The United States government's actions today would be considered atrocious to our Founding Fathers. Some of the main reasons we broke away from Britain in the 1700's were high taxes, religious persecution, controls on trade, and raids and infringements on peoples' private property. Sound familiar? These very outrageous actions that our Founding Fathers fought against are happening today!
These facts may seem unbelievable, but they are actually happening! Many federal and state bureaucracies raid law-abiding companies and families' homes, heavily fine and tax citizens, and control how people conduct their commerce with willing merchants. As Congressman George Hansen correctly puts it, "Law-breaking government at all levels jails ministers and children-rigs juries, conducts illegal wire taps, and spends billions to send innocent citizens to jail."
Our ever-controlling government conducts many immoral acts, but one of the most disgusting is the oppression of religion. Let me give you an example: There is one organization which is associated in the popular mind with external works of charity and with almost nothing else. It is the Salvation Army. Probably not one person in a thousand knows that the Salvation Army acts out of a totally religious motive to dispense charity in all its works. Battlefield veterans from four wars have a unique affection for the Salvation Army. Less publicized than other groups, it was everywhere they troops went, distributing food, or a hot drink or a cheering word. If there is one group which is farthest from controversy, it is the Salvation Army. But in the new world of Big Brother even the Salvation Army cannot escape the effects of the new overpowering state. Recently the City of New York let it be known that it could no longer collaborate with the Salvation Army in distributing charity to residents of the city.
What was the sin which had thrust the Salvation Army into exterior darkness? Had its officials been detected misusing funds or assests? Never! Was its commitment to the poor and unfortunate suspect? Out of the question! The great City of New York would no longer make use of the services of the Salvation Army to assist the downtrodden unless and until it publicly and officially changed its moral doctrine. The charitable organization must admit that it was in error in calling homosexuality sinful.
Our national government and local governments under its lead are beginning to harass, suppress and, where possible, destroy religion in the United States.
The persecution of religion does not stop at the Salvation Army. In Nebraska, a seven year holy war was being fought between church and state over the operation of Christian schools. Preachers have been jailed repeatedly and their churches fined and padlocked. Fathers have served months in jail while the wives with their children fled as fugitives of the law from their homes, from their jobs, from the state itself. One father in jail said, "I went 10,000 miles to the Far East to fight for freedom and I end up in jail when I came home to practice it." For all who cherish liberty this spectacle is becoming a nightmare in the American dream. Can America continue to allow such abuse of human and civil rights?
Another major issue during our fight for independence from Britain was heavy fines and taxes. The colonists were under immense pressure from the British Government to pay outrageous taxes on almost everything. Today, the Internal Revenue Service conducts similar, and even worse, acts of cruelty. Those who can afford accountants and attorneys often fight and win against the Internal Revenue Service, but for the millions who cannot it is a different story. IRS quotats make the defenseless taxpayer all the more susceptible to IRS inspection. This point was dramatically demonstrated when the IRS pounced upon victims of the devastating Teton Dam flood- a $400 million disaster in eastern Idaho.
A mammoth wall of water picked up hundreds of forty-foot logs from a sawmill on the north edge of Rexburg and drove them like battering rams through the walls of Rexburg's homes and businesses. Over Sugar City only the tops of a few houses could be seen sticking up through the deluge. All in all, several cities and towns were rendered uninhabitable or were severly damaged by the flood waters; 20,000 head of cattle were lost; thousands and thousands of acres of prime farmland were covered by silt and mud and rocks and gravel. Nearly a half-billion dollars' worth of property was destroyed.
The waters from the deluge had not even subsided before government bureaucrats swooped down on the hapless prey. The worst culprit in this bureaucratic aftermath was the Internal Revenue Service, which hesitated only briefly before it resumed collection activities against the still-dislocated flood victims and even prepared to tax the disaster payments. IRS officials viewed this disaster as a literal grab-bag for taxes. Farmers whose fields had been ruined as potatoe ground were not allowed to switch their fields to wheat or alfalfa without paying an excessive capital gains tax on the new farm equipment. Farmers, if they wanted to remain farmers, coughed up the taxes. To show how ridiculous this was, these farmers could only escape the capital gains tax by replanting potatoes- which was impossible. Any other use of money resulted in the levy of a tax. This is a cruel and burdensome bureaucracy at its best.
Another way our government harasses citizens is through controls on trade. World-renowned economist Milton Friedman has stated that "the economic controls that have proliferated in the United States in recent decades have not only restricted our freedom to use our economic resources, they have also affected our freedom of speech, of press, and of religion." The government has no right saying what law-abiding citizens can or cannot do with their hard-earned money, this is a freedom that our Founding Fathers fought for, and it must be preserved for all generations.
Our ever-controlling government has gone too far. It has no right to control and burden citizens and infringe on their rights. America is a land richly blessed with liberty, opportunity, and abundance. Harassment and coercion have no place in our Constitutional self-government.
Ryan Lee Stollar is the President of the Center for American Freedom.
