My Freedom, Won’t Be Taken For Granted Anymore
BY BART SMITH, AUTHOR OF B.S. THE BOOK
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for
good men to do nothing." – Edmund Burke
Living in a free country means more to us than we may realize. Of all the countries on earth, what country do people run to most for safety and opportunity? I can only think of one. Yep, you guessed it, "my country'tis of thee," the United States of America!
Why is that? Is it because the governments in socialist and communist countries around the globe are so whacked out and so cruel to their own people that they force their own people to flee the country they were born and raised in just to find work, make ends meet, feed their families or even escape cruel and unusual punishments by these tyrannical governments? Yikes! That's B.S.
If that wasn't enough, it seems there are groups here in America that want to change the our Constitution. What for? It seems that very document, as "outdated" as they may claim, has protected us from ourselves and the potential threat a government turning on "we the people!"
Well, having said that, I would like you to read the following thoughts and remarks made by some of history's great leaders, authors, past presidents and the like when it comes to freedom and defending from all enemies …
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"There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it ever come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their Government, from their carelessness and negligence …" – Daniel Webster "In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." – Thomas Jefferson "Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world." – Daniel Webster (1851) "Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall, straight, and unwavering, they pledged: "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor … They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government! Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. Remember: freedom is never free!" – Unknown "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other man's (own) consent." – Abraham Lincoln "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a valuable, a most sacred right – a right which, we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."– Abraham "Is peace so dear or life so sweet as to be purchased at the chains of slavery? [Forbid it Almighty God!] I know not what course other men may take, but as for me give me liberty or give me death." – Patrick Henry "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Benjamin Franklin "Liberty means responsibility. That is why so many men dread it." – George Bernard Shaw "In short, the ‘house of world order' will have to be built from the bottom up rather from the top down … an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault." – Richard N. Gardner, The Hard Road To World Order, Foreign Affairs, April (1974) "The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." – John Hay (1872) "It is a legitimate American national objective to see removed from all nations, including the United States, the right to use substantial military force to pursue their own interests. Since this residual right is the root of national sovereignty and the basis for the existence of an international arena of power, it is therefore, an American interest to see an end to nationhood as it has been historically defined." – Walter Whitman Rostow, became J.F.K.'s National Security Advisor, The United States in the World Arena (1960) … (What B.S.) As former slave Frederick Douglass observed – "Those who profess to favor freedom yet depreciate agitation are men who want the crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and never will. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose." "In any nation in which people's rights have been subordinated to the rights of the few, in any totalitarian nation, the first institution to be dismantled is the jury. I was, I am, afraid." – Attorney Gerry Spence, "Larry "Republic … it means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose." – John Wayne, Actor "Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." – Winston Churchill |
