GOVERNMENT: How much is too much?

The letter from Hendrik Mills is just another warning of government intrusion on our private lives. All I know about that situation is what I read in the paper, but for those who think "there ought to a law" or are in favor of yet "another" government agent to make our lazy lives easier, TAKE NOTE!

Past Congresses have created agency after agency to do just that! Agencies that can confiscate your property if you happen to be farming it and run over a carpenter mouse! That happened to a farmer in Visalia, Calif., in the mid-90s after a Ranger saw him plowing and "claimed" that he saw the farmer kill a "protected" mouse. He was overwhelmed by armed personnel and his 700-acre farm was shut down.

Your money and property can be confiscated by the IRS even though someone at the agency has made a deal with you to pay your taxes. That happened to people that I knew back in the late 1980s. A person can make an anonymous phone call about your treatment of children and you can be arrested and your children removed from your custody without any evidence. I am not saying that children should not be protected or that these problems are not important, but some nameless bureaucrat should not be allowed to do any of these things without some court order, at a minimum some reasonable cause should be apparent for that action. I have seen media reports about the patriot act that decry the unconstitutionality of that piece of law. Since I do not phone any terrorists in or out of the country and no government agent has asked to see what I'm reading at the local library, I should feel fortunate that it's not MY ox being gored! Is that how we should view this, that as long as it's NOT me, it's OK?

PAUL CIRUSO

Athol