In Your Dreams

   "It's highly inappropriate to question a general," said the White House shill to a room full of journalists.
   It's Sarah Huckabee Sanders' job as White House spokesperson to recite and expand on the president's opinions and positions at the daily briefing to reporters who cover the news in Washington.
   But really. Is that what the president really thinks, that Americans cannot or should not question or disagree with government officials?
   It may be true that enlisted military personnel may not question a lawful order of an officer, but John Kelly is no longer an active duty four-star Marine Corps general. He is now chief of staff to the president, a civilian position.
   And it is the responsibility -- the duty -- of journalists to ask questions of those in charge of actions taken by and on behalf of the government, whether they be military officers or government officials.
   Background: Kelly defended the president's criticism of a congresswoman who challenged the president's remarks to the widow of a soldier killed in action by saying the congresswoman should not have listened in on the supposedly private telephone conversation. But the congresswoman is a family friend of long standing, and was in the car with other family members on the way to meet the casket at Dover Air Force Base. And it turns out that Kelly, the retired general and current chief of staff, was in the same room with the president, also listening to the conversation.
   So if the congresswoman and family friend should not have listened, then neither should Kelly.
   Journalists are civilians, not military, and they have a constitutionally protected right to ask any question of anyone at any time. In fact, that right extends to every American citizen. (They may not get an answer, but they certainly can ask a question.)
   It's called the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ratified by a three-quarters majority of the states within a few months after the Constitution itself was written in 1789.
   By extension, if the president believes people may not question a general simply because he is a general, then that same belief would extend to the commander in chief of the military, who also happens to be president and chief executive of the United States.
   So we must not question the president because he is the president?
   In your dreams, pal.
   
   Taken one small  step further, that means we may not criticize a president. But isn't that what the current occupant of the Oval Office did to his predecessors? And still does, nearly every day?
   Journalists are citizens first, last and always. They have the same rights as every other citizen. By virtue of their chosen profession, they represent other citizens by taking on the job of gathering important information and disseminating it to the public.
   Journalists have no special rights and privileges than any other citizen, but they have no fewer privileges and no less a right to question those in political, military or civilian office than any other citizen.
   Their job is to speak truth to power and to challenge those who overstep the bounds of their authority, whether elected or appointed.
   And to those who have dreams of power not provided by the electorate or the Constitution, it's time to wake up from that dream and remember that a watchful free press is on duty to remind you that your pretense to autocracy is only a dream.