Hi Tom, I am so very, very sad today. Less than 1 week ago Sarah Palin accused Joe Biden of going backwards in time when we should be going forward. Now this same woman wants to, as a pretense for giving a campaign speeches, un do all that we have done as a country to stop racism, all that Dr. King and John and Bobby Kennedy died for and take us back in time. She is starting race riots and still wants to call herself an American. My God, what is happening? Thanks. Marilyn from Florida

First, maybe it's just me, but I have noticed that you tend to hear the word "Freedom" being mentioned less and less in the national discourse -except, of course, when we're talking about spreading it to other countries. This phenomenom, coincidentaly, has seemed to emerge in direct parallel to a growing busybody culture that seems to be more and more dominating our national culture. For instance, the word never came up throughout the acceleration of the War on Drugs or the state by state smoking bans in bars, both of which were implemented with little rational discourse that included those who were mainly being affected or compromise -for instance, the bar owners whose right to property was intruded upon with little consideration to the relevant constitutional issues. Ironically, I certainly don't remember any of the so called "small government" Republicans stepping in on anybodies behalf. Now I realise, given our present situation, this seems petty. But let's not forget the importance of Freedom in the initial American idea, and the role that Play has within it. Once again, and I hate to harp on this, Freedom, in order to be authentic, has got to be about more than a choice between Coke or Pepsi, or which SUV to buy.

Secondly, I would add to Thom and Fein's point about the disappearance of Civics in the curiculum that not only does our education system gravitate away from the role of creating enlightened citizens, but seems to gravitate primarily toward the role of manufacturing useful producer/consumers. Please excuse my rather blatent Marxism, but I really think we need to consider the role Capitalism is playing in all this.