Why I Fight

I've been thinking about a way to express just how important the current fight is and how absolutely crucial it is for us to stand up against further government inrusion into our lives, but I struggled to express it adequately.  Then I found the perfect expression of it as written by the Second Continental Congress.

"We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery.  Honor, justice and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us.  We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them."

Are we not entailing hereditary bondage upon our children and successive generations by allowing the continued and ever growing intrusions into our lives and against our liberties?  How much money do they already owe for the reckless spending of the last decade?  This is exactly why I fight and why I will continue to fight until our liberties are restored or I am silenced by God.

Anti-Federalism as American as Apple Pie

The idea of the Constitution was not universallly loved by all colonists.  Indeed, many expressed a fear that the proposed federal government would take over all the powers of the state and were a recipe for tyranny.  Although it didn't happen immediately, their concerns appear to have been validated in the last century or so.  Those silly anti-federalists.

In the very first Letter From A Federal Farmer we see how the objections then, mirror the objections to the form our government has taken now.

"They will urge a thousand pretences to answer their puposes on both sides.  When we want a man to change his condition, we describe it as miserable, wretched, and despised:  and draw a pleasing picture of that which we would have him assume.  And when we wish the contrary, we reverse our descriptions.  Whenever a clamor is raised, and idle men ge to work, it is highly necessary to examine facts carefully, and without unreasonably suspecting men of falsehood, to examine, and enquire attentively, under what impressions they act.  It is too often the case in political concerns, that men state facts not as they are, but as they wish them to be; and almost every man, by calling to mind past scenes, will find this to be true."

"It is natural for men, who wish to hasten the adoption of a measure, to tell us, now is the crisis -- now is the critical moment which must be seized, or all will be lost:  and to shut the door against free enquiry, whenever conscious the thing presented has defects in it, which time and investigation will probably discover.  This has been the custom of tyrants and their dependants in all ages  If it is true, what has been so often said, that the people of this country cannot change their condition for the worse, I presume it still behoves them to endeavour deliberately to change it for the better.  The fickle and ardent, in any community, are the proper tools for establishing despotic government."

The constant call that there is a crisis and that it must be done now and without debate is nothing but tyranny, and that being true, are we now a free people living in liberty, or slaves to a tyrannical regime?  I believe you know my answer to that question.

From Selfless to Selfish - An American Journey

Much has been said about the path of our country and whether or not we are headed in the right direction. I would like to share with you my perspective on the path we, as a nation, have embarked upon. To do so I must begin with the history of what we were, how many of us still are, and how we continue to view ourselves.

I have repeatedly heard it said that the USA is the most generous nation in the world. We see ourselves as a nation of generous people quick to lend a hand in times of trial or tragedy. To a certain extent this is still true, though what constitutes trial or tragedy appears to have changed from an illness or loss of job to a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

We were once a nation of self-sufficient people determined to carve out their own destiny from the hard earth beneath their feet. They faced hardships head on and accepted that life was a challenge to be risen to. We once understood that what you earned for yourself was of far more value that what was handed to you and we worked and sacrificed in order to make a better life for ourselves and our children. We were a nation of people who would go without so another could have. We would assist when someone fell on hard times. We would open our homes to family members in need of our aid and help them get back on their own feet. We understood the pride of earning what we had and would find ways to assist an individual that allowed him to keep his pride intact. Most importantly, and most definitively we would sacrifice our own lives in order to save the life of another. This is who we were.

Although we would still like to view ourselves in that soft light, that is no longer who we are. So what have we become instead? We are now a nation of people willing to delegate our responsibilities to another to uphold. We cry for our fellow man to bail us out of situations we created for ourselves. We sacrifice our children's future for a more comfortable present for ourselves. We spend money we don't have on things we don't need and wonder why there's not money for what we truly require. We believe our government when it tells us we are owed something and we expect somebody else to pay for it. We embrace new social programs but we cry out in anger when we are expected to foot the bill. We tell our officials and ourselves that we should not be responsible, that the man next door is more able to afford it so he should be the one to pay. Instead of sacrificing ourselves for others, we now sacrifice others for ourselves. Instead of liberating the oppressed as we have always done, we now trade our own liberty for a creature comfort we are more than capable of earning for ourselves with the hard work and perseverance that served us so well in the past. We expect things to be fast and easy and throw in the towel when they turn out to be long and difficult tasks. Life is no longer a challenge to be risen to, but a reason to protest. Instead of sacrificing so our children are cared for, we sacrifice our children on the altar of our own convenience and comfort.

