All I have to offer is my own confusion...

Congressman Owens,
I am a college student soon to graduate with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Around my education, I spend about five months on the road as a touring musician who next year, will choose to take over a $100k a year pay cut because I feel that I can not “professionally” practice in a system that does not look out for the best interest of its own people.

Honestly, I’ve never been much into politics, but the last few years have been different. I can honestly say that I have never felt more ashamed to live in our country. It began when the Patriot Act forced friends of mine in my community to have wire taps put into their homes simply because they were of Middle Eastern ethnicity. The recent news regarding the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 has made me question everything that this country is about (at least on paper). Even more so that I have before. It has gotten to a point where I don’t feel free anymore. I don’t feel safe, but I feel as if that’s how the makers of this bill want me to feel. I am blown away with the outcome of the recent Senate vote. I take absolutely no comfort in the fact that 93% of our senate feels its acceptable to sacrifice our freedoms provided to us in the Bill of Rights. I especially, am disgusted to live in a country where I will no longer be able to enjoy the comfort of MY freedom, as stated by this bill. Even worse, I don’t even know if I am “free” to say the last sentence I just wrote anymore.

I’m writing you in part because I truthfully don’t know what else to do. I don’t have answers for change, but I know there is an overwhelming push for it. I am writing you because I know others don’t have the time or will power to do so. I’m writing you because I don’t want to feel this way. I don’t want to be angry. I don’t want to be bitter. I don’t want to feel shorted. I want to feel free. If I could have nothing else in the world, I would like to at least have the “luxury” to sit back and enjoy my freedom. It’s sad to say that I do not feel I can do that anymore. As a hard-working, law-abiding citizen of this country, I have sacrificed my freedom, my privacy, and soon possibly my “basic” human rights stated in our own nation’s Bill of Rights. But for what? So a group of individuals at the top of the ladder will benefit? So the rich can continue to grow more rich?

To conclude, I suppose I am writing you because I am not a congressman. I personally can not say what I would like to say before congress. But I am aware, that you have been elected by the individuals in my community to do so. So I ask that at some point, any point, please help make a positive impact on our freedom. I am not scared of being attacked by “outsiders”. I am much more scared of being attacked by “insiders”, the ones who I don’t see or hear about on the news every day. I am scared of not being free. I am scared that the passing of this bill will be a permanent stepping stone in the loss of that very freedom.

Please, help savor the one thing that could make this country a place worth living. Our freedom.

David S. Bombard II