I Love My Country, But I Fear My Government

We've been hearing the news for months: Health Care, Illegal Immigration, Bailouts and the list goes on. It dawned on me last week when listening to yet another pundit talking about the ramifications of the Health Reform Bill -- everyone's talking, but no one's saying what I can do. So I've decided to take the bull by the horns and put my beliefs into practice.

Let me set the stage.

Over the last few months there has been a lot of discussion about who is really running this country. Like many Americans (the majority, according to the polls), I've gotten madder and madder. We've heard about things like:

• Government takeover of Health Care, the Insurance Industry, Banks, the Auto Industry and, soon, the Utilities ("Cap and Trade")
• A massive backlash of the citizens in the form of protests and Tea Parties
• The mainstream media and government accusing bloggers, protesters and talk show hosts of "lighting the fuse" and inciting violence (eventhough they can't show a single instance of this being the case)
• Protests being labelled as "hate speech" when, just a few years ago, we heard that "Dissent is Patriotic" (remember "Bush Lied, People Died" and "Kill Bush"???)

The fact of the matter is that our politicians, our legislators, every single one of them have sold us "down the river". They have ignored the will of the people and have rammed through measures that contradict what their constituents specifically want. They have branded any dissent as hate speech and have embarked on policies that endanger not only the financial future of this country but the very lives of its citizens and protectors. In short, they've abdicated their responsibility and have shown that not only do they hold the citizens in contempt but that they hold themselves above and outside the law and that they are the ones who run the country. They have forgotten that we have a government of, by and for the people.

I had a suspicion that this isn't a unique situation. On that hunch, I decided to compare the Declaration of Independence to what's going on today. I was floored. Our Founding Fathers faced not a similar situation but the exact same circumstances!

So what did they do? They banded together as "We the People". As they did, I will do. I am going to revolt. I am going to say that

We The People will no longer be silent.
We The People will take back our lives, our rights and our responsibilities.
We The People will take back our government.
We The People will take back our country.

There is one and only one thing that puts fear into the heart of any politician, and that is We The People.

It's not enough just to say this. One has to, as our Founding Fathers did, take direct action. But first, as they did, I needed to "place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent" (Thomas Jefferson):

When it becomes necessary for people to band together and stand up for themselves and their legal and natural rights, it's common decency as well as a legal requirement to explain their reasons. When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. The silent majority of citizens believe that its pretty obvious that everyone should be treated equally and that everyone should be able to feel safe, be free and try to pursue the American Dream. They also feel that its the responsibility of the government to safeguard - not to provide - these things. And, if the government doesn't safeguard them, that the people should be able to change the government to one that does. It's common sense that one shouldn't change government on a whim and history shows that people will put up with a lot of nonsense instead of getting active in politics and changing things. But when a long list of abuses, scandals and ignoring the will of the people brings about a situation where they've had enough, its the people's right to say "enough's enough" and to throw out their legislators in favor of ones that will do their job. The citizens of the United States have put up with a lot in the last few years and they've had enough. And so now its necessary, and our right, to make a change. The history of this administration and congress is a history of repeatedly ignoring the will of the people to the point of a dictatorship or monarchy. To prove this, here are the facts so that each American can decide: 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. 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. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. The United States is becoming a fascist state - that is, a place where although industry is owned privately, the government tells industry what it can produce, how much it can produce, who it can sell to and for how much. It has done this with the automotive industry, the health care industry, the insurance industry, the banks and soon the utilities with "cap and trade". He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. The "power elite" and mainstream media have made it dangerous to have any other opinions than the ones they hold. They've trumped up charges against anyone that disagrees with them. During other administrations, the chant was that "Dissent is Patriotic". Now, dissent is "hate speech". They've said that anyone who disagrees with them is inciting violence and yet they can't show a single specific instance of someone inciting violence. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. Congress and the administration have violated the will of the people. They've gone against it by enacting legislation that the majority of the people don't want. They've made exceptions and exemptions for their cronies, special interest groups and political allies. They have plundered the future to pay for today by enacting laws that mandate spending that is higher than revenues. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: They have pardoned or released enemies of this country who have now returned to fight against us. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. They have ignored the laws under which most American's ancestors came to this country and are extending the rights and privileges of citizens to squatters. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. During all this, the people haven't been silent. We have warned the legislators that we disagree. We've pointed out unconstitutional laws and even used the legal system to try and block their implementation. We have pointed out that all American citizens should be equal and that those who've come here legally have all earned the right to be a citizen. But Congress and the administration have ignored the American people. Instead, they have acted as dictators and tyrants. So, we must conclude that they don't have our best interests at heart and that they no longer represent us. Therefore, the citizens of the United States, with the world watching, will now exercise their rights and declare that this government is at an end. We say that we are by right, free and that we don't consider ourselves the "constituents" of our current legislature. We say that we will recall and dismiss our legislators and put into place a government of, by and for the people. It is time for revolution. Not the armed revolt of the Founders and as preserved by our fathers, but civil revolt as they intended and is our right and responsibility "to appeal for redress of greivences". And we stand together, united in this cause. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

I am engaging in and calling for open rebellion and revolution. NOT an armed one, but the one which our Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, designed into our system. I am going to take direct, immediate action:

1. I am going to purchase small American flags. Each week, from now until November second, I am going to pin one upside-down to a piece of paper and send one each to my Congressmen and Senator with the simple notation "11/2" as a prediction and warning.
2. I am going to get involved, right now, with a candidate.
3. Through the winnowing of the primary process, I am going to choose and throw my support not just to my canidate but whomever is the closest to my philosophies and opposes the incumbent, regardless of party. We have been betrayed by both parties and all incumbents must therefore be voted out.
4. I am going to personally and directly ask two people to do these four steps and to ask those people to do them as well. In that way, there will be a groundswell, a snowball of We The People.

Indeed, 11/2 will be Change We Can Believe In.

The time for talk is over. The time for action is past. The time for revolution is now.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
- Thomas Jefferson

You can find a copy of my radio program about this here and find a copy of my annotated Declaration of Independence here. You can post to my Facebook page here.