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Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States

5/24/2002

There is no Plan B
Todd Adams has posted several photos of Wednesday's activity at the state capitol, when the Sundquist administration sent a platoon of heavily-armed police to intimidate people who had gathered to peacefully voice their opposition to an income tax. The third photo in the collection is priceless, and makes it plain that the administration has no Plan B. It is the income tax or nothing, even if it means threatening children with violence. But then, the income tax is "for the children," is it not?

TNTaxRevolt has published a series of photos of the May 15 and May 22 peacful protests. This one shows the troopers descending the capitol steps, waving nightsticks as they approached the people just as the vote on the income tax was under way.

Another photo in the collection shows troopers' helmets clearly marked "State Trooper," a helpful reminder that the notion that we the people control our government is an archaic, forgotten notion. Today, the government is the government and it increasingly has the power to control the people. Wednesday truly was "the people vs. the powerful." Those troopers don't work for us, they work for the State and were used Wednesday to intimidate the people who pay their salaries. If I were one of the troopers at the capitol Wednesday I'd resign out of disgust with myself for having participated.

This photo, by the way, reminds us whose future we are fighting for. We, truly, are the ones who are doing it for the children.