This current situation has given me great heartache and so I have decided to spend the time and write this note in hopes that it will help raise the perspective of those involved in the impeachment process.

My concept of conservatism revolves around the model that each individual should be responsible for themselves and their actions, and that government should be as small and as local as possible. Further, business is considered something "good" since it is the machinery for the advancement of civilization. Within reason, the transactions between humans should proceed in a lawful and fair manner, and the government should stay out of the business of the people. People's personal lives are important and we should never strive to become exactly the same as everyone else. Diversity should be encouraged and the natural workings of all systems should be allowed, as much as possible.

When I was very little, I heard a story. At this point in time, I can't even remember what the story was about. But the "punch-line" was that little minds think and talk of others, that average minds think and talk of things, and that great minds think and talk of ideas. As a little child, it didn't take me long to decide that I wanted to think about ideas. Maybe the best law that could be passed would be one that required all elected officials to be required in all public speech, to speak only of ideas and not others. One of the things that I find so disgusting about this present situation is the continued claims that one person can "know" what another is thinking. As a philosopher, I can tell you that on many occasions I have observed many people and we all have different backgrounds and different experiences and in the end, no one can actually know the thoughts of others. To see my President facing impeachment on what others "think" he was thinking, represents one of the most fundamental of attacks against the freedom of individuals and their thoughts, supposedly protected by the constitution.

In my humble opinion, there are few, if any, conservatives left among the group that calls itself Republicans. The concept of being a conservative is much more primitive than the concept of being a Republican. A true conservative should be appalled at the stalking of any individual by an arm of the government. When I see the way that certain people in our government have used the power of the government to delve into the private life of my President, I shutter at the thought of what could happen to me, since I have little power to defend myself, should my thoughts be subject to the interpretation of some government official.

When our constitution was established, the framers set up a three-part system, each part of which was to represent one third of the power. The independent counsel seems to be a direct violation of the separation of the powers, and I think it is unconstitutional, at least in the part that requires him to submit evidence of impeachable offenses against the president. This power resides solely in the House of Representatives and the framers of the Constitution never intended to allow them to delegate that authority to anyone. An independent counsel is an oxymoron. Who, but lawyers and legislatures would even think about putting the words independent and counsel together, since the very definition of counsel is one who takes an side. Thus the Independent Counsel should be abolished and never see the light of day again. I don't understand how Republicans can continue this assault on personal freedom in the name of the rule of law, when their actions of using the impeachment process for political goals seems more against the rule of law than anything the President has done.

And to think that Republican members of our Congress, would seek to impeach the President of the United States for exercising the most basic of human rights in seeking advice of his counsel and legal remedies, sends shivers up my spine. Here are the very people who are supposed to be defending the rights of the individual. They seem so caught up in their desire to punish the President, that they are tearing down the very Constitution that they gave their oath to uphold and in the process are violating the tenants of being conservative and caring about the rights of the individual.

We continually hear about the importance of the rule of law. But the rule of law has often been wrong. It is not the rule of law we seek, but rather the rule of fair law. The term of Republican has come to mean someone who holds to some traditional values and never changes his mind, no matter what the evidence. Being set in your ways is not a conservative value, in my opinion. As human knowledge expands, so should our wisdom. As our knowledge expands, our viewpoint should be allowed to expand, as new evidence becomes available. A true conservative can retain traditional values and still be open minded when new evidence arises.

As I said before, I have never voted for Bill Clinton, but he is my President. I once served in the US Marine Corps and was sent to Viet Nam. I later leaned that I probably "fought" in vain, since the war was mostly contrived. But I have never been sorry that I served my country because I love my country and I am still willing to put my life on the line to preserve the basic human freedoms that this country was built upon. If I was still in the military and President Clinton ordered me to war, I would go because he is my President. The important point is to respect the office of the President. I have never agreed with any president on all issues, but once they are elected, then I support them with my entire being.

Much has been said about the "goodness" or "badness" of the President's actions. Most religions allow God the final judgement on good or bad. The President is much like the rest of us. He is a mixture of good and bad aspects. It is purely possible that God might view the President bringing peace to a troubled world, as outweighing his affair with Monica Lewinsky. None of us can ever be the final judge of anyone. The American people seek fair justice and view the President's morality as no different than every other politician.

Many people have said that the economy is the only reason the people are supporting President Clinton. But I think it goes much deeper than that. The people see Bill Clinton as a balance to the Republican House and Senate. The people knew that Bill Clinton has a reputation for having affairs and voted for him anyway. And maybe there are genetics factors that tend to make great leaders aggressive sexually, since most great leaders through time have been this way. But the people see Bill Clinton as a balance to the Republicans. If the Republicans do overthrow the will of the people, then maybe it is time we look at making this country a true democracy and do away with those who would force their own morality on those who may not agree with them.

It is incredible to me that we as American people seem to be shooting ourselves in the foot. President Clinton seems to be accomplishing much on the international scene and is perceived as a great leader by many other people of the world. Why would part of our government work against him and try to remove him from office? The nation and the world need the security of knowing a president will be in office for his elected term. This is the way the founders intended it to be. To try to remove the President for purely political reasons is much like a body trying to cut off its own head. It doesn't seem that the best interest of the whole can be accomplished when a group in control goes against the will of the people and tries to overturn an election. As I try to be independent in this entire situation I would request that everyone start adhering to my admonition: keep your thoughts and speech on ideas and not people.

