Whether or not we live in a 'brave new world' is open to debate. Alternatively, there is little doubt we live in a new world. We are visited with 'new-speak' regularly and as recently as Sunday thanks Messrs Gibbs, Axlerod and Hernandez. Some gadgets or tools, however, from this high-tech age must be refined and ultimately used to: a) pre-empt terrorists from ever getting to the US, much less allowing them room or time to carry out a mission; and b) index and track illegal aliens, with the ultimate goal of either converting them to tax-paying citizens (whilst going through legal channels and starting at the back of the line) or providing them immediate deportation.

"Our representatives in the WH & Congress bear little resemblance......." (how true).

Disenfranchisement is the ultimate dilemma American citizens are experiencing. My family and I are recent transplants from Illinois. In 1960, my backdoor neighbor won the U.S. 20th Congressional District seat, from my hometown of Pittsfield. Paul Findley stayed in Washington for 11 terms and never once failed to vote himself a pay raise, COL increase or boost his health and pension benefits. My disillusionment with Washington and government started then and has matured since, with an unending supply of new data. The current administration's platform is incomprehensible and I have stated same to our friends, Perriello, Warner & Webb. I have, as other Virginians and citizens around our country, asked them to recognize that it is us, the citizens, who are the sovereign entity and that they heed our requests. Pleas for representation fall upon deaf ears, frustrations flourish and the once bright light of the American Dream fades into the eerie luminescence of an Alaskan winter evening.

There has been one major change in politics since Mr. Findley's days in Washington. Arrogance. While Paul took care of himself relentlessly, he still had the best interests of his constituency at heart. Now we see daily reminders of how tending to ones own self-interest has morphed into disdain, nimiety and hubris; citizens and constituents be damned. Have the extremists from the late 60's, Alinsky, Ayers, Cloward-Piven, Hoffman, et-al resurfaced to haunt us? Perhaps they've added to the 'white noise' but the beltway mindset is not party specific. It comes from both sides and the middle without a care or a moments thought. "We are here! We are entitled! You will listen! We will explain later!" I, for one, am sick of their attitudes and actions and am encouraged by Scott Brown's, "It is not Ted Kennedy's seat", comment. Campaign rhetoric? A fresh wind blown into Washington by the people? Time will tell, but I'm not going to stop looking over my shoulder.

You wrote we've lost the sense of how to hold Washington accountable. I must admit that the voting booth, while legal and overtly conservative, seems an excruciatingly slow and painful process. On the other hand, if we exercise our "Right" to alter or abolish the government in its present form and attempt to form a new one, (even while invoking the ghosts of Washington, Jefferson & Henry), we will be shot in the street like dogs. That may just be, however, the impetus necessary to wrest our Country back from the brink.

Great article Sunday. Thank you. Thomas B.