How Much is Freedom Worth?

By Ron Ewart

How much is freedom worth? What would you give up to repeal half of all the unnecessary, draconian and insane laws, restrictions, regulations, acts and ordinances that you now live under? Laws, acts, restrictions, rules and regulations that are the wish list of special interest groups (lobbyists), using the government as their lever to get those laws passed. Or laws by legislators and lawmakers that think they know what is best for you, even if it violates your individual, constitutional rights?

As an example, in Washington State, 1,205 employers spent $38,700,000 to influence laws and legislation coming out of the 2007 legislative session. This lawmaking by special interest is going on in every other state in the nation and it is even worse in Washington DC. Do the laws being passed represent the Consent of the Governed, or do they represent special interests with a bias to grind, or an agenda to promote? Or how about the laws passed by legislators, looking only to re-election and the continuance of their power, by any means?

How much of a sacrifice would you make to roll back this incessant cradle-to-grave mentality that is being foisted upon you by your government and special interests? While you sit in relative comfort, comfort that was paid for and secured by the blood of millions of men and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice for you, (and still are) how much are you willing to pony up to make sure their sacrifice was not in vain? How much would you contribute to preserve freedom and liberty for your children and grand children? A finger, a hand, an arm, or perhaps a leg, maybe even an eye? Would you give up a car, or a boat, truck, airplane, ORV or other toy to see that freedom and liberty were preserved, protected and defended for this and future generations?

Maybe you wouldn't give up any of them because you believe that your freedom is just fine the way it is. After all, getting a permit to do anything is just a minor inconvenience, albeit time consuming, outrageously expensive and probably totally unnecessary. But so what? Certainly it is no great bother to you that illegal aliens stream across our border by the millions, in violation of our laws and get free benefits, paid for by our taxes. And why should you care, that rural landowners are having to bear almost the entire burden of environmental protection, while city folk get off virtually scot-free?

The fact that your children are being brainwashed and indoctrinated in our public schools and colleges should be of no great concern. You can't see it from your house, right? And who cares that the U. S. Senate is about to ratify the Law of the Sea treaty that will cede our very sovereignty to a foreign power? Or what difference will it make to you if your government is successful in establishing the North American Union that will blur our constitution, our borders, our culture, our values, our virtues and yes, maybe even take away our very freedom? And it makes no never mind to you that your government uses the heavy hand of eminent domain to take property from private landowners they don't really need and at reduced values, driven down by their overt actions.

The fact that gasoline is going sky high shouldn't bother you any. You have plenty of money, don't you? But you can look the other way even if the cost of gas is directly related to special interests lobbying your government to stop new oil production, power generation, or refinement capacity. Would you invest money in building a refinery if it took eight years to permit and the cost of construction was so high that you weren't sure you could even earn a profit after it was built? But then we can always solve our total energy problems with wind and sun power, or by all means, ethanol from corn. Hardly!

And then there is man-caused global warming. It must be OK with you that your government is going pass even more laws to restrict what you do and to waste trillions of your tax dollars on solutions to so-called man-caused global warming that will have virtually no affect on the earth's climate at all. You are believing all the hype, propaganda, lies and distortions put forth by your government, academia and the news media, even with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But hey, it's just more laws and money.

Now of course, if by some quirk of fate you do recognize that your freedom and liberty is headed for the toilet, you don't have to sacrifice your life, or a finger, a hand, an arm, a leg, an eye, or a boat, truck, airplane, ORV, or other toy. All you have to do is support those of us that are fighting for your freedom with a few of your dollars. That is of course, if you think freedom is worth the miniscule price.

November 10, 2007

© Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved

~ The Author ~
Ron Ewart is the President of The National Association of Rural Landowners and may reached for comment via email at r.ewart@comcast.net.