machine. What kind of future are we creating?
So we should be allies. I should don a weird-looking mask and march with them. But it turns out that these are not my people. In fact, we don't even live in the same country.
In their country the government is constantly trying to take away their guns. What? Far from trying to take away everyone's guns, Congress can't even get it together to withhold assault rifles from dangerous people with histories of mental illness and violent crime. When these people go berserk and massacre children and their teachers, the NRA tells us that the only solution is for everyone to carry a gun.
Oh, what a lovely world.
The other huge problem the masked people have with the Constitution-trampling government is Obamacare. Hey, a lot of people are critical of Obamacare, and I'm skeptical about how it's going to work out, but ... ? It's democratically passed legislation modeled on Republican ideals for how to solve the unconscionable health care situation in this country.
Don't like it? OK. When the next election comes, vote for whoever vows to repeal it — and has a better idea.
Obama is requesting a third term in office? Really? Did that little tidbit, by any chance, come from the same source that spread reality-resistant rumours about Obama being a Muslim from Kenya?
So much for the "age of information." So much for getting all your news from confirmyourprejudices.com. Surely, you can do better than that.
Martha Walden, Westhaven