Anonymity - How important is it in society? VETO POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Photograph by Sabin Corneliu Buraga

With all the clamor of daily life revolving around the acquisition of wealth; every one tries to draw attention to themselves or at least their company or their product. Companies wouldn't make money if they didn't advertise and publicize their names, their logos, their brand.

Many people want to be recognized, liked, admired, and followed. They want their fifteen minutes. They want to be fashionable and trendy.

And yet their are those who prefer to remain in obscurity, privacy and isolation even though they may possess some amazing knowledge or insight that if shared could revolutionize the planet and its inter networked social systems. These are the anonymous contributors that have enriched our experience of reality. They have left their stories, their poems, their art and these contributions that when found and/or publicized, have touched us, sometimes deeply and profoundly.

When I first encountered the concept of anonymity it was in a poem called "Sister and I". This poem was a poem my mother would recite to us when we were little kids as part of a routine of things she did to lull us off to sleep at night. The poem was written by anonymous. As I learned to read books in school and had to check them out from the library at times I started to encounter more writing by this mysterious person called "anonymous". It actually took me a while to figure out that there wasn't just one "anonymous" that there were many anonymous writers. Why would they not want to get credit for what they made? It was an intriguing question.

Later in my academic career I encountered the concept of pseudonyms, that is words that are used as a substitute for the real word or that they mean the same things. And then I learned that writers sometimes wrote in pseudonyms or pen names...Wikipedia has a real cool article about pen names here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen_name

My point that I am trying to make is that anonymity is important to the security of our nation and the people of this country. Anonymity is what the whole issue around a National Shield Law and Whistle Blower Protection is all about. The people coming forward want to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation; although sometimes the one being ratted out can figure out who did the ratting because the circle of those who knew was small and they could figure it out through a process of elimination and then silence the witness. This is why we have a Witness Protection Program.

With all the fear that the average person is in these days what with Iraq and Armageddon nipping at our heals, its no wonder that we don't have many courageous good Samaritans running around and that integrity and honesty are not even requirements for running a government anymore. Something is seriously wrong with this country; it has a cancer growing and its got a touch of Alzheimer's and I am talking figuratively here ok?

These three things alone would create fear in those that we entrust to govern us and to exploit our god given resources. This is our planet by God and we need to take the power back. TAKE THE POWER BACK!!!

Now why stop at a trifecta, why not give VETO power to the people through the power of the petition. In the Constitution it says that the right of the people to peacefully assemble and to petition for a redress of grievances shall not be unduly denied. I think there could be a constitutional basis for what I am proposing here. The number of signatures needed to achieve a VETO could be argued of course, but think about it. Any legislation and/or executive order could be challenged and placed on hold until a super majority of Senatorial and Congressional votes could overturn the VETO.

Please tell me what you thing about these ideas of Anonymity, and Veto power to the people.

Thanks.