“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” -  Thomas Jefferson

I have to admit, I’m a little bit confused. There is something about people that I just can’t seem to come to terms with. Maybe if I explain what confuses me, you can help me figure it out. So how about I start out by giving you a few imaginary scenarios to consider.

To begin with, imagine if you invited someone to live in your home, and all this person did was make a mess, steal from you, and invade your privacy. I am pretty sure that if you found yourself in that type situation you would do something about it, wouldn’t you?

Or let’s say you owned a home that, for the time being, was unoccupied. What if someone had told you that it was being broken into and vandalized, would you ignore their claims, or would you make an effort to find out if they were true?

Finally, let’s pretend that you were attending a major league sporting event and your favorite team was on the verge of winning the championship, but there was some guy behind you making lewd comments to your wife. Would you ignore him and continue watching the game, or would you do something to defend your wife’s honor?

While it would seem that the answer to each of these questions is pretty obvious, there is a reason why I asked each of them. If you look at them again you will see that each of them involve something that in some fashion belong to you, i.e. your home, your property, or your wife.

Why did I ask those particular questions? It is because I wonder, how many people realize that this country belongs to them as well? Are they aware that it does not belong to the government to do with as it pleases? Think about the old question, which came first, the chicken or the egg. In this case the answer is pretty straightforward, the citizens came first; it was only by their actions that our system of government was established.

Nobody in their right mind would create a system of government which would reduce the people to utter slavery. Therefore it is safe to assume that our system of government was established to serve the needs of the people. However, those who established this system put into place certain limitations upon the powers of the government which they were creating.

The specific grants of power to this government are found in the Constitution, which is merely a charter, or a power of attorney if you will, which clearly define the objects upon which government may legislate. Did you ever stop to ask yourself why each elected official is required to take an oath to uphold the Constitution? It is only because of that document that they have any authority over us whatsoever, and that oath is their sworn promise, to us, and to God, to abide by the limitations it imposes upon them.

Now let’s see how my scenarios fit into the picture. Why is it that people will take measures to protect the things they possess, but not lift a finger to prevent their government from overstepping their Constitutionally mandated power?

Why is it that a majority of the people care more about what is on television than in learning what powers the Constitution grants to their government?

Finally, why don’t enough people seem to care about those rights, which our nation’s founders felt were so crucial to our liberty, that they were specifically listed, and added to the Constitution as amendments?

You see, that is the point that has got me confused. Is a persons possession any less important than their freedom, or their liberty? The way I look at it, what good are possessions if you are a slave.

I don’t know how many people are aware of this, but former President Bill Clinton once stated, “When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly…. [However, now] there’s a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there’s too much freedom. When personal freedom’s being abused, you have to move to limit it.”

There is so much wrong with that statement that I could devote an entire article to it, but I only want to touch upon one point, which is the following, “When personal freedom’s being abused, you have to move to limit it.”

Has our government grown so arrogant that it thinks that has the power and authority to limit our freedom? What is worse, are the people of this country so uninformed that they believe that rubbish?

I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but nowhere is written in our Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights for that matter, anything which says that the government has the authority to limit our freedom. And I mean absolutely nowhere!

Under our legal system a person may be tried, and punished, when their actions violate another persons rights. But to limit the freedom of everyone because of the actions of a few individuals is unconscionable. Has the term shall not be infringed lost all its significance to people these days?

Allow me to explain something to you. If you recall your American history, the reason our nation fought the War for Independence was because the colonists had grown weary of a “…long train of abuses…” upon their rights. It was only when the Redcoats attempted to seize their arms at Lexington and Concord that it escalated from peaceful petitions and protests to an armed conflict between those who were unwilling to give another inch and those who the colonists considered sought to establish “…an absolute tyranny over these states…” (Quotes courtesy of Declaration of Independence)

Even though our nation suddenly found itself at war, not all the colonists were in favor of going to war, or even wanted independence for that matter. Yet there were enough who felt that they had suffered long enough under the tyrannical rule of the British, and that war was the only way they might regain their liberty.

Each of those who took up arms against their existing system of government understood the risks, and those risks were something none of them took lightly. No one just suddenly up and said, “Why don’t we go out and start a war with England.” War was the last resort of a people who felt that they had exhausted all other courses of action.

Prior to the first shots being fired the colonists had, on numerous occasions, peacefully petitioned the Parliament, and the King, listing in great detail, their grievances, only to have their petitions repeatedly ignored.

If people would just open their eyes, they would see that the same thing is happening again, history is repeating itself right now, in this country. There are a large number of Americans who have had just about enough with the actions of their government.

Most of us have either written, called, and attended peaceful protests to express our dissatisfaction with our governments blatant disregard for the limits to their power, and their continued attacks upon our rights. And just as it happened to the colonists, our petitions and protests have fallen upon deaf ears.

One of our nations most vocal patriots, Samuel Adams, once said, “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people‘s minds.”

