A reader responds about Gina Haspel, the would-be CIA director.
“The air outside the Washington, D.C. fishbowl is pungently fragrant with protest, agitation, and citizen pushback….but you don’t get a sense of this activism while reading this article”. It reads like a resignation-filled tome, in the face of the moral and legal crisis with government Goliaths (read: CIA & FBI).”
“Citizens have the moral imperative to see that the JFK Act is enforced by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government. Executive Branch meetings, where the JFK record exceptions are discussed, MUST include advocates for the public’s interests. There is no basis for the President to have said “I have no choice,” following his meeting with CIA and FBI, regarding files relevant to the JFK assassination./
“This situation is morally repugnant on several levels. There is, not now, no ‘national security’ issues hidden in files nearly 60 years old. Rather, there is a moral and legal imperative that the government comply with the JFK Act to release these files. ”
“When the government fails to comply with its own laws, that same government undermines its citizens’ trust in government and shows the world it operates without a legal or moral compass, betraying the very laws it writes.”
“It is a moral crisis because, when the government defies laws, it loses legitimacy to govern. The government is not above the consent of the governed who, collectively, are the moral arbiters of just government. The framers of the Constitution understood this; but, it seems the government has no trust in its citizens to handle the truths in our hidden history. \”
“If that hidden truth reveals widespread moral and legal rot and decay, then citizens need to know the past, to learn to safeguard the future. Citizens are the repositories of freedom, not the government. We want to set the government [files] free, not resign to inane and banal excuses, or reasons for continued suppression. This spring, open the windows of freedom and smell the fragrance of citizen protests. Refreshing!