Mr. Richard Cheney
Vice President of the United States
Dear Mr. Vice President,
I have just read a report published by Matt
Drudge, an on-line Internet journalist, indicating that you have taken
offense at a parody of Mrs. Cheney's life summary published by another
on-line journalism site, “whitehouse.org”
and expressed your displeasure to the publisher from your office as Vice
President.
From this sad viewpoint 227 years after our Declaration and our
successful challenge to tyranny by established government, I must wonder
at your taking offense at the parody
by “whitehouse.org”.
I can understand your personal indignity, but the unauthorized exercise
of your office in retaliation is Constitutionally unacceptable.
When I consider the contrast between your indignance and the indignities
laid upon the exercise of the fundamental tenets of our Revolution, upon
the mandates of our federal Constitution and upon our unparalleled great
experiment in true self-government by you and your fellow members of this
Administration, I can only suggest that yours is a vanishingly petty personal
grievance.
Your complaint, it seems to me, is a symbolic expression of the shamelessness
of a petty Caesar. Remember that your place is that of a high servant of
"We the People" and the enjoyment of higher ambition would require
that you take leave of your office and return to the “We the People”, to
rejoin the true sovereign of these great and united States of America.
Parody is political speech
Mr. Cheney, a Constitutional matter that you are obliged to preserve and
defend. Neither poor taste, bad journalism, rudeness nor incivility are
criminal. The exercise of the influence of high public office for private
benefit however, is a crime.
In closing, I will stretch my point: In a real world, which is the more
offensive parody, Mr. Cheney, "whitehouse.gov"
or "whitehouse.org"?
With all respect due to our Office of which you are entrusted and to
Mrs. Cheney in her private capacity,
sincerely,
Henry Nicolle
Citizen of California, a republic and a union state
This open letter has been posted at http://www.sheriffhenry.com/
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