The other day I paid a visit to my chiropractor to see if he could reduce some pain I have been experiencing in my lower back. His partner and I have been corresponding regularly about politics, and I often send him copies of my articles. As I was walking back to the waiting room, the partner saw me and said something along the lines, “Hey Doc, you want to know anything at all about the Constitution, or the writings of the founding fathers, ask this guy, he is the smartest person I know when it comes to those things.”

You know, I have heard that before, from people who send me e-mails, and from some of my co-workers. I have to wonder though, how smart am I? I mean, could I have produced such documents as the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution? I don’t think so.

The way I see it, I am just an average guy who just happens to be able to understand the intent of the really smart men who wrote those documents. Although I despise Alexander Hamilton for his belief that the Constitution should be loosely interpreted, there is one thing he said that I find appropriate to describe me. Hamilton stated, “Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind. I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it… the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.”

I study these things because I cherish my liberty above all else, it is more important to me than ANY program on television, including such major events as the Super Bowl and the World Series.

I read, and re-read the writings of Jefferson, Madison, and the other founders because I am beyond pissed off at how my government has dared to assume powers it was never intended they possess, powers which impose restrictions and limitations upon my ability to freely exercise my rights.

It absolutely boggles my mind that anyone who lives in this country, and partakes of its blessings and opportunities would choose to watch television, instead of opening a book and trying to find out how exactly our government went wrong.

I place much of the blame upon our education system, particularly those who establish the curriculum of study. Noah Webster once said, “Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”

I graduated from high school in the year our nation celebrated its bicentennial, 1976. During my senior year I was required to take a civics class, studying the Constitution and our system of government.

We went over the Constitution, but not once did we ever discuss the intent of the founders. I cannot recall ever hearing of the Federalist Papers, nor the Anti-Federalist Papers until I began studying this material on my own.

And things have only gotten worse. In the 33 years since between the time I graduated and my son graduated, the school system has gone from an entire year of civics to a mere 3 months. The remainder of my son’s senior year was devoted to microeconomics.

What gives? Where is the instruction in the principles upon which this great nation was founded? How are our children being taught to love and take pride in their nation’s heritage?

Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

When our schools do not teach the principles upon which our nation was founded to our youth our freedom becomes vulnerable to attacks because people are not even aware of the limits imposed upon their government, or even what their rights are.

I have found that there are those who are truly interested in learning about the subject matter I write about, albeit they are few and far between. For the most part, however, people may read what I write, but they don’t ponder it, allow it to sink in and give rise to independent thinking on their part. They continue to rely upon me to provide them with their information, instead of going out and seeking knowledge the same way I did.

Sometimes I truly believe that some people think I was born with this information in my head? I guess Ezra Pound was right when he said, “Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.”

How else can you explain that people are so easily fooled by the obviously biased news media, candidates running for office, and yes, the various patriot movement, which claims to call for limited government.

You know, Fischer Ames is probably a name not commonly known by most Americans. Fischer Ames was one of those who voted in favor of ratification of our Constitution, and he also served as a member of the House of Representatives under our new system of government.

Ames once said something that people who support these various patriot movements should pay heed to, “I am commonly opposed to those who modestly assume the rank of champions of liberty, and make a very patriotic noise about the people. It is the stale artifice which has duped the world a thousand times, and yet, though detected, it is still successful.”

It is my honest opinion that these groups, including the Tea Party movement in all its various forms, as nothing more than relief valves. They allow people to gather together, in meetings, and in protests, and blow off steam, thereby taking the pressure off their anger towards their government.

I never hear these Tea Party Patriots calling for any manner of civil disobedience. The still insist on working through the election process to correct the evil that has become our nation’s capital.

Yet, did not Thomas Jefferson declare that, “Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.” If that be the case, why aren’t these people calling upon their members to openly disobey the laws that are unconstitutional?

The thinking of Thomas Jefferson was influenced a great deal by a man named John Locke. Locke once wrote, “whenever the Legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the Property of the People, or to reduce them to Slavery under Arbitrary Power, they put themselves into a state of War with the People, who are thereupon absolved from any farther Obedience, and are left to the common refuge which God hath provided for all men against force and violence. … [Power then] devolves to the People, who have a Right to resume their original Liberty…”

If that isn’t enough to prove to you that the people have the right to, at least, disobey unconstitutional acts by their government, how about this? In Federalist #33, written by Hamilton, we read, “If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify.”

I know that some people have difficulty understanding the language used by our nation’s founders, so let me give you a hand with that last one. When Hamilton said, “as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify” Exigency means; something urgent, needing immediate attention, while prudence means; a tendency to evaluate situations carefully so as to avoid risk.

So, basically what Hamilton said is, if our government gets too big for its britches, then we should, without haste, take whatever proper actions the people deem necessary to put them in their proper place.

You see, if you had paid attention during your civics class you would remember the fact that the Boston Tea Party was an act of civil disobedience in response to a tax imposed by England upon the Tea imported into the colonies.

These acts of civil disobedience were precursors to the shot heard round the world and the commencement of open hostilities between our nation and Britain. The King had refused to respect the rights and liberty of the colonists, so they had no recourse but to take up arms. All their peaceful petitions had failed.

Can you not see the fact that history is repeating itself, right here, right now, before your very eyes? We have allowed this to happen because we did not place our liberty high enough upon our list of priorities. It fell somewhere between taking out the trash and dying. Instead we cared more for our own entertainment, our own gratification than in putting for just a little bit of effort to become educated.

I am going to close with something, and I already know that it is going to upset some people who are regular readers of my articles. In fact I can probably name the ones who will complain, but I don’t care, it needs to be said.

In 1786, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote something called Thoughts Upon The Mode of Education Proper In A Republic. From that I quote, “I proceed, in the next place, to inquire what mode of education we shall adopt so as to secure to the state all the advantages that are to be derived from the proper instruction of youth; and here I beg leave to remark that the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in RELIGION. Without this, there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”

There, in a nutshell, you have it. We have neglected to teach our children the importance of their liberty, and the religious background which forms the foundation for those liberties.

So, you want to fix what’s wrong with this country. Stop voting Republican or Democrat, stop attending Tea Party meetings, and most of all stop believing everything you see on the news. You want to fix this country, get out a copy of the Constitution and read it, learn it, and use it as your guide in who you support for elected office. And finally return to our nations Christian roots.

You may think that I am asking too much, but it is your duty as Americans to do these things. George Mason, another of those founding fathers you probably are unfamiliar with, said, “Every Member of Society is in Duty bound to contribute to the Safety & Good of the Whole; and when the Subject is of such Importance as the Liberty & Happiness of a Country, every inferior Consideration, as well as the Inconvenience to a few Individuals, must give place to it; nor is this any Hardship upon them; as themselves & their Posterity are to partake of the Benefits resulting from it.”

So, there you have it, unplug those damn TV’s and get crackin’. Otherwise don’t complain when things only continue to get worse.

“Smith & Wesson Hollow Points: The only cure for terminal stupidity.” – Neal Ross

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