Everybody should know what an earthquake is. It is how they are caused that I would like for them to think about. Earthquakes occur when pressure that has built up between tectonic plates in our earths crust is finally released. This sudden release of tension can be felt in the form of a mild tremor, or a violent shaking which is capable of causing catastrophic damage.

That same principle can apply to people as well. I am sure you are familiar with the old saying, “The straw that broke the camels back.” When applied to a people it often means that a persons threshold for dealing with stress has been reached, and any more stress causes them to react violently to any more stimulus.

Do the names Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris ring a bell? They are the two students who went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School. According to official police reports, bullying played a large part in pushing them to go on to commit their suicidal attack. Who knows what was the final straw that pushed them over the edge?

On a much larger scale, events may occur which cause a group of people to reach the point where they cannot, or will not tolerate any more stress. Such was the case in our nation’s history when Thomas Jefferson penned the following words, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.”

Repeatedly the colonies had sought relief by way of numerous petitions to their sovereign, all to no avail. Things eventually got to the point where people had reached the boiling point. When the Kings Army marched to Lexington and Concord with the intent of confiscating their weapons, the colonists took a stand against the Kings oppression.

Volumes have been written about the abuses of power that led our founders to revolt. The final straw was when the Kings Army tried to deny the colonists what we now know as our Second Amendment rights.

Has our country reached that point once again? Recent events seem to indicate that things may indeed have reached critical mass once again. The wrath of the people which has been unleashed upon their elected officials at many Town Hall meetings seems to indicate that people are flat out fed up with their government. The question then is this, are they mad enough to once again take a stand against their government?

That question remains to be answered, but there are many who believe that we are indeed on the verge of another revolution in this country. Whether you believe that or not, you would have to be blind not to see the overall distrust, and in some cases, disgust people have for their elected representatives.

Some are just fed up with the way our country is being run, the economy, or a host of other issues. Then there are those who see something much more serious, and sinister going on.

If you look back to our nation’s patriotic songs, they are filled with references to the land of the free, or sweet land of liberty. The protection of those principles formed the foundation upon which our system of government was created. Sadly, it seems that people no longer give much thought to such lofty principles.

Comedian George Carlin once said, “Americans are f***ed. They’ve been bought off. And they came real cheap: a few million dirt bikes, camcorders, microwaves, cordless phones, digital watches, answering machines, jet skis, and sneakers with lights in them. You say you want a few items back from the Bill of Rights? Just promise the doofuses a few new gizmos.”

We have become content to allow our government to tax us into poverty as long as they pass laws that protect us from each other, our own stupidity, and take care of us when we are in need of assistance. In the process we have ignored them when they have shredded the Bill of Rights. We took them at their word when they said it was for our own good that our rights be restricted.

Thomas Jefferson warned us about such changes in attitudes, “Time indeed changes manners and notions, and so far we must expect institutions to bend to them. But time produces also corruption of principles, and against this it is the duty of good citizens to be ever on the watch, and if the gangrene is to prevail at last, let the day be kept off as long as possible.”

As a nation, we are about as far from being free as we can possibly get without actually having chains attached to our ankles. We have never known true liberty, but Jefferson described it as, “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.”

There are some who find these restrictions, regulations, and taxes on almost every aspect of their lives perfectly acceptable. I do not, I find them an affront to my God-given rights.

This nation used to be governed by the rule of law, with the Constitution being the Supreme Law of the Land. That law is no longer binding only because we have refused to hold our elected officials accountable to it.

Our government was established to represent the people, as long as the wishes of the people were within the bounds placed upon our government by the Constitution. We are not, nor have we ever been, a democracy where the majority has the right to impose their will upon the minority.

If you wish for your government to regulate your lives, restrict your rights, and tax your earnings for whatever purpose makes you happy, so be it. Just remember this, you have absolutely no right to expect the same from those of us who want the government to stay out of our lives.

How would you like it if the majority of the people in your neighborhood came to your house and demanded that you no longer watch sporting events, that you listen to only country music, and that you subsidize their lifestyles?

You might get a bit upset. Well, imagine how I feel when you ask your government to pass laws which impose your vision of a perfect society upon me. Not only do you not have the right to force that upon me, the government has no authority to do it either.

My rights are mine, and mine alone. Neither you, nor my government have the right to infringe upon them. As author Ayn Rand once said, “Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”

There are those of us in this country who will no longer remain silent as our government continues to ignore our desire to be free of their unconstitutional laws, and infringements of our natural rights.

I am sure you have heard the old saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Well, two hundred million wrongs don’t make a right either. Just because the majority of the people in this country are ignorant in regards to the legal powers granted their government by the Constitution does not change the fact that what they have been doing is illegal.

You may write us off and call us names, but if you keep pushing there will come a time when, just as did for our nations founders, when we will take a stand against any further infringements of our rights.

Who knows what event will be the straw that broke the camels back for the remaining freedom loving Americans in this country? Just rest assured that the day will come if our government does not back off.

Joke about it all you want, but for your sake you had best pray that it is not you, or someone you love, who is the one who unleashes all this pent up anger.

If you don’t believe me, keep pushing for government run health care, more taxpayer funded bailouts of the private sector, or even more talk about comprehensive immigration reform. More importantly, keep pushing for any further restrictions of our Second Amendment rights.

You would do well to remember your history. Just as it was the Kings Army trying to take away the colonists weapons which was the straw that broke the camels back, it may once again come down to our governments continued infringement of our Second Amendment rights which causes another shot to be heard around the world. History does not have to repeat itself, but from my perspective it certainly is on course to do just that.

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning, Satan shudders and says “OH SHIT!!…. HE’S AWAKE!!”

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?“

~ The Author ~
Neal Ross can be reached for comments at bonsai@syix.com. Visit Neal’s Blog at http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal