Where are LIBERTY-minded people in the 21st Century?

February 25, 2009 • 3:54 pm

Where are LIBERTY-minded people in the 21st Century?

Give me liberty, or give me death!

America is in some trouble, and headed for deeper water fast. People write me and ask me what we can do to stop the tide from pulling us out above our heads. There are no easy or quick fixes to the problem America faces, but one thing I am certain of:

we will not return to what made America great unless we return to the liberty-centered mindset of our founding fathers.

Since our socialized public school system sees fit not to teach our children the many lessons learned from our founding fathers, since that system does not offer in depth courses on the founding documents of our nation, and since that same system discourages critical thinking at almost every step of the way, it is up to each of us, individually and collectively, to learn and understand what these great men fought against, died for, and why they hoped the future generations would carry the torch of freedom.

We have forgotten their values – America’s values. We have been distracted. We have pursued other things in the light of day while our liberties were being stolen by cover of night. We have been wrong, and we awaken today, in the 21st century, so far removed from the thinking that forged this great country. We have not heeded the warnings of those who erected the Constitution to bind government from becoming a tyrant over the people.

Here are SOME of their thoughts:

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

[This is as true today as it was 225 years ago. Only today, the government requires one to register their firearms, restricts firearm ownership, requires a permit to carry a concealed firearm, and passes laws restricting powerful weapons only to military and private corporations like Blackwater. An armed populace is the last stage of defense against a tyrannical government. Already in 2009, people who are concerned are stockpiling their own guns and ammunition. This has led to a shortage of certain types of ammunition and the manufacturers are restricting shipments. Do an internet search on "ammo shortage 2009".]

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God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty…. And what country can preserve its liberties, if it’s rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Thomas Jefferson

[Twenty years. Let that sink in. Our nation has gone over a hundred and fifty, back to the Civil War. Look at all that has happened in our country and in the world since then. We do not live in the same country as 150 years ago. Government is monstrous - an empire still conquering nations in other parts of the world. We have a foreign banking cartel running our economy. We've got blatant disregard for the Constitution. We've got liars and thieves in office. We are a bankrupt nation who owes more money to foreign countries than ever before, yet we're still unable to take care of the people at home who are flipping the bill for all of this. This must stop. America is long overdue for her twenty year revolution.]

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… rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our own will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law,’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.

Thomas Jefferson

[How has the Constitution - the Law of the Land - been subverted and the rights of the individual curtailed? It has happened, and now many of us feel restrained by the "tyrant's will."]

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I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

James Madison

[This is a warning against those in power silently and gradually taking away our freedoms, while they collect more and more power. These encroachments go relatively unseen as the steps are incremental and often done out of "necessity." This is also to say that we have more to fear from our government - especially given its secret defense budget - than we do from outside forces, like al-Qaeda.]

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If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained _ we must fight!

Patrick Henry

[The noble struggle is never-ending. That bears repeating. The noble struggle is never-ending. This is a struggle ALL of us must endure and be mindful of at all times. "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." We have not been vigilant. We have been corralled, dumbed down, distracted and alienated. It is time to come together, use our combined intelligence and strength and demand that our government cease and desist.]

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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt

[Those in power will say, "this has to be done", or, "this is what America needs", or, "we must act now", or, "We will suffer if we don't ...". These are pleas to necessity, often based upon fearful rhetoric and turbulence created by the actions of government. This is the Hegelian dialectic of problem/reaction/solution. Often, the government will overtly or covertly created the problem, generate a reaction in the public, and then offer up a pre-established solution that will benefit those who caused the problem in the first place. Case in point: our current financial crisis. These financial crises were the reason the Federal Reserve was created - to stop them from happening. The FED's track record, however, shows completely the opposite: it has overseen more booms, busts, inflation, recessions and depressions in the 80 years of its existence than in the entire American history combined. The purpose of the FED is to fleece the wealth of the American people. It has done it's job.]

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No man’s life, liberty or fortune is safe while our legislature is in session.

Benjamin Franklin

[They will be active in finding ways to limit your liberties. Who really pays attention when Congress IS in session? Most Americans do not.]

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Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

George Washington

[Our government is a servant of the people, comprised of officials who are servants of the people. We give them our power. If we are not mindful of the actions they take, wielding OUR power, then we may find ourselves in danger of our servant asserting itself as master. ]

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The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

John Adams

[If power destroys one's ability to think critically and independently, and they curtail the free exercise of speech, our founding fathers knew that it would only be time until the population is brought under submission. In our country today, we have "free speech zones", city ordinances, zoning laws, and other restrictions that curtail our freedom of speech and expression. Under the guise of passing laws to curtail "hate speech" and terrorism, as well as that of open censorship of media, we are being brought under submission. We have a media cartel that effectively squashes dissent and meaningful debate.]

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I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a moneyed aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson

[Jefferson said that the banks, not foreign enemies or terrorists or even our own elected officials, are more dangerous to our Republic because people and influence can be purchased. Once people and influence is purchased, so is power. Mayer Amschel Rothschild, of the Rothschild banking dynasty, is quoted as saying, "Let me control a nation's money supply, and I care not who makes its laws!"]

