Published on July 1, 2009
In late June and early July 1776, after days of debating and arguing, the members of the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, a masterful work and, in the view of the British Crown, a work of treason. The document they signed began:
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
These words are very important. The Founders and the colonies were breaking with mother England over issues of freedom, private property rights, representation, and unjust laws.
Many, sadly, have forgotten all of this. History is not properly taught, and I do see nefarious reasons for that. But there are reasons to not lose hope for the future.
Today, 233 years later, we see that many of the individual States have not forgotten this part of our history. They understand the motivation behind it quite well as they are getting fed up with overbearing Federal power. Several states are pushing Ten Amendment legislation to reassert the rights of the state in the face of an ever growing if not menacing Federal government usurping power over the states and the people. For example, the state of Montana has actually thrown down the gauntlet on the gun rights issue. They are telling the Federal government they have no power to regulate guns made in Montana (except machine guns and firearms over .50 caliber) for sale only to the people of that state. They have even threatened that they will arrest any BATFE agent trying to enforce Federal law respecting guns made in Montana. Other states are considering similar legislation. One is astonished that things have gotten this far out of hand, that it has come to this. It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out. But we must consider how we got here.
Over the decades since the Great Depression and World War II, the Federal Government has indeed grown beyond anything the Founders would have considered acceptable. The laws passed by the Congress are frequently onerous. Worse yet are all the Federal agencies that have been created which have been granted the power to set their own regulations (de facto laws) that we must live under. This is clearly unconstitutional and something our colonial ancestors would have rebelled over. Sadly, the American people over these past seventy years have been the proverbial frog in the slowly simmering pot, not realizing their freedoms were being boiled away.
The declaration goes on to say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Rights are evaporating rapidly. They are being replaced by state issued privileges that are often taxed (they will call it a fee) and or frequently yanked from you on a whim of some bureaucrat. Sadly, men are no longer equal. With affirmative action we have preferred treatment for minorities and merit is no longer the sole consideration for advancement. With the appointment of people like Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court, I see no end to this travesty.
Life is about to be heavily controlled. If the Liberals get their way and pass socialized medicine in this country (they call it “single payer”) then be assured your life will not be your own. They will be able to tell you what you can eat, drink, how you must exercise, etc… Every aspect of what you do to your body, they can control. After all, they will be footing your medical bill so they will control your life. If you disobey them, they can deny you coverage, and you can count on the fact medicine will be rationed in proportion to your value to the state. As you grow older and your tax paying years either diminish or are at end due to retirement, you will be at the end of the list. It will be your patriotic duty to die.
Liberty has been at an end for some time. Ever since the Federal taxation level got to the point that they are taking the first five months of what you make to pay for all their phony baloney spending, your freedom has ended.
Now I understand the government must have revenue to operate but one must keep in mind that Ben Franklin once said “It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part” How many of us would jump at only having to pay ten percent. But that is only income tax. Think on all the other ways they reach in our pockets.
Truth is we have a benign slavery in this country. They will take what you have if you do not comply. Liberty and true private property rights are at an end. Doubt me? Think on this. You do not own your own home. Really. The property tax you pay is a form of rent to government. If your home is worth $300,000 and you are $1500 behind on your property taxes, the state will foreclose on you. They will take your home, sell it to pay the taxes, and they will keep all the money. You will not get the addition $298,500 they got… It was never really yours, you see.
Liberty also includes the freedom to express oneself. This is also coming to an end. Thanks to political correctness and speech codes, grade schools, colleges and universities are no longer places of the free exchange of ideas. There is learning, but only of the approved course of indoctrination. Woe be to the souls who don’t toe the line. Look at all the attempts to silence conservative talk radio. Never mind that Rush Limbaugh , Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Neal Boortz are successful in market place and there is demand for their services. That is not the standard the liberals want. Liberal talk shows don’t fare well, so rather than compete, they wish to silence these voices of sanity in a nation now drowning in Marxist pablum. Freedom of speech and expression are endangered and we must do what we can to protect it.
The liberty to protect ourselves is also under fire. Make no mistake, there is a desire by those holding power to take our firearms. We are not trusted by the Nanny State to have arms. They are ever mindful of this line in the declaration: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…”
Those who want power have always worried about an armed population and their ability to resist their aspiration of power. The Obama administration has made very clear they are contemptuous of We the People owning firearms. The lies of the Obama administration about ninety percent of crime guns in Mexico coming from the US (when it was only seventeen percent) was so blatant that clearly an agenda to ban and restrict was pushing it. Be ever vigilant of protecting your right to bear arms as the founders recognized your right to guns, not for hunting, but as a check on tyranny.
Liberty. The word is sweet and it should be oh so important to us. How far we have let it slip our grasp. As Obama and his liberal minions take over various business interests and appoint a pay Czar to consider how we are compensated, we must wake to what is happening. We are rapidly becoming what the Soviet Union was. We are simply in the phase of what Lenin called his NEP (New Economic Plan) where some capitalism was tolerated but to be eventually wiped out.
The pursuit of happiness: Under Obama this is rapidly coming to an end. The state is now telling us what we can do and how we can do it. It is all very distressing and that so many just accept this is puzzling. Our ancestors would be turning in their graves if they knew what was happening today.
My friends, this summer I want to challenge you to take a proactive part in taking our country back. I want to you to read and get inspired. In your leisure hours, I suggest you pick up a book. First I strongly suggest you get a copy of Mark Levin’s wonderful treatise “Liberty and Tyranny”. It is a relatively short book of 205 pages, but it is all pure gold. I also suggest you pick up a fifty year old classic, Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”. It is rather stunning that the late Ms Rand so clearly predicted where we would be today. The book is long but well worth the time invested to digest it. I believe you will be enlightened at the end of this literary adventure.
The last thing I want to leave you with this month is a request that you talk to your children about our country and what it was intended to be. Expose them to our history from those harrowing days of our Revolution, the risks taken so we could be free. Our children are our future and if we don’t get them on the right track of thinking they might well fall right in and follow the sheep who sadly yanked the lever for Marxism last year. If your children are small I have something that will appeal. Children love cartoons and this one done many years ago gets the message across in such a way that children will understand it. I only wish the young people who voted last year out of ignorance had seen it. (Click here to watch this video)
I want to wish you a happy and safe Fourth of July, and I hope you will take the time to read the document below. Say a prayer of thanks for the brave men who signed it and those who fought in that conflict to give us the nation we have today. Let us honor their memory by taking our country back in the coming elections.
(To read the full Declaration of Independence, click here)