Joseph Wilson and His Wife Initiate Courageous Civil Suit to Defend the Democratic Rights of All Citizens

For All Who Are Interested in Helping to Shape the History of the Present (rather than merely watching it be shaped for you by others who do not have your interests in mind!):

Listen to the excellent program on the courageous civil suit Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie have initiated against the Bush administration, listen to this morning's Diane Rehm show here.

Since Congress has not been fulfilling its constitutional responsibility to hold a run-amuck executive administration in check, perhaps civil suits by courageous citizens like Joseph and Valerie will help to defend the democratic rights of the citizens of this country. They are filing this suit in defense of the rights of all American citizens, as Joseph Wilson made clear at the very beginning of his interview with Diane Rehm this morning.

For more information on this civil suit, or to make a donation in support of it, click here. It is the courageous acts of citizens like the Wilsons that will help to determine the direction of the history of our present.

But while this legal case is making its way through the court system, the rest of us do not have to sit around with nothing to do. If we wish to defend our rights, and do our part to join with the courageous efforts of people like the Wilsons, we need to be active in our practice of citizenship, and one of the best ways to do so, in addition to joining with others in active association to support the cause you are most interested in--whether it be the fight against global warming, or struggles against violence and injustice--is to ask persistent and vigorous questions of our public officials, including all of our political representatives in Washington:

Every Senate and House member should be asking the President the kinds of questions listed here. But they will only do so if we, their constituents, demand that they do so.

Journalists, especially, have a responsibility as citizens to be asking hard questions at this time of constitutional crisis in our country, when so much is at stake. For examples of the kinds of questions all patriotic citizens of the United States should be asking their political representatives now, see the entry below--