Shots Across the Bow

There was a time in this country when the people wanted to stand on their own, without a paternalistic government to tell them what to do, where to go, or how to believe. These people wanted that independence so much that they were willing to leave everything they knew behind, friends, families, jobs, and all the securities that come with life in a well regimented society. They left behind health care, educational systems, social services, sanitation systems, police protections, art and cultural support, even the defense of a well trained and equipped military all because they believed that independence of thought, belief, and action was more important than these physical securities.

To be sure, there were many who did not leave voluntarily, but were exiled because of their inability to accept the status quo in a decadent and decaying society, characterized by a rigid class system that decreed a man should not rise above his station.

I think about all of those people, willing to sacrifice so much, all in order to take a chance, and with no guarantee of success. If they failed, there was no government safety net to catch them. They had to rely on the kindness of their fellow man, or they died. And many of them did die. Hostile natives, disease, famine, war; these all killed many of the men and women who took that magnificent leap of faith. And they knew going into it that death and failure were strong possibilities, but they chose to go anyway, because independence was more important to them than life itself.

These strong, brave men and women crossed the ocean and carved out a new life for themselves, and a new nation for their children. And when the old world tried to restrain them, they threw off the shackles of the past and embraced an uncertain destiny. They rebelled against the government that tried to control them from across the ocean. They defied the mightiest military force in the world. Again, there were no guarantees of success. In fact, the most probable outcome was humiliating, crushing defeat. Just like in the previous generation, when the majority elected to stay home in comfort and security, while a brave few chose to risk everything to stand as free men, limited only by their own abilities and their own character, in the new colonies, most of the people wanted to cling to the government, to accept the indignities and insults offered by a mad tyrant rather than to risk their prosperity and their security in a bid for freedom. Yet a few brave patriots stood against the tyrant and boldly proclaimed that they were free men, citizens, not subjects. On July 4th, they signed a document that pledged their Lives, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor in the cause of freedom. They were willing to give up everything in order to win the one thing that truly matters.

Just over two centuries later, men and women who feel the same way are not just mocked and scorned, but are called dangerous, and potential terrorists. The government of the United States published an article that said that carrying a copy of the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence is a sign of a potential terrorist. A man who believes in the exact same ideals as the men who founded this nation is considered a potential criminal by that same nation.

How far we have fallen!

We've gone from a nation of men who fought and died for the right to succeed or fail based solely on our own merits to a nation of children who look to the government to ensure that all of our most basic needs are met. The prosperity that was earned by our ancestors' willingness to risk failure has turned us into cowards who seek security over freedom, welfare over opportunity, and dependence over independence. The people of the United States are now demanding that their state and local governments take bailout money from the federal government, no matter what strings may be attached. They are willingly surrendering their basic rights and freedoms in order to accept handouts from the federal government. They would rather be taken care of than take care of themselves.

The United States were a noble experiment in maximizing independence and individual liberty, but after a promising start, the experiment failed. The people have voted to give up everything their ancestors struggles, fought, and died for. We've come full circle, from giving up the comforts of being a subject in favor of independence to giving up that independence in favor of being subjects. Our history has demonstrated that the majority of people are not equipped to handle freedom, that they need and want to be taken care of, to be told what to do. Independence has always been the dream of a minority of people. Only a hardy few chose to leave Europe to find that freedom, and a generation later, only a few stood for independence from tyranny. Today, there are only a few who still believe that opportunity and independence are more important that safety and security, and those few risk arrest and retribution. We've come full circle, from rejecting a paternalistic tyrant in order to gain the freedom to excel, to rejecting freedom in favor of a maternalistic tyrant.

You can have freedom, or you can have security.

You can't have both. The freedom to achieve is also the freedom to fail, and bear the consequences of that failure. If you attempt to limit one side of the equation, you automatically limit the other side as well. As a nation, we;ve chosen security.

Our ancestors would be ashamed.

Commenting is not available in this site entry.