We are steadily moving down the path from being the most generous nation in the world to being the most selfish and this quite literally breaks my heart. I love this nation and her people. I love the true American principle that with hard work and perseverance you can change your life and forge your own destiny. I believe in what we once were and with all my heart and soul I want to see us turn back on our current path and return to the selfless generosity we once possessed. I believe that the USA is still the shining city upon a hill, the beacon of hope and liberty to the world, but there are those among us who wish to douse that flame of hope and liberty. They wish us to follow instead of lead and they wish us to sacrifice our liberty for new government programs. They wish us to abdicate our American right and privilege of self-government so that we can be taken care of. A concept that would have filled the people we once were with outrage and disgust.

I pray with every fiber of my being that we, as a nation, remember who we were meant to be. That we are designed to be a nation who takes care of ourselves and neither needs nor seeks to have a keeper in our state or federal governments. We are a free people and we do still control our own destinies if only we would remember to do so.

May that beacon of hope forever shine in the glorious city upon a hill.

Is It Better To Have High Standards, Or None At All

Which is better for a person, to set high standards for themselves and fall short of meeting them, or to have low standards and just make them? To me the answer would be obvious. Shouldn't we strive to be the very best that we can be? Set the bar high and always strive to achieve it, but at the same time knowing that we may not always attain that level?

When it comes to politics we know the answer too. In politics, it is best to set a low standard and do enough to get by. Should you set a high standard for yourself and others, always striving for us to be our best, and then you stumble, the airwaves will resound with the gleeful laughs of those willing to point out your mistake. You'll have 24 hr a day coverage of any mistake that you make and it will be used to define you for the rest of your life.

However, if you have a low standard, and there are no expectations that you will be anything but self-serving and corrupt, well then nothing can touch you. You cheat on your taxes and get appointed to the cabinet. You may even get to investigate and potentially arrest others for doing what you got away with scot free. You can funnel millions of dollars in tax payer money to an airport whose only passengers are you and your entourage, and nobody bats an eye. You can tell bold faces lies to the American people, but it's only what they expect.

Is this where we're at? That in the political arena you are better able to hold your office by setting LOW expectations.

The worst part of this is that this same philosophy is being applied to our liberties. We once were a nation that expected much in the way of our freedoms and our liberties. We set the standard and sought to hold to that standard ourselves and encourage others to reach for it. But now..... well where do you think our standards for personal liberties are?

On our Independence Day, of all days, we should be thinking of where the bar of liberty is set, and if it needs to be raised once more. Because think about this, what if they are working so hard to lower the bar so we won't mind so much when they remove it altogether

We've Got Them Running Scared

It is becoming clear that Obama is finally beginning to hear the people, and we've got him on the run. Think about his speech on Gitmo. Where did he hold it? He placed himself in the national archives with the Declaration of Independence behind him. He constantly spoke about the constitution and the principles on which we were founded. He's finally realizing that the American people do actually care about our Constitution, and as a result he's trying to make us believe he cares about it to.

The fact that Obama is draping himself in the Constitution at the same time he's shredding it, is actually a pretty good sign. He's learning that he has to at least pretend to want to follow the Constitution or he'll lose his oh so special approval rating. But what he doesn't yet understand is that we're looking for, no wait, we're demanding that he does more than pretend. It's not enough to say the constitution is more than words on old parchment. It's not enough to say you studied it. It's not enough to say you love it. You have to actually FOLLOW it.

The majority of people in this country are crying out for a leader who is a Constitutionalist. Somebody who really believes in the principles and guidelines laid down in that document, and is willing to speak out in it's defense. A leader who will be strong enough to decrease the power of government instead of greedily seeking to expand their own. A leader who understands that our freedoms are not granted by our government but by our God.

Thomas Jefferson said that when a people fear their government, that's tyranny. But when a government fears the people, that's liberty. Obama is doing his best to evince a design to reduce us under absolute despotism, but we refuse to be afraid.

We're on our way to regaining some lost liberty. We've gotten them a little bit scared. But a little bit isn't enough for me. When it comes to this situation I have a touch of Verruca Salt in me. I want it and I want it now. It is time to really put the fear of the people into the so called leaders of this country. We need to have them shaking in their individual and collective boots. To put it bluntly, 'cuz that's what I do best, we need to scare the bloody damn bejeezus out of them.

Let Freedom Ring!