Freedom, Founders, & William Wallace

The events of the past week (especially Minnesota getting a bunch of new taxes) have been stirring up some things in me that have been brewing for quite some time, and I believe I’m reaching a boiling point.

I was raised in a way that seems very foreign these days. I was taught that our founding fathers were wise, and that what they put into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were at the absolute foundation of everything our country should be. I was raised to believe in true freedom and to cherish and protect it. I was raised to believe what a wise man once said when he stated, “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. But when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

A few weeks ago I sat down and for no real reason I re-read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution-I can’t remember how many times I’ve read them both over and over since then. I’ve been particularly intrigued by the Declaration of Independence and how it seems so very applicable today.

One particular passage of the Declaration keeps going over and over in my mind though. In the middle of paragraph four it says, “…and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that man-kind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms [of government] to which they are accustomed.”

I have to ask myself, “How much will we suffer before we take drastic action to make things right? And will we wait so long that we miss every opportunity to make things right?”

Most people have heard the analogy of the frog and the pot of water. If you boil the water and then throw the frog in, it will jump out because it feels the pain of being boiled. Yet if you put the frog in a pot of cold water and slowly turn up the heat, it will boil to death because it gets accustomed to the rising temperatures.

We, the American people, have been sitting in the pot of water for a long time now and the heat has been constantly increasing and I wonder how much longer we have left.

Where is the line in the sand that will cause us to revolt when it is crossed? Does it even exist? Is there anything that will make people wake up and realize that the freedoms that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence talk about are being infringed upon and destroyed DAILY by those very people we elect to supposedly protect them?

I was watching the movie Braveheart tonight and it seemed that there was revelation of a Biblical scale intertwined within that story. An oppressed people ruled by an unjust king who used corrupted nobles as his minions in order to keep the populace enslaved. A group of people who got fed up with the injustices of it all and who fought back, even though they were outnumbered.

Before the battle of Stirling, there is an exchange between William Wallace and one of the Scottish militia soldiers which I think every American should hear and memorize until they can recite it as flawlessly as the Pledge of Allegience.

Wallace: “What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?”

Soldier: “Fight? Against that? No, we will run and we will live.”

Wallace: “Aye. Fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live…at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, JUST ONE CHANCE to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they’ll never take OUR FREEDOM!”

Feedom is at the core of almost everything that’s going on in our nation’s politics today. Taxes are a matter for freedom; whether or not a citizen has the right to keep what they earn. Budgets are a matter of freedom; whether or not the people have the right to expect their government to only extend itself beyond its’ Constitutional obligations if the country has the ability to do it without going into debt or overburdening its’ citizenry. Foreign relations are a matter of freedom; whether or not Americans are ruled by leaders of other countries who they don’t get to elect. Political parties are a matter of freedom; whether citizens are offered qualified candidates who are loyal to the Constitution and their constituents, or loyal to a corrupted political machine whose main objective is self-sustainment. Public education is a matter of freedom; do people have the right to expect their children to get a good education without having to send them to political conditioning classes. The war on terror is a matter of freedom; how far will we go and what end justifies the means of fighting a war that we can never truly win because there will always be, as there have always been, people wishing to do us harm. Illegal immigration is a matter of freedom; do those who are already citizens of this country have the right to expect to not have their lives infringed upon and brought down by people here illegally, or is the American dream so all encompassing that everyone should be allowed to come here and partake?

The list could go on and on, but at the center of every topic is freedom.

It seems that in this age of well-conditioned global-thinkers no one seems to remember one little truth that everyone used to know; freedom is everyone’s responsibility.

Freedom isn’t free. It’s not just a catchy bumper sticker, it’s a fact. The freedoms that have been enjoyed by Americans for centuries and envied by others for generations were paid for in blood, sweat, and tears by men and women who pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the fight for freedom.

It is NOT solely the responsibility of the government to defend freedom and to guard against tyranny and oppression. It is the DUTY of every man, woman, and child who calls themselves a citizen of this country to defend it. They are obligated to defend it from terrorism, from criminals, and if need be even from an intrusive government who has strayed beyond its’ Constitutional playpen.

