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.