Demand right to be heard on health care

Recent government developments should ring alarm bells. We must not permit senior elected officials to trash our Constitution. The White House wanted citizens to report those who oppose Obamacare to a White House e-mail address. This request is thuggish and illegal; 5 U.S.C. 552 orders the president to "maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment."

In order to discredit citizens' views to elected officials, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi claimed protesters were "carrying swastikas and symbols like that." U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin denigrated citizens opposing Obamacare, likening them as pawns of insurance companies: "These health insurance companies and people like them are trying to load these town meetings for visual impact on television."

This insults our intelligence and threatens constitutional guarantees. Does more than half the population oppose Obamacare because health insurers told us to? Should we give up our First Amendment protection of free speech because our elected officials don't want to hear us? There is a thin line between freedom and enslavement. My travels have shown me how quickly a nation can lose freedom and slip into bondage.

I ask you to write to demand that these officials adhere to the Constitution's guarantees for citizens to be heard, even if they disagree with them.

Leonard R. Wass

Oswego