Let Freedom Ring
Last Sunday, one of the older gentlemen in my ward spoke up about what he sees as a threat to our freedom. There is a movement, he thinks, to remove "In God We Trust" from our coinage. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Madalyn Murray O'Hair has been dead for more than ten years. At any rate, it got me thinking. If people who are concerned about American liberty spend their time sweating irrelevant crap like the motto on the coinage while at the same time we're being sold down the river by an ever-growing number of regulations, laws, and real limits on personal exercise of freedom, we deserve what we get.
The US is not one whit more a religious, God-fearing nation with that motto on our coinage than without. God is not so stupid that he can be fooled by what he reads on the back of a quarter. But I believe that he is, and we should be, concerned by the real erosion of individual liberties in this country. That process of erosion began about ten minutes after the Constitution was ratified, because there is always someone who, given a little bit of power, wants to use it to lord it over others (see D&C 121). That process has been accelerated by the War to Extend Federal Domination (or "Civil War" [sic]) in the 19th century, by the Cold War paranoia in the last century, and especially by so-called "national security" concerns in this century post-9/11.
People in this country do not own their real property (it can be forfeited for nonpayment of property taxes or taken away when the city decides it can make more money on it by giving it to someone else), or their labor (the government decides what hours they can work and what price they can charge for their services and in some cases whether they can work at all).
Most of these restrictions do not affect most Americans on a day-to-day basis. But a country is only free when everyone is free; if this stuff doesn't affect you, it just means you're one of the relatively-privileged (thus far). Your ox may not have been gored yet, but as Pastor Niemoller put it (in one version):
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Will you speak up?
From 9thmoon, some food for thought:
Today, [my friend] and I are going to celebrate our freedom by exercising our Second Amendment rights. We're going to drive my (licensed, inspected, registered) car on (inspected, taxed) public roads to the (licensed, inspected, insured) private indoor range, shoot some (registered, inspected, taxed) ammunition, and then go enjoy some third-world cuisine and (taxed, regulated, controlled) booze at a local, privately-owned (licensed, inspected, registered, insured, taxed) restaurant.
Freedom is great!
The US is not one whit more a religious, God-fearing nation with that motto on our coinage than without. God is not so stupid that he can be fooled by what he reads on the back of a quarter. But I believe that he is, and we should be, concerned by the real erosion of individual liberties in this country. That process of erosion began about ten minutes after the Constitution was ratified, because there is always someone who, given a little bit of power, wants to use it to lord it over others (see D&C 121). That process has been accelerated by the War to Extend Federal Domination (or "Civil War" [sic]) in the 19th century, by the Cold War paranoia in the last century, and especially by so-called "national security" concerns in this century post-9/11.
People in this country do not own their real property (it can be forfeited for nonpayment of property taxes or taken away when the city decides it can make more money on it by giving it to someone else), or their labor (the government decides what hours they can work and what price they can charge for their services and in some cases whether they can work at all).
Most of these restrictions do not affect most Americans on a day-to-day basis. But a country is only free when everyone is free; if this stuff doesn't affect you, it just means you're one of the relatively-privileged (thus far). Your ox may not have been gored yet, but as Pastor Niemoller put it (in one version):
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Will you speak up?
From 9thmoon, some food for thought:
Today, [my friend] and I are going to celebrate our freedom by exercising our Second Amendment rights. We're going to drive my (licensed, inspected, registered) car on (inspected, taxed) public roads to the (licensed, inspected, insured) private indoor range, shoot some (registered, inspected, taxed) ammunition, and then go enjoy some third-world cuisine and (taxed, regulated, controlled) booze at a local, privately-owned (licensed, inspected, registered, insured, taxed) restaurant.
Freedom is great!