Happy Birthday America- 234 Years

 On September 17, 1787 the delegates of the Constitutional Convention being held in Philadelphia signed the document that brought into existence the United States of America. Up to that point we were not united in anything except for a desire to be free from English rule, and that was tenuous at its best.

This document was like non other in existence from the beginning of recorded time. It created unity where non existed. It limited government and provided power to the people. Indeed although penned by men, it was heaven inspired.  The document itself was designed to withstand the test of time by building within itself the method and manner in which it could and would be amended. A few years after its ratification by the various States of the Union a Bill of Rights was added to identify those rights which are inseparable to life itself. Rights identified by members of Congress to be God-given and immutable.

A hotly debated topic during the Convention, and one that threatened the very success of this delegation was that of slavery. Many delegates were adamant that slavery must be outlawed in the newly formed republic. The debate became intense with the southern states opposing any document outlawing African slavery. While the northern states were just as adamant about accepting any document legalizing the enslavement of human beings. The more centrists within the delegation knew that there must be a compromise between the two factions or all would be lost, and the republic would not succeed.

These centrists felt it more prudent to compromise at the present time with the full understanding that a later date the subject would be picked back up with a more favorable outcome for the outlawing of human servitude. We all know the story, the delegates were able to reach a suitable compromise for all parties and the convention was a roaring success. The results of that convocation of the best minds in America was the formation of a Nation.

Since its inception, the United States of America has been under attack by those who would change and or eliminate The Constitution of the United States. Whether those attacks have come from outside sources or from within, they have been unceasing. 

For the most part we have withstood all these varied attacks. We've had some moments of what can be deemed "Constitutional Crisis", but these have been resolved and we have moved on as a Nation of laws organized under The Constitution. This has served us well and we have seen the remarkable foresight of the forefathers in the organization of that unique document. 

Most recently we have experienced a time like none other in the history of this Nation. The chaos that has engulfed our large cities throughout the entire country has been widespread and deep rooted. Rooted in what I consider to be falsehoods. It has crippled local economies and turned once thriving metropolises into urban blight. Lawlessness abounds and law abiding citizens are relegated to the back of the proverbial bus while politicians utilize the chaos to further political agendas. 

Recently the Constitution was deemed a deeply racist document by the Biden administration. They declared that the wording found within the document is hurtful and outdated. They have all but unilaterally suspended the Constitution as the law of the land. The government repeatedly ignores the Constitution and workarounds are sought for, researched and created for everything.

America lasted 234 years. We are on life support, and we are coughing our last painful breaths as we slip away into oblivion. I don't recognize my country anymore. I still love it, and I honor the Constitution, and though wicked and idolatrous men and women seek to destroy the liberty and freedom of this people I will "not go gently into that....night".

This Nation can be saved if good men and women stand tall and defend freedom. Let your voice be heard. Remain silent no longer, but raise the warning voice for all to hear. Take back that which is yours, namely the power of the United States. For the power lies with "We the People of the United States", and not in the halls of government. They are but servants to the people and not the people to them. If we do this we will retain our rights as a people and once again be a Nation United.

The Right to Live Free

America was built on a foundation of freedom. I know there are many who would argue that fact because at the founding of this Great Nation slavery was legal and there were almost 700,000 slaves being held in servitude during that time. At the same time there were almost 60,000 free blacks in America when the Constitution was ratified. A number that would increase to almost 500,000 by the start of the Civil War. This was (not is) a sad part of America's history. The reason why I refuse to say that it is a sad time in America's history is because we corrected the wrong, and many people died to ensure it would end.

So, back to my original statement, America was built upon a foundation of freedom. The people who came here wanted to be free They were looking to escape persecution from religious bigots and fanatics. They were looking for the opportunity to be free from serfdom. They were longing for something more than what they had back home. They saw a vast new world and they wanted a chance to make something out of it, and they did.

Where did we go wrong? At what point in our history did we decide that freedom was no longer important? It's hard to really pinpoint a specific event when you look back through the history books; where you can say that you've found the hinge point of American's saying that they'd had enough freedom and needed to reigned in a bit. It sounds a little peculiar to say, but in all seriousness that is what is happening in our Country today. Well did Benjamin Franklin say when he stated, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." 

