To the editor:

President Bush recently told us, again, that we should trust him. This after it was recently leaked that he has been spying on American citizens for four years, while ignoring the judicial oversight required by law. When asked about this at a news conference, Bush expressed outrage that someone had told on him. Has the rule of law (like the Geneva Conventions) become another “quaint” notion for this administration? Am I alone in finding these revelations deeply disturbing?

I remember listening to a distinguished panel of historians talk about the Constitutional Convention of 1787. These historians discussed how a diverse group of people, the founders of our present government, originally could agree on little, beyond the fact that power WOULD be abused, and that they must somehow “check and balance” power. Their wisdom came from an intense understanding of human nature, and from having themselves suffered from abusive power.

In our form of government, under the Constitution, if the executive branch feels they need more power to protect America, they ask for it from the co-equal legislative branch, they do not take it! What is so profoundly alarming about unchecked, unmonitored spying on American citizens is the unlimited possibility of this power being abused. We should trust Bush? The Founding Fathers would tell us that a healthy mistrust is more in order.

Daniel Patrick Schamle,

Lawrence