Like it or not, there is a war being waged at this very moment. Not only in the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iraq. There is a war being fought in every city, in every school, in every capitol, and on every TV and radio in America. It is a war against freedom being waged by people of corrupt morals, corrupt minds, or both. People who will never be content until they have power over others. People who have been practicing for years to become so convincing that we will give up without a fight (and perhaps even thank them for their work).

Until we win this war and until there is once again true freedom in America for its’ citizens, and until the government has returned to its’ correct Constitutional balance, I think no idea should be off the table (except perhaps surrender) and no course of action, no matter how unorthodox, should be overlooked.

It has been said that money is power. If that’s true, then we need to make that a key priority. We need to hit those in power in the wallet, which means we need to reduce how much money they get.

I believe that the best way to do that is to find a way to pass federal legislation making it illegal for any government agency or subsidiary, whether federal or state, to mandate that taxes be taken from payrolls. Every citizen should be allowed to cash their checks and receive every dollar that they earned and THEN have to actually write out a check to pay for their taxes.

I’m convinced that there is a psychological difference between seeing a paystub once or twice and glancing at the amount of taxes you pay, and getting a whole paycheck and then having to write a personal check to the IRS, Department of Revenue, Social Security, and Medicare. I think it might be enough to even make some hardcore lefties demand lower taxes and more fiscal responsibility.

People may say that it will never work because it will be too hard to get everyone to do it and too hard for the IRS to monitor everyone to make sure they pay up. But shouldn’t that be the point? Shouldn’t we make it as hard as humanly possible for the government to take even a single dollar? The government does not have any right to TAKE our property, including our income. Even more so when the government is spending that money on things that they aren’t Constitutionally obligated to do (i.e. Social Security, welfare, healthcare, etc.).

Do I actually think this is going to happen? No. In all honesty I think that the only thing that will bring America back to its’ Constitutional roots is a real, physical fight. I think that those in power are so intertwined in things and are so dead-set on staying in power that only an armed overthrow will set things right. Who knows? Perhaps the Founders knew this day would come and that’s why they put the 2nd Amendment in the Constitution.

But we Americans have too much to lose (or so we’re told). We can’t stand up to the government, we have obligations and responsibilities. We have a mortgage and credit card bills to pay for. We have a job we need to keep. We have families that we need to come home to. We have way too much to risk losing it all in some doomed rebellion to try and make our country great and free again.

Let me ask you this family man/woman; Are you really protecting your family if you willingly sit by while your government takes away your freedom and turns you and your children and your grandchildren into slaves? Are you really doing “all you can” if you simply participate in a political system that is as impotent to instigate true change as a castrated man is to impregnate a woman?

Am I saying that we need to go to war with the United States? No. At least not at the moment. There are other tactics that we need to use first which don’t involve depending on our Representatives and government officials to instigate this change. But we also shouldn’t throw that option out, because even the people who made this country knew that it needed to always exist as a last resort.

This may very well be the last chance we have to stand up and to save what was once the greatest nation in the world, a beacon of hope to all mankind. This isn’t something we can take lightly or sit back and ignore and hope that someone else does something about it. If America keeps proceeding down the track that it is going (and none of the current Presidential candidates will do anything to stop that) we will soon find ourselves in a hole with no way out.

The most insidious thing about the people taking away our freedoms is that they find ways to make us WANT to trade our freedom for chains. We WANT to give up some “small” civil liberties in order to feel safe. We WANT to give in to the societal conditioning and get credit cards and go into debt, because it’s the American way (the borrower is slave to the lender). We WANT (some people anyways) to give up our rights to arm ourselves and to place our safety entirely in the hands of law enforcement agencies who, by their own admission, are REACTIVE agencies who most often respond after a crime has been committed. We WANT to have our taxes stolen from us before we ever get to hold the money in our hands because it’s easier for the average Joe to have the money simply missing from his pay. We WANT the government to run our healthcare systems because they’re just so good and efficient at running everything else (just a hint of sarcasm there).

This is not freedom people. It is not what hundreds of thousands have fought and died for through the past 2 ½ centuries. Will you fight? Literally if necessary? Or will you someday be lying on your bed, willing to trade all the days between that day and now for the chance to come back and do it right?

Of all the people in the world, slaves have the best understanding of what freedom is. They understand it because it is exactly what they don’t have. I hope we don’t have to learn the value of freedom by losing it.