We seem to be falling all over ourselves as a Nation to embrace socialism that we have allowed our elected officials to outright defy the Constitution and to pontificate upon the merits of socialism and the need to fundamentally alter the state of affairs in the United States to transition to a more socialistic government. Why would we willingly deny our freedom and allow a select group of self-important, high-minded, chest pounding, dream crushing elected officials rule over us? 

I love my freedom. I do not believe that anyone in Washington DC has my best interest in mind. If you do, you are fooling yourself. They sit there imposing their beliefs upon us demanding that we listen to them and do as they say because they know more, and are better suited to make the important decisions. They demand that we the plebs of society do exactly as they have dictated all the while doing the opposite themselves. For example Obamacare. It was passed and forced upon the American people, but in the law they excluded themselves from having to follow the law. And that is just one example of their hypocrisy. 

The Constitution of the United States of America guarantees our freedom by outlining the responsibility of the Federal government. It lays out the distribution of powers among the three branches, and places limits on the expansion or overreaching nature inherent in government. The Founders knew that if not specifically outlined , that due to the nature of man the government would try to consolidate more power and authority than what they were willing to permit. This has flustered the power hungry politicians for over two centuries. Now they just don't care. They have made an end run around the Constitution and they like the feeling of being free from the oppression of limits of power and authority.

If we as a people don't do something we will find ourselves without the protections that the Constitution contains. That document sits precariously upon the precipice of annihilation and we as a Nation are more concerned with what some prince and his wife have to say to Oprah. We need to wake up and stop allowing ourselves to be lulled away into this listless acceptance of whatever we are told to think and believe.

The so called "cancel culture" that has taken root in America has to be challenged or we will lose our individual identity as a people. Group think does not work, It is the individuality of thought that spurs change and improvement in our daily lives. If we allow this to die, our Nation will follow suit and we will have lost.

We need to be alerted to the fact that the government derives its powers from the people, for the people. It exists because we allow it to. We the people of the United States of America established it for the governance of the affairs of this Nation. We do not exist to be governed and directed in our affairs. The overreach of the government has been criminal as of late.This need to tell us how to think and how to live our lives is outright unconstitutional.

My fellow Americans, it is time that we push back against the tide of tyranny or it will push us into the corral of enslavement to an oppressive government. I am not calling for war, but for action. Stand up and let your voice be heard. Push back against those who would enslave you by denying them the opportunity to do so. As a people it is imperative that we understand that this is not a Democrat vs Republican issue. That is more smoke and mirrors utilized to distract from the real issue. We must refuse additional national debt, we must refuse additional encroachment on our freedoms. We must demand answers and responsible governance in accordance with the Constitution of the United States of America.

If we do this we have the chance of saving this Nation, and preserving it for a free people to inherit for as long as we are able to stem the tide of despotism and tyranny. Then we will be a Nation United.

The Hubris of Stimulus

 A lot is being said the past few months about government sponsored stimulus. Of course, stimulus is not solely the result of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, the government likes to utilize the carrot of stimulus to feign action in times of economic crisis.

 

The truth is that stimulus checks do not produce any relief. The bills containing the token payments to the public are rife with bailouts and pet projects. Think about it. They tell the American people, (the tax payers, those upon whose shoulders rest the success of the economy), here’s your pittance in whatever amount they feel will make the dog’s stop barking and then they dole out large swaths of money to special interest groups, and foreign nations. Truth be told, giving billions of American Taxpayer dollars to foreign nations does not necessarily or even remotely benefit the American people. I mean you can squint your eyes, stand on your head, and bounce and you still can’t see a benefit to the American people, initially. Eventually you will get brain damage and who knows you might start seeing that benefit, but barring a major head injury and impaired judgement there’s no benefit.

 

Corporate bailouts do not work like they are “intended” to. Remember TARP and the big insurance companies and banks that were bailed out? A great deal of that money went to shore up overseas business. Bailing out a state suffering from failed policies, does not help either. We have all heard the definition of insanity, right? It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If a state is failing because of its policies and nothing changes and millions of dollars are poured into the state in the form of tax-payer funded bailouts— the same thing is going to happen again and all the money spent did absolutely nothing, but line the pockets of lawmakers and special interest groups. 

