Today we celebrate our nation’s independence. This is the day we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence from the British Empire. 234 years ago a proud group of people stood up to the most powerful country in the world and demanded their freedom. They demanded freedom from unfair taxation, freedom to worship the way we choose, freedom of speech, freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures, freedom of purpose and freedom from tyranny. All freedoms were individual in nature, not a collective freedom. Now 234 years later we seem to have forgotten what freedom is all about. Today we seemingly turn to the government for the redress of every grievance. Today we are cattle being led to slaughter by those politicians willing to exploit the ignorance and forgetfulness of Americans. Its time we got back to the foundation of what makes America great, our freedoms.
Our founding fathers fought for freedom, but what is freedom. The answer is rather simple—it is being allowed the opportunity to be responsible for our OWN actions. That is freedom. By living in America all of us have the opportunity to be successful, to control our own destiny, to live our lives as we see fit. Whether or not we choose to take advantage of these opportunities is up to us. We are each free to succeed as well as to fail. Freedom means success or failure is up to us. Each of us is guaranteed the same opportunity, but each of us is not guaranteed success.
At the same time freedom has a price—responsibility. We must be responsible for our actions. Without freedom, we have no responsibility because our decisions are made for us. Because each of us is given the opportunity, we are responsible, our actions become our own. It is because of us that we earn success, not because of government.
The first words of the Constitution of the United States say, “We the people…” It does not say we the government. It does not say me the President. It does not say we the Supreme Court. And it does not say we the Congress. It says ‘We the People.’
Today more and more people are turning to the government for redress of issues once considered an individual matter. More and more people consider a right anything that people need: a job, a house, a car, a phone, a television, healthcare. Most of these things are only worth the wait because of the struggle to attain them. The struggle to buy a house or a larger house is worth the wait because we learn to save, we learned delayed gratification, and we learn to appreciate what we earn. People do not value what is given to them.
Today, we want everything now. We want a big house now; it does not matter that we can not afford it. We say, it is our ‘right’ to have one. Even businesses want in on the deal. At one time a business’s success or failure was determined by the degree of the owner’s skill in managing his business. No more. Now success is determined by the owner’s ability to successfully beg and prostrate himself to a willing politician to prop up his failing company with the taxpayers’ money. The government also controls the banking industry. They control the car companies. They even control what we as property owners can or can not do with our land. Is the land really ours if the government can arbitrarily take it away from us or tell how to use it? The government is also intrusive into other areas of our lives like education, an area once considered the purview of the states. As the government gains more and more power, our freedoms increasingly come under duress. When government is this intrusive, our very liberty is at stake.
The lawmaker is part of the problem. Once upon a time politicians worked for the people, but they now work for their own re-election. They pretend to represent us, their constituents and yet they live in Washington with their cronies. They promise the moon and deliver only shadows. They hold out their hands in friendship and take our money to further their own ends. Their tongues are made of silver and yet we can not believe a word. Congressmen and women go to Congress promising to do our bidding and they serve a different master where the end justifies the means. The Lawmakers have forgotten they work for us.
The other part of the problem is the citizens. We have become lazy. We are told to be diligent, but look out only for ourselves. We are told to listen and choose who would make the best representative for us and yet we believe in pipedreams. We are not informed and usually re-elect the incumbent because of name recognition. We endlessly shower those politicians with praise when they tickle our ears with false hopes. We then dismiss as trouble-makers those who bother to tell us the ugly truth. We expect the government to solve our every problem while we idly sit by and wait for our wealth to accumulate and our possessions to make us the envy of our neighbors. We forgotten how to fend for ourselves.
I am afraid for our country. US Judge Learned Hand once wrote: I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it…
We are one generation away from tyranny. We can only stop our march into oblivion by renewing our struggle for freedom. What happened to the time of self sufficiency? What happened to the time of struggling for success? What ever happened to the citizen legislator? The government is not the answer to everyday life problems, but we are. Government did not make this country great. We made this country what it is today, the envy of the world. It is time to take back our country and demand the loyalty of our legislators, not the other way around. We need to require our lawmakers to listen to us; for them to understand they do what we want them to do, not for them to do what they think is right for us. We are not children unable to make decisions for ourselves. We need to insist that our government stop its excessive spending. We need to curtail the politicians’ pocketbook addiction and insist on a balanced budget. We need to be adamant about our rights. The government did not give us these rights, these are by birthright, ours. The right to free speech is ours individually. The right to bear arms belongs to each of us. The right to worship as we choose is our birthright. These are our rights and can not be taken away from us.
Each of us needs to be accountable to ourselves, our countrymen, and our children. We as freedom loving citizens have a duty to be informed, to protect and demand our individual rights, and to elect good citizen legislators. Then we need to make Congress accountable to us, the people. Our duties are just as relevant as those of our elected politicians if not more so.
This July 4th, let us renew our pledge to our freedoms and demand our politicians do the same as we remember those who brought these rights to us. And while we are at it, we need to remember those who gave up their lives for the cause of liberty. We still have these rights because of them—our soldiers. We owe it to them, we owe it to our children and our grandchildren to stand up for the freedoms they fought and died for. Freedom is the opportunity to be responsible for our own actions. Freedom is not free, because it requires constant vigilance. Celebrate your freedom by using your rights today.
Happy Birthday, United States!