For several decades I have been silent--a spectator. I may have written one or two 'letters to the editor', but I'm not sure. I never called in to voice my opinion on a talk radio show. I never held up a sign at a rally. In fact, I'm not sure I ever WENT to a rally!
I am starting to believe that my silence may have spoken louder than words. I think that my failing to exercise my freedom of speech may have given the impression that it wasn't important to me. That by not giving voice to my opinions, it was assumed I was aligned with the majority.
Well, now I'm 'going postal' in the blogosphere. Realizing I might lose my right to speak out, I've decided to give my viewpoints while I still can.
Our rights have been eroding for a long time. At first it was our own fault. We willing yielded our right to speak by not exercising it. Later, it began to get a bit uncomfortable as 'political correctness' swept the nation, but we submitted to that too. The final stage will be to wrest away from us the portion of that freedom that we have held onto.
This is a pattern that repeats itself all around us. It is a principal by which things in this world operate.
We have realized this to some extent-as summarized by the popular phrase 'if you don't use it, you'll lose it'. This is often referring to physical fitness or mental ability, but it applies across the board. What you don't use, you will ultimately lose.
Take another example from nature. Things have a way of encroaching. If you take time to notice, many weeds creep into your lawn, or garden, from around the edges. Let's say you take a laid back approach when you mow. You hate to do it so you rarely do. When you get around to it there are thick weeds and small saplings around the edges. So, being laid back, you don't feel like confronting them and you mow around them. Each time you mow, you give up a little more of your yard because they keep encroaching, pushing further and further in.
Freedom is not a natural state. There is always something encroaching. If you aren't willing to risk a confrontation, you will end up ceding more and more of your liberty. Our founders knew this and they put in place checks and balances. They realized that, being most closely woven into our lives, our government would be our first greatest threat. Outside enemies come in second. The greatest threats to our liberty are going to come from within.
To keep your freedom you must, at the very least, hold onto the territory that you already have. In America we have certain rights, but if we don't exercise them, we will find them gone. Most of us probably thought it was enough to put our rights up on a shelf--handy and close, if the occasion should arise that we needed to exercise them. Now, if I leave my car parked in the driveway for twenty or thirty years, I'd be foolish to expect it to work properly when the need arises. So it is with our rights.
If you prize your rights, you'd better use them! Even if it just means taking them down off the shelf every few months, and using them to keep in practice. When you don't exercise your rights, you imply that you may be willing to surrender them.
It's time to fight back against the encroachment. It's time to push back! And this time, lets not be content just to preserve our original boundaries. While we're at it, lets push farther and take some new ground!
Our first & second Amendment rights are the most in peril right now.
"Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
'Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.'
It's time to hold a 'fire drill'! Please:
- Choose a religion and exercise it!
- Speak out boldly!
- Support the press that tells the truth.
- Assemble peacefully.
- Petition the government as often as necessary.
- Buy a weapon for self defense.
Even if these are things you don't ordinarily do--in fact, ESPECIALLY if these are things you don't ordinarily do-do them now! Let me give you some good reasons to:
- You care most about what you are invested in. If you choose a religion, speak out, watch the news, assemble peacefully, sign petitions and buy a weapon, you are going to notice when someone attempts to take that right away from you, and you are going to care!
- Our exercise of our rights makes it clear to those who would take them that: we value our rights, we will notice if they attempt to take them away, and we will probably fight to preserve them. Using your rights can be a powerful deterrent to those who would think to take them away.
- If anyone DOES attempt to rob us of those rights, a great cry will go up, that people all around the world will witness. Most evil prefers to operate in secret!
Let's push back--hard!!
America--Hijacked!!
Is The Transformation To Communism Already Well Underway?
