We are all citizens of the United States with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These are basic human rights which we have come to appreciate anew after observing the deplorable conditions of people under the oppressiveness of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Our souls as a free people probably rejoiced to relieve the bonds of those trampled under by a government of oppressive tyrants. We think to ourselves, "Thank God we live in America and we don't have to suffer like that." One of the reasons we do not worry about it is because we trust our government to protect us. I wonder if that trust is slightly misplaced. America was founded by a pioneering, persevering spirit which could not be quashed by King George, Mexico, Germany or Japan. We are patriots to the core and believe that freedom is the ultimate privilege that all human beings deserve. It took us several hundred years to work toward that and it is that belief that propelled the abolition of slavery, civil rights and the support of democracy throughout this world.
It's ironic then that America in the dawn of the twenty first century has become complacent to the rights of themselves. The twentieth century which was arguably the finest century for the United States to date also has brought with it fundamental and dangerous changes in ideals among our people. Heading into the twentieth century that fire of independence and freedom was replaced by a sense of dependence during the New Deal. FDR created several programs that arguably saved this country and also did what needed to be done to join the fight for freedom during World War II. The problems arose when we crested the depression and recovered. The government had grown tremendously during that time period and the one thing that did not happen was a gradual reduction of those programs. Several of those programs existed even until recently with no guiding mission, they just are there. The other danger is people developed a sense of government as a big brother or the uncle who would bail you out, and there is where the decline in freedom began.
"Lethargy [is] the forerunner of death to the public liberty." This quote by Jefferson aptly describes the situation in America today. Apathy will bring this country to its knees from within. Apathy will create a totalitarian government that no longer allows us the right to govern ourselves and celebrate our liberty. Apathy will destroy America. Wake up, my fellow citizens and observe the following if you do not believe this:
 | America was founded on the freedom of religion, not the freedom FROM religion. This country celebrates free speech and the separation of church and state, but make no mistake. Nowhere in our history did this country's founders guarantee atheists the free reign to run rampant over this country, yet lazy legislators in the 1960s allowed one woman with a petition of about one hundred thousand names to short circuit this right. No lawyer can change English, of and from are two different prepositions and this was the first right to fail. |
| CENSORSHIP is leaking into society. There is a slow movement toward the government beginning to determine what is right and wrong for us to view, teach and learn. The talk of removing books from a public library or a school library to satiate a vocal minority is WRONG and ANTI-AMERICAN. We do not have the right to infringe upon individual liberty provided that the liberty does not infringe upon another's civil rights, yet we do this and encourage it. The problem becomes drawing the line. Yes, I agree certain things are immoral and just wrong to do. Disseminating information on building bombs and weapons is something I strongly oppose. Pornography is another issue, especially dealing with minors which is abhorrable. These are the worst extremes of freedom of expression and the ones usually cited in support of censorship, but where do grown adults draw the line? If we allow the bleeding heart liberals in this country to draw the line, then all of it is allowed. If we allow the totalitarian right wing to draw the line, then everything is out. If people wish to censor things to protect their children, then take RESPONSIBILITY with your own children and stop worrying about society. The V-CHIP is offensive in that it takes control of censorship out of the hands of parents and puts it in the hand of bureaucrats deciding what our children cannot see. On top of that, it has hit all of us in the pocket because we pay for it whether we want it or not. We should not be forced to support things which infringe our basic rights. |
| Right To Privacy. This is the right most in danger today. The government snoops in our e-mail, monitors our conversations on the airwaves and talks about using identification cards to track us. Folks, this is the beginning. We did not found this country to allow the government to track our movement. Recent events have called us to question this, but I feel that we need to be very careful that we do not sacrifice our rights permanently to fix a temporary problem. If you believe the government will give back our privacy after the threat ends, you are wrong. Pandora's box will never be closed once it is open, and we are in danger of allowing it to ruin this country. The Internet for all of its power has robbed us of much of our privacy. Every step you make is monitored, tracked and can be reported. This is a violation of our liberty--a fundamental violation. |
| Right to Rear Our Children in our Own Way. The government has no business infringing in our child rearing practices, yet today parents' children can be stolen on a lie, kept prisoner by a radical social worker structure and damaged by beliefs being forced upon them by agencies with political agendas of survival. How many innocent lives have been destroyed by a vengeful lie? Whole professional and innocent childcare agencies have been shut down by police forcing confessions out of children, psychiatrists with an agenda and social workers with misplaced loyalties. It's disturbing to know that the parent is the criminal and must prove their innocence in these circumstances: ANOTHER VIOLATION OF OUR CIVIL RIGHTS, yet when the government does it, it is okay. |
My fellow citizens, these are brief examples of rights which have been infringed under the guise of protection, but make no mistake: governmental protection comes with a price--individual freedom. The government and the lawyers employed by it and those supposedly representing us have no right to infringe upon our freedom. This is a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people. Stop being lethargic or 1984 could well become 2014 and we will have no one to blame for the patrolled streets, cameras in the home and constant tracking of us by the government but ourselves.
What do you think?