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There was a time when life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness really meant something in this country. Our founding fathers and many generations after them fought, sacrificed and sometimes died to ensure this nation was one that lived up to this creed and to throw off the oppressive controls of the past.
Laws and the government were held in check and their roles clearly defined and limited as to their power and purpose. Over the course of time we have forgotten the lessons our forefathers had learned. We have failed to read, understand and remember our own history as a nation. We have allowed the needs or rights of the few to outweigh the needs and rights of the many and the good of our country as a whole. We have allowed government to make laws whereby we take excessively from those who work diligently and contribute to our society and give it to those who come here illegally or those who make a career of living off of government programs or worse still those who are really our enemies. We continue to allow government to make laws and ordinances that restrict, control, diminish reinterpret or even end our rights that were fought for so long ago.
We have been lazy in keeping our freedom ship on course by electing leaders (either by voting or failing to vote) who have their own agenda of power and greed guiding their actions. Again we are guilty of not supporting both before and after they are elected, officials who are dedicated to keeping government in check and to being the public servants that they should be.
Our forefathers warned us:
“It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.” –James Madison
“The great desideratum (something desired as essential ) in Government is, so to modify the sovereignty as that it may be sufficiently neutral between different parts of the Society to control one part from invading the rights of another, and at the same time sufficiently controlled itself, from setting up an interest adverse to that of the entire Society.” –James Madison
Our forefathers equipped us:
Many today are ignorant to the fact that we are a Republic; a form of government our forefathers intended us to use to protect our rights and freedoms with.
Webster defines a republic correctly ” a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law”
I recently read, “The problem is really that we have moved from our representative republic towards democracy, which is correctly defined as the rule of the illiterate mob.” How true this is. We now live in a society of our own creation where there are people screaming for privileges and calling them rights. Our unchecked government is only too happy to oblige like a benevolent fairy godmother granting wishes left and right, exercising roles and powers that our government was never intended to have.
We are guilty of allowing this to go on right here locally as well. We have elected officials who are now telling us more than ever how to live our lives, use our property, throw away our trash, which way we can shine light, how we can celebrate a national historic holiday, adopting building codes and practices that are many times unreasonable and unrealistic for a city of our size, telling us what kind of signs we can have in front of our business and the list goes on.
We spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars studying, adopting, implementing and then enforcing things that have little or no real impact on our community as a whole while serious issues like the underfunded and undermanned fire and police departments go on being neglected.
How many things are you willing to give up control of? How many freedoms must be eroded away nationally and even locally before we are willing to be involved and exercise what is left of our ability to defend ourselves and our freedoms?
We have made government our parent or guardian that knows better than we do what we need instead of forcing government to reflect the will of the people as a whole and not just a part as was intended when this nation was conceived. Are we children? Are we not adults that can think reasonably and act without being told what to do? Are we as adults and Americans no longer capable of exercising personal responsibility? Are we going to allow a sense of entitlement to replace our long-standing history of a people known for independence?
The choice is yours; it always has been in this country. Join in protecting our freedoms not only on the national front, but right here at home.
Troy Tudor and the Entrepreneurial Spirit 