When all is said and done, it may well be that history judges this situation in favor of the President. The Republicans may come out looking like petty little people who couldn't admit that the President is a better politician than himself or herself and so they hate him and pursue him. I'm sorry for the people who call themselves Republicans, for they seem to have come to the point where being a Republican is more important than being a conservative. The true test of the values involved in this situation is to imagine what would be happening now if the President was a Republican and everything else was the same. Would the Republican Congress be seeking his removal from office? The evidence seems pretty convincing that Republicans would not undertake this attack on a member of their own party. Thus it is hard for the American people to see any fairness in this situation. Sure, the President was evasive in his answers. But everyone else is too and anyone who would state that he never lies has just lied. The absolute execution of every law in verbatim without regard to circumstances often doesn't lead to the fair rule of law, with the emphasis on the word fair. Laws through time have often been unfair and so the goal of any democratic system must NOT be to make law the highest value, but rather make FAIR LAW the value we hold highest. The current proceedings tend to show Republicans in the light of someone who values the literal law more than they value fairness, and in the end, this can only hurt the Republican Party.

What should the Republican Party now do to restore the confidence of the vast majority of Americans who would describe themselves as middle of the road? First, abolish the independent counsel from the face of the Earth and pray that we never think of providing this unnatural, unconstitutional dagger in the heart of the balance of power between branches of government. The Senate must approve the attorney general and so the Senate shouldn't approve anyone that they don't trust. Janet Reno is about as apolitical as any person in Washington, and she can be trusted to uphold the laws of our land, without need of any independent counsel. The independent counsel was created from the fears of Watergate, but those fears were unfounded since the system obviously worked fine before the independent counsel. The people in Washington should strive to treat each other as caring human beings that may disagree instead of treating each other as animals without respect for the differences that make our country great. We need differences between us and we should learn not to hate those who are different.

Second, Republicans should become more conservative and less Republican. The truth should be more important than party line. The impeachment process should be terminated, because I don't see any way that the Republicans can come out ahead in this matter. They will be perceived as the "bad" guys because the public views them as hypocritical because "we all know that all politicians lie." The public really doesn't see Bill Clinton as different from most other politicians, except Bill Clinton was unlucky enough to have a hound dog named Ken Star after him. Also, if Clinton is impeached, but found "not guilty" in the Senate, then precedence will then have to say that his actions were not up to the level of impeachment, and thus must be OK. In addition, history views the impeachment of President Johnson as the act of political enemies and it's hard to imagine that history will view this situation as any different.

Third, the Republicans should work with the President to accomplish goals of both parties. Bill Clinton is going to be there, so it would be best for everyone involved if we work together as a country to try to keep our economy moving and to help solve the many problems that still face humanity and Americans. America doesn't "have it made." We must keep working and learning and doing our best if we are to continue to lead the world and retain our position of prosperity and promise. Our position as world leader is not assured or written "in stone" somewhere. We must continually earn our right to lead the world and how can we do that when we plaster the airwaves with the private sexual life of our President.

Fourth, pass a law that requires everyone involved with politics to speak only of ideas and never of people. I guess this law doesn't have much chance of passing in the current climate, but we must return civility to the government. In my opinion and in the opinion of most of the people of this land, the only crime that Bill Clinton has committed is against his wife. She and Bill and God must work out the punishment for this "crime." No one else has any say in this matter. Paula Jones has settled with the President and the rule of fair law has been preserved in this adversarial system that we so cherish. Those that would pursue the President are thus viewed as voyeurs, peaking through the curtains into the presidential bedroom. Please don't leave this as your legacy.

In many ways, Rush Limbaugh has been the leader in questioning the morality of the president. I respect Rush as much as any human on the planet and when he talks of ideas, I think he is as good as any spokesman our country has ever seen. On more than one occasion, I have been drawn to tears of emotion by his words as he describes some of the pure conservative values. But the one place that I would fault Rush is in his supposed ability to read the mind of the President. Rush tends to slip from ideas to gossip, which is what talking about others actually represents. He is often able to take a set of sequences and then define a motive that led the president to this action. Man is the pattern seeking animal and just because someone sees what he or she views as a pattern doesn't make it real. Since our upbringings and backgrounds can and should be very different, it will always be impossible for everyone to actually understand everyone else. Rush judges President Clinton by the experiences of Rush. He can never actually be in the Presidents mind and he can't know for sure what anyone is thinking and why he or she is thinking it.

So I believe that this process of imparting intentions to observed actions is a very dangerous course for us to follow. Apparently, this process has spilled over into the impeachment hearings since Articles of Impeachment have been offered out of committee, which in effect, purport to read the President's mind and are provable only by inference and not evidence. This sets a grave precedence not only to the freedom of the President himself, but also to the freedom of anyone who is different from those in power. Those in power should always recognize that they have the responsibility of preserving the diversity of opinions and they should realize that our country is stronger by that diversity.

In closing, I am scared stiff by the actions of the Republican majority and I will have to think long and hard before I vote for another Republican. I wish there were more conservative candidates who are open-minded and don't require everyone else to believe like them. Being a conservative is not about being stoic in one's opinions, but caring about the individual liberties that I, for one, have given much to protect. Please consider my plea and vote against any articles of impeachment against this legally elected President.