Showing posts with label Liberty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liberty. Show all posts

Monday, October 19, 2009

Freedom



Say it. "Freedom." The word itself has the power to move mountains and inspire greatness. Never before in the history of this great country has the danger of losing that power been more real than in today's world.

We have witnessed the gradual erosion of freedom, and the struggle will continue. Just as with the ebb and flow of the ocean, liberty has fluctuated in varying degrees. In the name of social justice, our God-given right to our personal sovereignty has slowly been encroached upon. Death by a thousand slices, if you will.

Freedom commands us to recognize the great responsibility that comes with such power. Not to be taken lightly, we are to protect it, nurture it, and bestow it upon the next generation. We must also instill the recognition of freedom's responsibility within our children. To not do so is negligent and reckless on our part. Freedom's power is too great to not teach the responsibility that goes with it.

Freedom is the one true trait that has separated the great from the enslaved. Free people thinking free thoughts and given the liberty to pursue those dreams have broken the physical and ideological chains that have oppressed people around the world. Millions have given their lives so that others may enjoy the fruits of their own labor. They were free to make that decision for themselves and not by government fiat.

Freedom does not give one license to deviate from civility. Only in a society where freedom is tempered with responsibility is there true peace. Freedom without responsibility is anarchy. Where there is no freedom, there is no peace. Peace is the result of freedom and civility. Forced peace without the freedom of the people is tyranny.

Liberty in and of itself is not a guarantee against war. It is because of war that freedom has survived strife and the imposition of government force upon the people. It must be protected at all costs. As easily as liberty is frittered away in the name of political correctness, it is equally as hard to retrieve it.

Evil is borne in the hearts of those who fear the power of a free population. That same population has sacrificed much over the generations in order that all people are released from the tyrannical whims of the power-hungry. Beware the person who dictates that it is our sacred duty to cede freedom for the good of the whole. This is the person who fears freedom the most and wishes that no one wields the awesome power of liberty.

Freedom. It is what we believe in. It is who we are. And it is sacred.

It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. Samuel Adams

Monday, June 22, 2009

Excellent Post by Left Coast Rebel

Just saw this up at LCR's blog. I don't need to add any words; he said it all.

6.22.2009

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves



- William J.H. Boetcker, 1916, often attributed to Abraham Lincoln


How do these simples truths apply to America today? How do they destroy every single argument of the Statist/Progressive/Moral Relativist/Big-government Enabler of today? Sometimes as it seems, simplicity is the best policy, the best weapon in an intellectual arsenal. Where is the American leader to spread these simple Thatcherisms?


First point - You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. Simple. Down with the progressive tax-code that punishes achievement on a sliding scale. Down with the system in that the more wealth one creates (and benefits oneself and society as a whole), the higher percentage one is taxed. Down with an inherant, massive disincentive to the best and the brightest, the goose that lay the golden egg. Liberal religiosity 101, the most sacrosanct of all - the Marxian progressive tax code. The achiever class, the bane of the altruist, the tool for the cause.


Second point - You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. Much the same here as the first point. As is the case in taxation, so is the case with all members of the best and the brightest. The gutter mentality amidst us deplores a strong figure, male or not. We worship at the throne of depravity, of feeble and weak minded loonies. We give up our freedoms while worshipping at the throne of silver-tongued slave masters.




Third point - You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. The Almighty holy grail ethos of the Leftwing. The evil 1%. The business man. The entrepenuer. The one that dares to work the most, the hardest, and be the brightest. The cigar-smoking boardrooms, packed with fat, sweaty, yellow teethed white guys plotting to take from the poor that which he has earned. The ethos of Robin Hood, to take from the rich that they have always unfairly gotten, to give to the downtrodden. And utopia is here!


Fourth point - You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. Once again the simple concept of class-warfare, of breaking the simple commandment - "neither shall you covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." We lay waste to our moral-compass by disregarding simple truths, religious commandments. America was once a God-fearing nation, we jettison notions and values at our peril. Care to draw a figure for me of the impoverished employed by the poor? Envy creates misery. Our own politics in the US prove this, there is an absolute moral component to every ill we face.


Fifth point - You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. The Federal government cannot encourage home ownership by arm-twisting bankers into loans without merit, by skewing the simple laws of economics at ever front. Our economy proves this. Our government cannot pull us out of our malaise by adding debt to future generations, by noosing their collective necks. Liabilities today from our beloved government, all entitlements included, are 100 trillion dollars. A mind-numbing figure that defies all sanity. The solution to this debt of morality and finance? The creation of more entitlement programs, thus nearly ensuring our doom. Our society cannot escape simple math, the Founders would believe us to be doomed by such idiocy and folly. Is it all a bad dream?


Sixth point - You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatreds. Refer to points, 1-5.


Seventh point - You cannot establish security on borrowed money. The entire foundation of our government today comes crashing down on this truth. The 'Stimulus' bill, Socialized Medicine, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Insecurity, every dollar spent to bankrupt and rob future generations....empty promises from a broken government nearing the stage of insolvency from an addiction to debt. Echoes and whispers from American families at the dinner table all across the nation, "We can't run our household like that, why can Washington.....?" They can't and they put the most vibrant experiment in freedom in peril on a daily basis.


Eighth point - You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence. "The power to tax is the power to destroy" - John Marshall 1819. You take an individual soul when you take his ability to earn a living for himself. You take an earnest reason to awake early with a purpose. You take his dignity. You take his struggle for a good life, for the American Dream. You take everything.


Ninth point - You cannot help men permanently by doing for them by doing what they could do and should do for themselves. The essence of Liberty and our Founding. The essence of our God-given abilities and unique character. The essence of the fight to save our nation from the cancer of the State. The essence of the Pursuit of Happiness. The essence of the freedom to succeed of fail. The essence of our fight today. The essence of We the People.