Why do people think I spent countless hours researching and writing, trying to find the right combination of words and thoughts; it is to set brush fires in enough people’s minds so that maybe our government would be forced to pay attention to us. Yet all the time and effort people such as myself devote to warning people do not seem to be paying enough dividends; as far too many people continue to show absolutely no concern whatsoever over the ever increasing usurpations of power by their government, and the steady erosion of their rights.

I know it has taken a long time to get to this point, but hopefully by now the point I am trying to get across might be coming into focus. You may have heard from members of the government, and the media, classify us as nutcases, or radicals who pose a threat to the nation. You may believe them. You may also believe that we pose a threat to the various benefits you have grown accustomed to receiving from them. However, as I asked in a similar question earlier, what good are benefits if you are a slave to those who bequeath them?

I am sure that some people doubt what I am saying. They may be thinking our government would have told us, or we would have heard about it in the news. Well, to give you an idea of how truthful your government, and the media are, consider the following for a moment.

We have all heard it time and time again, from both our elected officials and the news media Islam is a religion of peace. It is only those who are radicals and extremists, who are responsible for all the atrocities committed. There are even certain people who claim that the threat posed by Islamic fanatics is merely a tool to be used by our government to instill fear in, and control the people.

What they don’t tell you is that, while the majority of Muslims may very well be peaceful, the small percentage of them who are radicals are a very real threat to our way of life. They are the ones who slaughter Christians for their belief, they are the ones who are suicide bombers, and they are the ones who perform such barbaric acts as stonings, honor-killings and female genital mutilation. All these things are done by a small percentage of those who are followers of Islam.

The point I am trying to make is this, why is it then that if those who do these things are such a small percentage of the Muslim population, why do those who claim to be peaceful practitioners of Islam remain silent in regards to the atrocities committed by a small percentage? They do so because they are fearful for their own safety.

It is very much like those who live in neighborhoods in which there are a large number of gangs, they do not dare speak out about what they see on a daily basis because they too fear for their own safety.

Could the same thing be said about those who live in this country and remain silent when it comes to the atrocities committed against the Constitution by their government? Could they fear that they might find themselves the victim of an IRS audit or other manner of reprisal by any number of government agencies? Or could it be that they just don’t care, as long as they have a roof over their heads, three square meals a day, and something to watch on TV at night?

Getting back to our nation’s War for Independence, those who fought against the crown, as well as those who affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence were considered traitors by the British.

They faced all manner of retribution by the British for their actions, up to, and including the fate suffered by Nathan Hale, hanging. Yet did they waiver in their belief that their liberty was worth fighting for?

No, they were steadfast in their commitment. In fact the final words of the Declaration of Independence state, “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

You may think that those of us who wish to see a return to limited government, and an end to the infringements upon our rights, are itching to start a war. Not true, not true at all. We realize the consequences of war, and it is something we wish to avoid at all costs.

Prior to our first War for Independence there were numerous acts of civil disobedience which took place in protest against the acts of the British. Most notably was the Boston Tea Party, which unfortunately has become the moniker of the Tea Party movement.

You see, I have nothing against the Tea Party movement when it comes to awakening people in regards to the actions of our government, but the original Tea Party was an act of vandalism…on a very large, and costly scale to the British to boot. I have yet to see the Tea Party movement live up to its name by committing similar acts against those who threaten their liberty.

I wonder, how would the media cover it, and how would people react if some group today did something similar? I want you to be honest with yourself now, if something like that happened today, could you blame them for acting out like that? If you had written numerous letters, and made numerous phone calls in protest against a perceived injustice, only to be ignored, wouldn’t you lash out in whatever manner you could against those who you felt had performed the injustice? The act then becomes a warning to those who pose the threat to back off, leave you alone…or else.

If people think a war like that will never be fought upon our soil again, you really ought to study history a bit more. I can’t recall any nation, or empire, whose existence was not marred by civil strife, or war over the course of its existence. Our own Civil War ought to be enough to give you reason to reconsider.

So, to those who think it could never happen, not here, not in America, it happened once, and if you were to pay closer attention to the sentiments of many Americans, it may just happen again.

It is my belief that it is inevitable, that there will come a time when one side pushes the other too far, and shots will be fired. Who will take the first shot, I don’t know. But it won’t really matter, because once the bullets start flying it will escalate, and as Mel Gibson’s character in the movie The Patriot so poignantly stated, “This war will be fought not on the frontier nor on distant battlefields, but among our homes. Our children will learn of it from their own eyes and the innocents will die with the rest of us.”

All this could very well be averted if the silent majority woke up to what their government has been up to. It could be prevented if more people would demand that any and all violators to their oaths of office were imprisoned for their betrayal of the peoples trust. However, unless that happens, eventually this country will find itself in another war.

You have read my articles, you know my position. I am not alone, there are many others, have repeatedly spoken out, tried to awaken people to what is going on. Yet the vast majority of Americans continue to ignore the warnings.

Therefore, not if, but when war does break out, it will be those who ignored our voices who will be to blame, not those who have decided to stand up for what remain of their rights. Hopefully, those who write the history books will get it right as well and record that you are guilty as charged of letting your apathy lead to war.

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