Why is it that some (most?) people in power, no matter how they gained that power, eventually begin to feel as if that power, their own particular position, is unassailable?  They become as those who in knowing me least act as if they know me best.

It is often the parent who will not listen; or the teacher who will not be questioned; or the law enforcement officer who will give no quarter; or the state official at the DMV who targets his power toward the poor and simple wretches awaiting his most-welcomed nod to move on to the next of many lines; or the coach who tells everyone he is there for the kids and then manages to keep a number of them on the bench as he seeks that much-needed victory over another team of 9-year olds;  maybe it’s the abusive spouse who leverages his or her own power, however manifested, to gain control of all within their small but totally controlled worlds; or maybe the boss who cares not about what is best for his underlings but, rather, manages to claim all of their own individual efforts and achievements as his own in his own concerted effort to usurp the power of the one above him; or the aggressive, oversized 10 year old who discovers that if he presses his will with a threat of some act, violent or otherwise, can gain all he desires with his classmates and who has his behavior excused by his parents and often as well his teachers because he is a child with a difficult past or has special circumstances that need to be considered; or the knowledgeable auto mechanic who utilizes that knowledge against the lack of such in his customers so that he can perform maintenance or repairs that are not needed or warranted; or the preacher who will tell you in no uncertain terms all that you are doing that is bad and also what you must be doing to be good and gain access to the final kingdom, that you cannot take your material goods with you when you go so you might as well leave them with him and his church, giving up what he has defined as your fair share, so that they, and especially he, can better help others; could also be the tax man who has set all the rules so that they cannot be understood, has set the tax rates so that they serve to cripple personal financial advancement, and holds the arbitrary ability to audit at will anyone at any time without much if any justification; or the principal who punishes the poor child who was only responding to the constant provocations of another, who treats the perpetrator as the victim and the victim as the one to be punished, just to make things fair; or the big brother who defends his little brother against others when he feels it necessary but who still reserves the right to pummel the helpless lad whenever he so chooses; or the college admissions administrator who holds sway over who gets in and who does not and has at her disposal a plethora of approved justifications, disguised as fair policy, for a particular acception or rejection; or the man who decides to stop delivering my mail or picking up my trash, or the company who decides to stop providing power or natural gas to my home, or the dog who chases the cat who stalks the bird who attacks the mouse who is just simply trying to get along.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a government who decides that they know best what is best for me in just about every aspect of my life. And, in addition, all that comes before and all that comes after.

Day by day my friends your personal freedoms are becoming a good bit less of each, of both.