 

Do I sound a little cynical here? I hope that I do. Because handing out money doesn’t help. What does help then? Well, the answer is simple. It’s the answer is the same answer used throughout history to spur economic recovery. Granted it’s not immediate in its optics, but it is lasting in its results. That’s the problem with today’s citizen. We are not patient we want something right now, if it’s not immediate we need to whine about it until we get what we want. Look at the great depression, the people were suffering, jobless numbers were staggering, the unemployment rate was 24.9%. I am not a big fan of the New Deal introduced by Roosevelt, but it put people to work on the various government jobs like the TVA, building roads, and etcetera.  As people were able to get back to work the economy began its recovery. Then minimum wage was instituted under the FLSA in 1938, and there was a spike in unemployment. You see companies that were struggling coming out of the depression were unable to pay the required minimum and so they had to let people go. Does this sound a little familiar? It should. We are coming out of a huge world pandemic that has created an economic crisis of global proportions. Many small companies are barely hanging on due to government instituted polices that have kept them either closed or running at minimum capacity. The government is stepping in with their latest iteration of stimulus which includes the $15 minimum wage requirement for employers. This anti-recovery move portends to have disastrous effects upon our employment status within the United States.  But deep down inside we know that is the intended purpose. I recently heard a Democrat Lawmaker respond to the question asked to him about the impact on companies that are unable to pay $15 minimum per hour because they are struggling, his response was that they know that there are some companies unable to pay that, and in all honesty, they didn’t want companies that were not willing to increase pay. In layman terms, small companies can just shut down completely and make room for large corporations to meet the needs of the American consumer. In essence it is the promotion of government sponsored monopolies, or should I use that oft avoided dog whistle, an oligarchy.  That is a subject for another day.

 

The point is that stimulus checks sent to tax-payers are smoke screens for bigger more nefarious things. It’s a way of the government establishing itself as the overseer of everything. Don’t get me wrong, the government has its place. That’s why they are instituted by men. It exists because we will it to exist. Government power and authority is not inherent or inherited. It is granted through the Constitution, by the people of the United States of America. We have allowed this cockeyed view of our relationship to government to completely permeate every aspect of society. The view of an all-powerful government to whom we subject to. A government that has control over every aspect of our daily lives and it keeps growing in its oversight. Now we have a government that believes that it has the power and authority to silence opposition. 

 

Listen to the rhetoric coming from Washington. Talk of reprogramming and eliminating those who don’t hold their world view. The cadence at which this talk is growing is alarming and should cause all freedom loving citizens of this Nation to stand aghast and repulse it with fervor. Our freedom is being eroded away by the under-currents of political bigotry while we are being sold on the surface a desire to strengthen the republic. The infighting between the two major political parties of the day is fueled by rancor and vitriol.

 

The United States of America was built upon a foundation of freedom established by an amalgamation of the people fleeing the very things our government is attempting to do at this very moment in history. The Constitution is only referenced when suitable to the situation, otherwise it is ridiculed and torn to shreds by the very body of people who swore an oath to uphold it.  It sickens me to see the applause that they receive as they declare their disgust for this Nation and their desire to fundamentally alter it into vision of their progressive utopia. 

 

I ask you, the reader a question. If the government were to offer you a guaranteed living wage, housing, food, and medical coverage, would you be willing to relinquish your right to the protections of the Constitution of the United States? If your answer is yes, well congratulations— you are going to get your chance. If your answer is no, you had better do all within your legal power to turn the tide because we are well on our way down this course.

 

If we are to remain free we must be willing to fight within the confines of the law. I do not advocate stuff like what has happening throughout the country with the riots, and occupations of large tracks of America’s cities. Nor do I condone what happened on January 6^th in Washington DC. To me they are one and the same.  You cannot applaud one and condemn the other it is the very definition of hypocrisy. If we do not get a hold of ourselves as a Nation we will never be able to recover what we are losing and will yet lose without the effusion of greats amounts of blood. No, that is not a threat, that is a fact. Once usurped freedom will be a hard fight to regain. My plea is for civility and commonsense legislation that will put America back on track to success and prosperity.  My hope is that we can open our eyes and see the deception before us and the manipulation that is going on. My call is for unity under the Constitution and its principles of freedom. May we ever remain a Nation united!