FREEDOM: What we are really losing?

Two blogs ago, I told you that the next series of blogs would be about the freedoms that we are losing. Chances are, you thought I would be talking about our freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and second amendment rights. While those freedoms are at stake, and while we must fight to secure our bill of rights, there is a much deeper, underlying set of freedoms as risk. While we focus our attention on the noticeable freedoms being challenged, our very right to life, our very core as Americans, is systematically being pulled out from under us. It is the loss of these underlying freedoms that ultimately will make us slaves to our government and destroy our Republic.

For instance, taking last week’s blog, if we lose our ability to elect people who will represent us then naturally we will lose the freedoms guaranteed to us by the Constitution. However, if we can retain or, as the case may be, regain the freedom to choose elected officials that will represent us, then naturally all of our other freedoms will be safe. The time for settling for the least of two evils is over. We must demand that good, honest, and ethical people who understand our rights and the importance of the Constitution be put into office. If we truly believe that each election is simply about choosing the best bad candidate, then all is lost. Our Republic was not built on politics; it was built on honest, everyday people stepping up to do their part. It is not too late, but we must act now.

The freedom that I want to talk about today is our freedom to live life unabated by undue burdens. Granted, this freedom is not directly guaranteed by the Constitution, but we are guaranteed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and we are guaranteed an unobtrusive federal government with very little power over the daily lives of the American People. Today, we cannot even purchase a box of cereal without a federally mandated nutritional label on the packaging. Whether we realize or not, everything that we do is directly regulated by the federal government. We cannot fly from LA to San Francisco without taking off our shoes, belts, sweaters, coats, opening our laptop bags, removing our watches and wallets, loose change, and submitting to random searches of our person and belongings. Notice that I picked two cities within the same state. Constitutionally, the Federal Government has no jurisdiction within the state of California to regulate intercity travel. Our freedom to simply live our lives is at stake, perhaps it is already lost (though, it is not too late to take it back). Now, every time we turn on the news or download our email, we are reminded of more government intervention, from healthcare, to gun control, to our ability to choose what and who we listen to on the radio and TV. Of course, all of these government regulations are for our “safety” or to insure “fairness”. But, what really is at stake is our ability to be free from undue burdens; each new safety regulation makes it just that much harder for us to simply exist in peace. Sure, most regulations are small, almost unnoticeable, but that is by design. No, this is not by some great big conspiracy, but well-meaning people in power do not understand that their “protection” of us interferes with the very core of what makes us America. They wrongly think that just a small regulation won’t really negatively affect us and besides it will just make the people that much safer. I, for one, am not afraid of calories in my cereal, but I tremble before a government that thinks it is their duty to protect me from said calories.
It is not so much the fact that our cereal manufacturers have to post the information; the real issue is why the government thinks that its responsibility is to force the cereal companies in a free country, in the United States of America, to label the packaging in certain ways. The real issue is that if our government thinks that it must get involved in such a minuscule, unimportant issue such as our morning cereal choices, what do they think about the real issues such as our businesses, our local government, our banks, our healthcare, and our children’s education? We are just beginning to see the real plans that Government has for these major issues. If we allowed them to get involved in our breakfast, why are we now so surprised that they want to get involved in the rest of our lives?

We have willingly given up all of our little freedoms that we did not think were important, but the precedent that it set was to tell the government that we did not mind their interference, that we would not fight for our freedoms. Well, now that all of the little minuscule issues are under the government’s control, they are coming for the rest of our lives. Will we hand the major issues over as easily as we handed off the “littler” issues? Well, I suppose you have the freedom to choose, whether you will stand or not, but take heed, for if you choose not to stand soon, you will not have a choice on anything.

FREEDOM: WHAT IS AT STAKE

Today everyone most likely knows someone yelling about how America is going down the drain and how we are all going to end up as slaves to the government. There are so many issues out there and it is confusing to figure out exactly what it all means for me as an individual. There are people angry about government healthcare, higher taxes, bank bailouts, gun control laws, federal takeovers of the auto industry, public schools, foreign wars, the failing American dollar, H1N1 virus conspiracies, and the list can go on. If you are like me, you end up getting overwhelmed and start ignoring everything just to keep your sanity. We end up telling ourselves that, although these issues may be important, “they don’t affect me personally and there is nothing I can do about it anyway”.

