COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday titled "National Defense Resources Preparedness." The news media is unsure of the precise meaning of the information included in the order and average citizens are left to figure out what it means in general. As a longtime supporter of the president, I've been reluctant to jump to conclusions, but the general tide of recent legislation and this order give me reason for concern about the intentions of this administration.
The order lists items such as the power of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government and its agencies to "identify requirements for the full spectrum of emergencies, including essential military and civilian demand." This same section, labeled "General Functions," also enumerates these departments and agencies might ensure availability of domestic resources and industries to secure national defense. Do these and other line items signal that America is on the verge of another war -- and will that war be with another nation or on U.S. citizens?
The first step in the direction of applying military law to private citizens occurred Dec. 31, when the president signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. This legislation sounded the initial alarm to me because although its main purpose is for providing necessary funding of the military, it included provisions that allowed the indefinite detention without charge of private citizens.
The next signal of alarm came on March 8, when the president signed into law H.R. 347, the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011. The law restricts protests at political functions among other things. This is offensive since the U.S. was founded upon protest and revolution.
Perhaps each law taken individually wouldn't be a cause for concern, but the totality of these three suggests the federal government is envisioning more control over the civilian population than it has ever enjoyed. The president's order on Friday suggests to some the executive branch might be ready to enact martial law in peacetime.
Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of "The Red Man" state. With what he hopes is an everyman's view of life's concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense solutions.
