The following was originally posted by Joshua Fauver on the Independent American & Constitutional Review on July 5, 2013:
The following was published on the Independent American Party website by IAP Chairman Kelly Gneiting on July 5, 2013.
This weekend we celebrate Independence Day. This year the holiday should be observed as a solemn day of mourning.
Traditionally, Independence Day was a time to celebrate the Independence, Freedom, prosperity, and greatness of America. Tragically, America has fallen from greatness, has had her prosperity plundered by egregiously high taxes and the illegal Federal Reserve, has lost Freedom in everything but name, and is a nation dependent upon its government. America as we thought we knew it is in death throes.
It’s long past time that we as individuals and collectively as a nation asked ourselves: Is this the America that we want to live in? If the answer is yes, then we need only sit back and enjoy our heavy chains of slavery. If the answer is no, then we have a lot of work to do to reverse our present situation. We would be hypocritical and negligent in the extreme to acknowledge that America needs fixing and then to sit back and do nothing. The burden for protecting, preserving and promoting our Liberty rests on each of us. Each generation must win Freedom for itself – our generation is no different.
America was founded on the ideals of personal Liberty and natural law. These sacred principles were codified in our founding documents. We find them most eloquently written in the Declaration of Independence written by the Apostle of Liberty, Thomas Jefferson. Americans today have lost touch with our founding principles and don’t understand what Liberty is. In short, Liberty can be defined as the ability to do anything you choose, so long as you don’t violate someone else’s equal rights.
The Declaration of Independence speaks of “unalienable Rights.” The word unalienable means that the object in question cannot be forfeited, taken away, or given away. Therefore, your rights are yours and yours alone. The government cannot take them away and you cannot give them away. Also critical to remember is that government did not give you your rights. Each of us gets our rights at birth from our humanity. The Founding Fathers understood this overarching principle and devised the most brilliant form of government ever contemplated around it. In the Founders’ Constitution the individual is sovereign and independent and the state is established to defend the individual’s rights. The moment that any government violates its mandate to protect an individual’s rights is the moment that that government becomes tyrannical and illegitimate.
Individuals do not give their sovereignty to government – they temporarily delegate very specific powers to representatives chosen by themselves. The individual retains 100% of his rights 100% of the time. Accordingly, the individual can withdraw his sovereignty from any government that violates his trust. This principle is demonstrated in the words of the Declaration of Independence which read: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [i.e. defending the individual’s Liberty], it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” Government is meant to be subservient to the People – defending their individual rights at all times. And consequently the People’s responsibility is to hold the government’s feet to the fire and ensure that it fulfills its central mandate to protect the individual.
Sadly, America has drifted like a boat without sail or anchor away from the solid foundation of individual rights and personal Liberty. Americans of all stripes have neglected their responsibility to hold government accountable for defending Freedom. By the same token, elected government servants of all stripes and of all political affiliations have worked tirelessly, almost since the nation’s inception, to destroy Liberty and usurp all power for themselves and their financial backers. The result of the People’s negligence and the government’s scheming is that America has turned into a police state with an authoritarian regime dictating to the People while trampling our rights in the name of “security.”
Every sincere, Liberty-loving American should be outraged and ashamed at the flagrant abuses of his rights. America should mourn for all that she has lost. America is the most richly blessed nation in the history of the world, but the American People have squandered their inheritance of Liberty, prosperity, and peace. We have collectively disgraced the memory of those of our founding generation who sacrificed their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to win Freedom and bequeath it to us. That same generation handed down a rich legacy of goodness, of faith, of charity, of limited government, of non-interventionism, of hope, of prosperity, of hard work, of self-sufficiency, and of honoring the rights and sovereignty of the individual. Ask yourself if that legacy still burns bright in your heart and the hearts of your fellow countrymen. If you conclude that it does not, you know that you have much work to do.
This Fourth of July should be spent in solemn mourning, sincere prayer, and personal reflection. Each of us should come out of today with a resolve to defend Liberty, to protect our unalienable rights, to be a little better, to live a more virtuous life, and to call more frequently on the divine assistance of our Creator. The Founding Fathers relied upon “the protection of divine Providence” in their contest for Liberty – and so should we. Without His assistance, America is lost. And in order to merit the Almighty’s favor, we must as individuals and as a nation change our course, keep His laws, honor our rights, do good to our fellow man, and be filled with gratitude for all that we’ve been given.
America – the choice is yours. Will you be free, independent, and great? Or will you continue down the path to tyranny, slavery, and oppression? Each of us must answer this question for himself or herself. Each of us must make a conscious choice between Liberty and death as our forefathers did. The time for indecision is over. You must choose a side.
On this once glorious holiday, we need to take the time to mourn our losses, to reflect on our situation, and to humble ourselves before our God with the determination to preserve our precious Freedom at all costs. History will praise your memory if you make the sacrifices now to stand for Freedom and individual rights. On the other hand, if you neglect this duty, posterity will spurn your name. Political salvation will not come from Washington D.C. – it must begin in your heart and in your home. I pray to the Almighty that His mercy and forgiveness and great power will be over America. I echo our greatest generation when I emphatically declare: “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me Liberty or give me death!”
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“Each of us gets our rights at birth from our humanity”
What? is this fellow trying to say “rights” are “god-given”?
All this talk abt individual rights only is suprious. Our individual rights in the US are protected via a social compact – the constitution, So, even the so-called “Founders” were a part of a society and they wanted to insure the rights they personally wanted for white men who owned property.
And this part abt how the US economy was wrecked by high taxes and the central bank is ridiculous. It was the economic policies of the last 30 some years (Reaganism, Thatcherism; neoliberal classical economics) where the multinational corporations, and the government that they essentially control, created speculatory bubbles, and wages driven to lows not seen in the US since before the “Great Depression”, that allowed the multinationals and the stock exchanges to loot and pillage at will.
“And this part abt how the US economy was wrecked by high taxes and the central bank is ridiculous.”
No, that is actually true.
No, it is not true. There are no facts to back up such nonsensical statements.
High taxes on who? Not on the multinational corporations and the banks that run the show. How do “high taxes” explain the speculatory real estate bubble, and the unregulated derivatives market that used the mortgages to create “investments” out of the bundled mortgages.
“High taxes” does not explain why household and personal income has remained stagnant over the last 30 years or so while the multinational’s after tax profits soar ever higher.
And, rather than just saying “no”, at least make a stab at a reasoned reply, or even facts, if you can find them.
High taxes on who? Mostly on working people and small businesses.
“How do “high taxes” explain the speculatory real estate bubble, ”
That had more to do with the federal reserve. Although, it’s true that the fedgov did push banks to make loans that didn’t make sense and then bailed them out when the bubble burst.
“High taxes” does not explain why household and personal income has remained stagnant over the last 30 years or so while the multinational’s after tax profits soar ever higher.
Taxes have held down economic growth, which is why personal income is stagnant. Big corporations are partnered with the government, receiving numerous direct and indirect support from the government, including keeping their competition from rising up so of course their profits have risen.
The biggest thing government does is redistribute income upwards. The small amount of income it redistributes downwards is just for propaganda value, and most of that actually gets absorbed by the bureaucracy, most of whom are well paid.
Besides, tax rates in the US have declined for everyone over the last 60 years.
I hate to site The New York Times, but actual facts are actual facts, and not ideological sloganeering.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/are-taxes-in-the-u-s-high-or-low/
NYT ignores many of the taxes, regulations which act as taxes, fees, and debt/inflation as a hidden tax.