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If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Thomas Jefferson

[This prediction has come true. Look at what is happening. The Federal Reserve is a private banking cartel, operating through inflation and deflation, as the banks and corporations have grown up around us. Now, as their system of deception teeters on collapse, they want MORE from the American people. We have become slaves.]

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Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.

Patrick Henry

[How many of us are content letting the politicians think about "all that political stuff"? While most of us recognize that Congress is failing to do its job, many of us turn the other cheek. They are taking away our freedoms! We should be wary of them, suspicious of them usurping our power! But we haven't been, and so we find ourselves in the 21st century, far removed from the ideals that made this nation and oblivious of what those in power are doing to enslave us to their system of control.]

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Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers [administrators] too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.

Thomas Jefferson

[Mr. Obama promised many things, but most people voted for him because he stood for ideals completely different than our previous administration. Less than thirty days into his presidency, we can see that Obama is NOT change - he is more of the same - and a LOT more of it. This pursuit knows no boundaries of party lines or change in administrators. It has been followed since the inception of the Federal Reserve, through two world wars, innumerable conflicts, CIA activity, prolonged military engagements that span more than one presidential term. Those who see this "deliberate, systematic plan" are labeled "wing-nuts" and "conspiracy theorists" and dismissed as insane individuals.]

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A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

Edward Abbey

[Against who again? Terrorists? No, GOVERNMENT.]

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We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat in our drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labors and in our amusements, for our callings and our creeds…our people.. must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live.. We have not time to think, no means of calling the mis-managers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow suffers. Our landholders, too…retaining indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs, but held really in trust for the treasury, must…be contented with penury, obscurity and exile.. private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagance.

This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering… And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in it’s train wretchedness and oppression.

Thomas Jefferson

[Again, Jefferson makes a big issue out of the banking institutions. Why? Perpetual debt makes us slaves. The Federal Reserve system is based upon credit and, therefore, debt. Every dollar printed or put into computers as keystroke entries, is loaned to the Federal government at interest. The FED continues to loan money to the U.S. because of the U.S.'s promise to repay the loan - at interest - at a later date. The massive and growing national debt is our inheritance under this insane system. Under false promises for "prosperity", the banks have lulled us further and further into debt. We are now broke and bankrupt, the greatest, wealthiest nation reduced to poverty, homelessness, no healthcare, rising energy prices, sky-rocketing unemployment rates and a den of thieves and liars on Wall Street and in Washington. Sometimes I feel like our lives have been reduced "to mere automatons of misery" with no "sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering." Do you feel that way?]

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A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy…. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader…. If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.

Samuel Adams

[Isn't this what this blog is actually about? We have lost our way, forgotten and abandoned the principles that established this country. We have become unvirtous, surrendering our liberties to our servants because we have grown lazy and afraid.]

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But, 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.

Declaration of Independence

[I mean really, what else do you need? Go to YouTube, search for the Declaration of Independence and watch the short enactment by big name actors like Mel Gibson and Edward Norton. Try to understand how the words ring true today.]

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Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.

Thomas Jefferson

[This makes me sad, because the answer to his question is, "No, we have not kept it. " We have forgotten the memory of freedom. Now, freedom has been reduced to capitalist choices, like which of 250 brands of pain reliever I can choose when I go to Wal-Mart. We have pursued material abundance, enabled by the Federal Reserve, through the issuance of credit. We have spent ourselves into defaults, foreclosures, repossessions and uncollected debts. There is not enough money in existence to EVER repay what we owe. We have chosen the path to our destruction.]

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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams

[If this is you, kindly re-evaluate what it means to be an American. If you still find yourself at odds, then there are many other countries that will be happy to make you a servant. As Jesus said, "In the final days, many will come to me, saying, 'Lord, Lord!', but I will say to them, 'I never knew you!'". Our great nation has no place for the treacherous intentions of those who want to live their life oppressed.]

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When a government takes over a people’s economic life it becomes absolute, and when it has become absolute it destroys the arts, the minds, the liberties and the meaning of the people it governs.

Maxwell Anderson

[This is, hopefully, becoming clearer, with more and more importance.]

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If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

James Madison

[Think of what the last eight years has done to polarize this country and strip away our liberties. Under the guise of fighting terrorists and the ensuing permanent Global War on Terror, our legislature is handing over our freedoms. Remember our officials warning us, "The terrorists hate us because of our freedoms!"? The legislature is the only one that can attempt to do this - and they have! Did they READ the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act? NO! Did they read this new pork spending bill concealed as a stimulus package? NO! We are being sold up the river without a paddle, folks. Don't be scared into giving up your God-given, unalienable rights!]

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Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Ben Franklin

[Obviously, one doesn't understand liberty if they are willing to sacrifice it for security. Liberty IS security. Security IS liberty. YOU are more safe if you take charge of your security - don't give that power to anyone else. Don't let anyone else tell you differently.]
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For those who need a refresher course on what it means to be liberty-minded, I have the following suggested readings:

The Declaration of Independence

The U.S. Constitution

The Bill of Rights

The Amendments to the Constitution (11-27)

The Federalist Papers

The Anti-Federalist Papers

The Works of Thomas Jefferson

The Works of John Adams