Independence Day: A time for choosing
This a reprise of an archived article, offered this 2010 Independence Day weekend not for the sake of expedience but because it is so much more relevant today than when first published. For Americans, there can be no more fearful fence-sitting or wishy-washy moderation -- now is truly a time for choosing.
A noted scholar in early American history, Professor Herbert Sloan of Barnard College, points out that unlike many nations, the United States does not link its origins to a grandiose military victory.
Take a moment to ponder the profundity of his statement.
Our Declaration of Independence was inspirational several years before Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered his beleaguered army at Yorktown in 1781.
It wasn't the occasional military engagement that fueled the drive for independence, but rather the fervent change in the hearts and souls of Americans to oppose tyranny and embrace liberty. This relentless hunger for Liberty was indeed our true national genesis and the unshakable bedrock upon which the American Revolution was founded.
Independence Day marks the adoption of the document that boldly proclaimed to the entire world that our fledgling dream of a nation did not commemorate war, bloodshed, and death, but instead celebrated life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Its impact on the world's established nations was astounding.
Even so, was there a singular catalyst that inflamed Americans to engage in a years-long bloody rebellion until victorious, no matter the communal cost, no matter the personal sacrifice?
Government disconnect
Most historians believe the single-most significant provocation for revolution was the Americans' deeply-felt sense of disconnect from and inconsideration by the seat of royal authority. From this well head all other grievances, economic and otherwise, arose.
Author and columnist Derek Maul opined that whether it was taxation without representation or the tendency of crown administrators to act without regard for the lives and property of the colonists, this resentment festered and spread across the land. As all now know, the gulf between the colonists and their detached, dispassionate, Imperial government became as wide, deep, and dangerous as the ocean that divided them.
On the eve of our 234th Independence Day, this is an important aspect upon which to reflect because Americans are again experiencing a severe disconnect between themselves and the privileged halls of power -- in Washington, D.C.
And the gulf is growing wider with each passing day.
Abuses and usurpations
In the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson listed "a long train of abuses and usurpations" perpetrated by King George III of Great Britain that led to the decision "to throw off such Government."
Thus for 234 years our national pursuit of liberty and the cherished principles of natural rights have served to define and sanctify freedom for Americans and the rest of the world.
Today, we are faced with a crude yet equally oppressive facsimile of that former detached Imperial government. America's wondrous mantle of inspirational identity has been frayed and become threadbare due to repeated misuse and premeditated abuse by an elitist cohort of "enlightened" perfumed princes and princesses in Washington.
Over time, authority has been incrementally forfeited -- with the obedient assistance of their State-run Media propagandists -- to these favored few and lost to the people. No American today can say that this is our government,"No American today can say that this is our government, that the people are in charge as the Constitution intended, that America belongs to We the People" that the people are in charge as the Constitution intended, that America belongs to We the People.
We now see our government viciously attacking private citizens who dare to publicly oppose current policies. We observe the Washington elites overreach established constitutional limits and routinely abuse power -- with an elected minority rendered near-mute by simple number and powerless to stop them.
It is now common that elected representatives who commit felonies go unpunished, even more common that they knowingly and smugly deceive us. We see the Congress award themselves payola, privileges, and benefits not available to those they were elected to serve.
We see Members of Congress exempt themselves from the social engineering edicts they pass that confiscate our wealth, whittle away at personal responsibility, strangle free enterprise, and abrogate individual liberty.
We see government's frenzied takings of private property, banks, and businesses, and intruding into the private lives of citizens as never before. We see Congress passing legislation they never read, legislation overwhelmingly opposed by a majority of America's citizens.
We look on as a bureaucratically-appointed federal judiciary routinely legislates from the bench,"We are witnessing the planned, systematic dismemberment of what was the planet's mightiest free-market economic engine" with no regard for representation by or the wishes of the people.
We see the professional politicians who comprise elitist Washington enjoying glittering lifestyles far beyond those appropriate for public servants -- Lifestyles that belittle our economic condition and insult our eight million unemployed.
We are witnessing the planned, systematic dismemberment of what was the planet's mightiest free-market economic engine. We are witnessing the slow death of economic freedom. We are experiencing the painful death of personal liberty.
We have shamefully allowed this to happen, bit by bit, rule by rule, czar by czar. We are to blame for the current sociofascist usurpation of power from the people our Constitutional Republic is mandated to serve.
120 days
This Sunday, July 4, 2010, celebrate our Independence Day as Founder and President John Adams once proclaimed, "...with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore."
But afterward, reflect upon these words:
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 of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Remember these words on the first Tuesday in November.
Hype and Chains for 120 more days.