As you may know by now, this blog is not about dotting lines between special interest groups, corporations, and government officials to create conspiracies. This blog is not about issues. This blog is about us, Americans, our livelihood, our faith, and our ability to maintain our way of life. There are plenty of other sites that will tell you why you should fear the government; read them if you want. This blog represents the bigger picture. Thus, before I can talk about what is at stake, you must understand why it is even in danger. We get bogged down by the multitude of issues surrounding us and it becomes difficult to recognize the real problem. Let’s strip away the issues for just a moment. If we take away all the debates and all the new government programs, we are simply left with people. Herein lays the real issue: I am surrounded every day by individuals yelling at the people in charge of our government. Then, when the government does not accept our directions, we yell louder. We all run around seeing issues everywhere that we must fight off, but below the issues are people, people driving the issues through our lives and into our homes. We must start ignoring the issues and look at the bigger picture. Who is running our government? Do we agree with them? Are they working for us? Has public service begun to mean that the public serves them? If we don’t like the issues coming out of our government, then is it not reasonable to think that it is because of the people within our government? Your congressmen would like you to think that they are fighting for you on the issues that matter, but your congressmen are the government. They make the issues; they direct the course that America is on. We chase after the issues like a dog after a bone, and yes, the government threw the bone. In truth, as Americans we will never agree on all the issues and we end up dividing ourselves because of issues, oddly enough. However, everyone I have talked to from all different walks of life agrees that congress is not representing the people, nor are they following the Constitution. In reality, no amount of issue fighting, protesting, letter writing, or yelling will change that. But the solution is very easy. Vote for different people. Vote for fresh faces. Vote not on issues, but by the integrity of the person running. Let us stop chasing after irrelevant issues and instead turn our attention directly to the source, the people running the government.

Let’s stand up and take back our government by telling our elected officials that they are fired. This is still our right, but this right is at stake. We have begun to believe that the government is too powerful for the people to change it, yet every 2 years the House of Representatives has to be reelected. Every 4 years the Senate must be reelected. We the people have just forgotten what Election Day means. It does not mean that we choose the least of two evils; it means that we protect our right to choose our representatives by voting for people willing to follow the Constitution or we run ourselves. Election Day is not a ritual or a privilege to take for granted it: is our duty. We are losing our right to elect those that we want to see in office, not because of any government conspiracy, but because everyday Americans won’t run for office. We leave the “dirty work” to the very people we say we don’t trust. Perhaps it is time that the everyday American gets their hands dirty. In the end, our freedom to choose good, honest representatives is at stake, merely because the good and honest people (that’s you and me) refuse to stand up. Our inability to govern ourselves has put our country, our faith, and our very lifestyle in grave danger. There is a lot more at stake, a lot more to be lost if We the People do not awaken to the fact that we must take control of our own lives by taking back control of our own government.

Lost Heart

In ancient times, invading armies would win wars by surrounding a walled city and trapping the people in their own homes, cutting them off from supplies, water, reinforcements, and safety. The invading army, however, could hold out as long as the needed, easily resupplying and reinforcing their own forces. Eventually, the besieged town would have to make a decision. Though starving and outnumbered, they could make a futile attempt to fight off the invaders or they could lose heart and simply surrender their town, praying for mercy. A well-fortified town could be protected on the inside by a force 1/10 the size of the invading army, but on the other side of the wall, a well-supplied army could simply wait for the town to starve or to bring their smaller forces, in desperation, to an open battle where the larger army would have the advantage. In most cases, a besieged town's only hope was to have gotten out messengers before the town was surrounded. If the messengers could just reach their allies, there could be a victory for the town. This, of course, meant that the towns’ people would have had to see the advancing army well in advance. They would need to have been watching the horizon for distant threats and, once a threat was seen, they would have to take quick and decisive action to save their town.

Today, American Freedom has been besieged. The enemy has completely surrounded it. Because of the Constitution, it is well fortified but it is ill-supplied and desperately under forced. Freedom is strong and it will not back down but the problem is that its allies have lost heart. Freedom sent its messengers but we are too busy to come to its rescue. It would take too much for us to stop our lives a few hours a week to protect Freedom. Perhaps we believe that Freedom is old and antiquated or that if we simply ignore Freedom's call for help, once it is destroyed the enemy will not come after us.

I personally think that Freedom has simply been too easy for our generation. We have not yet had to sacrifice for it, we do not understand life without it, and thus, we cannot comprehend its true importance. We have also become a selfish people. We pass by broken down cars, because we are late for our own meetings. We look the other way when our neighbors need a helping hand, because we have to mow our own lawn. We now ignore the value of life, closing our eyes to everyone but ourselves. Why would we protect Freedom? Why should we? What has it done for us recently?

Where are the good men and women of this country? They are too busy. They don’t want to get involved. They think someone else will take the fight. They think that the threat does not really exist. The battle to protect Freedom will be lost, not because we are lazy or inadequate or unprepared. The battle will be lost simply because no one showed up, because it is easier to believe that the threat does not really exist. It is easier to say that “politics” are just for politicians. It is easier to say that we don’t pick sides. Are we just complacent? I really don’t think so. We simply do not know what is at risk.

The next few posts will help you understand what is at risk. Read them slowly, let the reality sink in, and once you fully understand what we all could lose, I believe that you, as an American will step up to the challenge.