The Fourth of July
Today is the fourth of July. Two hundred and forty years ago today a group of
merchants and farmers decided that working within the system of the most powerful
nation of earth to secure their basic rights was no longer working. Their reasons can be
stated no more eloquently than in Thomas Jefferson’s text;
“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 —That to secure these rights Governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of
the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government........”
“....when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such government and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
I encourage you to read the entire Declaration of Independence today, aloud, among
your family and friends. Pay attention to the words, think about the ideals, consider their
list of reasons and then think about where we are today.
Has our government refused to pass or enforce laws necessary for the public good?
Has our government erected a multitude of new offices and sent swarms of bureaucrats
to harass us and eat out of our sustenance?
Has our government sought to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution?
Has our government protected its own from punishment for any wrongdoing?
Has our government deprived us of our liberty or property without jury trial?
Has our government taken away our charters and fundamentally altered our form of
government?
Has our government plundered our wealth and destroyed the lives of our fellow
citizens?
Has our government excited domestic insurrections among us?
The answer to every one of these questions is yes, without question, and the list of abuses
is much, much longer.
But what really matters is this. By the time we reach the Declaration’s two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary, will the list have grown? Will we be subject to an absolute
tyranny? Will the fundamental ideals our great nation was founded upon be irrelevant
within it? The answers to these questions are up to us, you and me, “We the People.”
This will be the first in a series I will ambitiously title “How to save America”. I will
warn you now, however, this has nothing to do with working within the system, I’ve tried,
you’ve tried and it doesn’t work. Every small success has merely been a speed bump on
the road to tyranny. Our forefathers found their efforts similarly ineffective. My
prescription will require real courage and sacrifice, it will require you to think and act
differently and take risks you may have never dreamed of. Our forefathers pledged their
Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor to the task, believing that liberty was worth the greatest
of sacrifices and servitude was worse than death. Radicals and revolutionaries they were
and only by embracing and emulating their commitment will we do justice to their sacrifice
and the sacrifice of all who came after. It is our right and it is our duty to secure liberty
for ourselves and our posterity.
Our government has become destructive to our rights and liberties and is close to
reducing us to serfs under an absolute despotism. We are under no moral or legal
obligation to consent to such a form of government. It is time we withdrawal our consent.
What that means and how that is done will be the subject of the rest of this series.
Until then may God be with us and may we always act with honor and justice.
merchants and farmers decided that working within the system of the most powerful
nation of earth to secure their basic rights was no longer working. Their reasons can be
stated no more eloquently than in Thomas Jefferson’s text;
“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 —That to secure these rights Governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the Right of
the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government........”
“....when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object
evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty,
to throw off such government and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
I encourage you to read the entire Declaration of Independence today, aloud, among
your family and friends. Pay attention to the words, think about the ideals, consider their
list of reasons and then think about where we are today.
Has our government refused to pass or enforce laws necessary for the public good?
Has our government erected a multitude of new offices and sent swarms of bureaucrats
to harass us and eat out of our sustenance?
Has our government sought to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution?
Has our government protected its own from punishment for any wrongdoing?
Has our government deprived us of our liberty or property without jury trial?
Has our government taken away our charters and fundamentally altered our form of
government?
Has our government plundered our wealth and destroyed the lives of our fellow
citizens?
Has our government excited domestic insurrections among us?
The answer to every one of these questions is yes, without question, and the list of abuses
is much, much longer.
But what really matters is this. By the time we reach the Declaration’s two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary, will the list have grown? Will we be subject to an absolute
tyranny? Will the fundamental ideals our great nation was founded upon be irrelevant
within it? The answers to these questions are up to us, you and me, “We the People.”
This will be the first in a series I will ambitiously title “How to save America”. I will
warn you now, however, this has nothing to do with working within the system, I’ve tried,
you’ve tried and it doesn’t work. Every small success has merely been a speed bump on
the road to tyranny. Our forefathers found their efforts similarly ineffective. My
prescription will require real courage and sacrifice, it will require you to think and act
differently and take risks you may have never dreamed of. Our forefathers pledged their
Lives, Fortunes and sacred Honor to the task, believing that liberty was worth the greatest
of sacrifices and servitude was worse than death. Radicals and revolutionaries they were
and only by embracing and emulating their commitment will we do justice to their sacrifice
and the sacrifice of all who came after. It is our right and it is our duty to secure liberty
for ourselves and our posterity.
Our government has become destructive to our rights and liberties and is close to
reducing us to serfs under an absolute despotism. We are under no moral or legal
obligation to consent to such a form of government. It is time we withdrawal our consent.
What that means and how that is done will be the subject of the rest of this series.
Until then may God be with us and may we always act with honor and justice.
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