Apprentice 2 Jesus

A question on politics, which is a dangerous subject…

Yesterday in a Bible study an analogy was being given that dealt with the branches of government. It got me thinking. The analogy was the Legislative Branch writes the law. It’s up to the Executive Branch to enforce the law.

Let me make this abundantly clear right here: I support my president. Politically, I have opinions, and that is one of them.

Here is my observation, however. Concerning the current debate over immigration, or take any other past issue, conservatives (and I “are” one, generally speaking) talk about how we need to ENFORCE the law and not write new laws.

Case in point: Immigration. Again, the conservatives are up in arms over the proposed legislation and saying, “HEY! Congress! ENFORCE the laws we have on the books!”

I think we’re yelling at the wrong end of Pennsylvania Avenue. If the Executive Branch is the enforcer, it is BUSH’S job to make sure the current laws are enforced. So, would it not stand to reason the fault lies in the Justice Department, the State Department, the Defense Department, or somewhere else in that branch?

As conservatives, we really want to support Bush, and he is obviously giving us less and less to support and be “happy” about, but when it comes to enforcement, I think we keep yelling at Congress, when the fact of the matter is we should be on the Executive Branch’s case to enforce the law.

One clear example of this was an audit that was done over an airplane incident a couple of years ago. Several men (and they were Middle Eastern) gave clear indicators that they were together. Air marshals waiting in the terminal picked up the vibes and made sure they were all together on this one. The men then made several moves to indicate they would act on some terroristic activity. It was enough is frightened several passengers who refused to fly. I think in this episode it led to the men being taken off the plane and questioned.

That episode unfolded and it became clear that those men were undergoing a “dry run” to see if they could make moves without being stopped. That conclusion, however, was SUPPRESSED for years. The conclusion given the media was that the passengers were just too nervous and might have been “racist.”

A media audit allowed by law to see the documents of the case revealed that, indeed, the Middle Eastern men were testing the system, the air marshals acted properly, and the passengers had a right to be nervous. However, when the report did not come out that way, a couple of air marshals questioned the motives. I am unclear at this point if they were fired, or they just quit in frustration.

Now, did CONGRESS run that investigation? Did CONGRESS report to the media that the passengers were wrong? Did CONGRESS review the actions of the air marshals and found them to have acted properly? NO! The EXECUTIVE BRANCH did all that. The EXECUTIVE BRANCH suppressed the evidence. The EXECUTIVE BRANCH downplayed the whole episode.

WHY? I have no idea. I just wish we would get all our guys on the same page! If we are in a war on terror and we need our airlines secured, why are we not allowing the air marshals to do their job and then tell the truth about it? What good comes out of suppressing this kind of information?

Just a political thought for the quarter. I get those every blue moon in a way that makes me put them out there a little more rather than just keeping them to myself.