The Fourth of July, 2018
By: Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
Monarchies and Dictatorships. Socialism and Communism. They all end up at the same place, not a good one for We the People.
And then there is America.
At a time in history when they were needed, America was blessed with a group of men, possessed of extraordinary skills, who were together, in the same place, at the same time in history. And who had an Idea.
That Idea was America.
They were intelligent, brave men who knew how to commit to their country. Men who learned the Art of the Deal early.
After being taxed by an indifferent ruler, they came to the realization that the king was not their "Ally," but that he used them as a Piggy Bank for his own enrichment, not theirs.
Frustrated and insulted, they asked, "How are we to live, prosper, and feed our families when a government, near at hand or across the ocean, takes all our wealth? Taxing us beyond our means."
They saw their homes were no longer "their castles." British soldiers could enter their houses, conducting warrantless searches at will.
When King George ordered confiscation of their arms and ammunition, colonists knew all too well what the king knew: That without their muskets to protect themselves, they were helpless.
It was intolerable, the way it must feel today in Venezuela, a failed Socialist experiment.
Or North Korea, where hunger and the vagaries of Political-Correctness-Or-Else has been elevated to a national standard.
Or in any other country where the elite ruling class gets to keep it all, and the people do not.
These countries are a testament to what the Founding Fathers knew: That we can lose the "war" if we refuse to recognize who the enemy is;
That men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among them Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness;
And that when any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, the people need not endure it.
Because the Government derives its powers from the consent of the Governed, not the other way around.
This is as true today as it was in 1776. It is an Idea we must never forget, no matter how hard the fight. To keep our Constitution. To keep our Laws.
No matter what group, or president, tells us that our Constitution is outdated;
Who insists we should abolish the Electoral College, because they lost;
That we must abolish our borders and remove the men who guard those borders, because "they" want more dependent voters;
And that we must abolish the Supreme Court. If a president they don't like, has the power to choose a SC justice.
Just as in 1776, we must be aware that there are those today who seek to destroy our country, the most successful experiment in governance the world has ever seen.
"America is the only country ever founded on an idea," Charles Krauthammer has said.
"The only country that is not founded on race, or even common history. It is founded on the idea and the idea is Liberty.
"That is probably the rarest phenomenon in the political history of the world; this has never happened before. And not only has it happened, but it's worked.
"We are the most flourishing, the most powerful, most influential country on Earth with this system, invented by the greatest political geniuses probably in human history."
Hold the line, America.
Where We Go One, We Go All