I know history is no longer one of the required subjects in many schools, but some of you must remember the Roman Empire. It lasted for 500 years, and then it fell. In school, they told me it was because they were spread too thin; in church they said it was because they were immoral.

Neither was correct. The Roman Empire fell because their people became complacent. They believed anything the government and the church told them.

Their leaders were corrupt; they lied, they misinformed, they staged “The Games” to distract the ordinary people from asking questions.. They distracted. They tried passing laws making it illegal to question Caesar; they discouraged any dispute.

Any of this sound familiar? Anything going on today remind you of Rome? Did Congress spend its time helping to solve the health crises or unemployment or the war in Iraq, or do you really think Congress should have dropped everything for the Terri Schiavo family conflict?

We are in a war. Isn’t anyone outraged? Isn’t anyone ashamed that we started the war? Unlike the movies, they don’t die willingly or bravely; they die screaming in pain, blown apart, calling for their mothers. That’s the reality of war.

So my questio1ns are, “Where are the naysayers? Where are the questioners, the skeptics? Where are all the people that believe in Ben Franklin’s adage that, If you give up liberty for safety, you end with neither.'”

We have a dangerous enemy. It’s complacency.

Dick Rosenberg, Lewiston

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