No Longer Self-Evident?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.  They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government......

--The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

July 4, 1776

  

It wasn't that long ago that the truths mentioned by our founding fathers were self-evident.  They weren't up for debate.  We knew that we were endowed by our Creator with these rights.  The  government worked for us, not vice versa.  Somewhere along the way we lost sight of these truths.  We have allowed the government to grant us our rights.  The problem with the government granting rights?  The government can also rescind the same rights.  The government no longer derives its power from the consent of the governed (us).  The government   creates power for itself, if not through legislation, through regulation.  And we, the people, are allowing it and in many cases, even encouraging it.  

If our form of government is destructive to the people's unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (property), and it is our right to alter or abolish that government, how we do we achieve that alteration or abolition?  That is where the first two amendments to our Constitution come into play.  

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Without the right to peaceably assemble, speak freely, and petition the  government; and the right of the people to bear arms,  it would be impossible to secure a free state or ensure the other rights granted by our Creator and guaranteed in the Constitution.  Without free speech or an armed populace, how can the people control the government as it grants itself more and more power?  We can't.  When we lose the rights guaranteed in the first two amendments, all other rights are granted at the whim of the government.  I don't think anyone, right, left, Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian are prepared for that eventuality.  Yet that's where we are heading at a breakneck speed now.  

When guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns.

--Edward Abbey

Secession?

Since the re-election of President Obama, secession has been in the news frequently.  It started with a petition from an individual in Louisiana to be allowed to peacefully secede.  At last count similar petitions by all 50 states had been submitted to the White House's official website.  The number of electronic signatures to these petitions range from just over 4,000 to over 100,000 at the time of this writing.  I do question the wisdom of creating a personal account, including all your personal information to the website of this administration, in order to criticize them.  After all, they have shown a great deal of grace and tolerance of opposing viewpoints (sarcasm intended).  The media, with voices muffled because they are soooo far up the backside of, umm I mean because they are so deep in the pocket of the president, have been very vocal in their criticism of these petitions.  Most have focused on the legality of secession.  In fact, Supreme Court Justice Scalia has been quoted saying that secession is only legal with the permission of the United States government.  The scary part of that argument is that Scalia is one of the conservative justices.  If those quotes are actually reflective of his opinion, we are further lost than I had feared.  The basis of our Constitution and the foundation of our country is found in the Declaration of Independence.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.  They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights...."  The government does not grant these rights.  We were endowed by our Creator with these rights.  The next, less quoted portion of the Declaration deals with the people "empowering" a government and the right given the people by "Nature, or Nature's god" to dissolve a government when it no longer serves the people.  Now, I'm no Supreme Court Justice, but that seems pretty clear.  Nature, Nature's god, or our Creator granted rights to the people.  The people grant the government power to govern.  That's the chain of command, so to speak.  The government is not at the top of the chain, but at the bottom.  We and our government need to remember, or in some cases, learn this basic fact.  While I don't think we have reached the point where states need to seriously consider the topic of secession, I definitely understand the feeling of a lack of representation of my views and beliefs in our federal government.  That being said, I have absolutely no doubt of the right of the people to secede from a union or government that no longer serves the interests of the people.  I have absolutely no doubt that right is granted by our Creator, not by our government, therefore the government cannot restrict that right.  

Below is the Declaration of Independence in its entirety.  I believe that all Americans need to familiarize themselves with the document and its meaning.  Before talk of secession becomes serious.  In my next posting, I will discuss the easiest remedy to these very serious issues.  Not surprisingly, the remedy is in our founding documents.  We have just strayed from those documents in the past 100 plus years.  

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Glenn Beck and Al Sharpton --BFF!!??

I saw David Barton on Glenn Beck's show about a month ago and he had him on for the full hour today.  He is an American historian/author whose book, Original Intent, looks very interesting.  He is also the owner of the largest collection of pre-1812 American letters and documents.  Coincidentally, he was also part of the commission that rolled back some of the progressive changes to American history in Texas' history curriculum.

He owns one of the twenty-two surviving copies of the Bible actually published by Congress, with a note on the cover page that states that this Bible is published specifically to be used in schools.  Our founders wanted freedom from a "national religion," not separation of church and state as it has been twisted today.   They founded our country on Christian principles, not a specific denomination, but basic Christian principles.  They had no problem with individual states choosing a "state religion," as Massachusetts did until the early 1820's.  The federal government was prohibited from supporting a specific religion, but it was a right reserved to the states.  Like many other areas, the founders were willing to let citizens vote with their feet.  If Pennsylvania wanted to support the beliefs of Quakers; New York, Judaism; Rhode Island, Puritanism; Georgia, Baptist; and California, worship of the endangered fruitfly; the states had the right to do so.  And citizens were free to move from one state to another in pursuit of their happiness.  

Mr. Barton has the hand-written sermons from ministers from many denominations who led church services held in the House of Representatives, founded and attended by Thomas Jefferson.  Obviously his interpretation of "church and state" was much different than that voiced today.  He also encouraged services that were held in the chambers of the Supreme Court!


Another interesting story he told about Jefferson involved his relationship with John Adams.  He and Adams were close during the revolution and in the very early days of the republic.  They had a falling out over differing ideas about the government.  Jefferson felt that Adams was destroying the nation and defeated Adams in the election to become the third president.  The two did not speak for years.  A mutual friend named Benjamin Rusk, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, told Adams about a dream.  He said that in the dream that he, Rusk, was holding a book of letters between Adams and Jefferson and he felt that it was a message from God.  Adams said that he too, believed that it must be a message from God and he made the first move to re-connect with Jefferson.  Mr. Barton now owns the letters between Adams and Jefferson, many of them about the role of religion in government.  One other cool, or maybe spooky point in the letter, Rusk also said that in the dream he saw both Adams and Jefferson would die on the anniversary of the founding of the nation.  Both Adams and Jefferson died on the 4th of July 1826.


The point of his appearance was again how progressives have changed history to meet their points of view.  He went founder by founder from a painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and showed letters and documents written by the men showing their views on religion.  They believed that America should not have a federally mandated religion; that Americans should be free to choose their own religion, or no religion at all.  It seems that today, the only choice the liberals/progressives want Americans to have is whether to let their baby live.


When you get down to principles, America does have a strong, common foundation.  And yes, it is based in Christianity - the Ten Commandments.  We need to get away from the specifics that keep us divided and get to the foundation that we have in common.   Don't let the people at the opposite ends of the spectrum tear the country apart, but allow the strong middle hold it together.  Unfortunately right now our government and media is way to the left or progressive end of the spectrum and is trying to drag the rest of us their direction.   Yesterday the Reverend Al Sharpton was on Glenn Beck's show.  They both admitted that they do not agree on many, if any specifics, but they do have a common belief in the basics or foundation.  They just disagree in how to get down to the foundation, or where to build from the foundation.  That's where the founders' belief in state's rights comes in.  Let each state decide what services to provide, what taxes to collect, what recreational drugs to outlaw, whether to mandate health insurance and even whether women have the right to kill their babies.  Then let the citizens vote with their feet.  But keep the federal government out of it.  If Al Sharpton and Glenn Beck can find a common ground, maybe there is some hope for the rest of the country.

Potato e????

Anyone old enough to remember Dan Quayle remembers his spelling mistake.  A student spells p-o-t-a-t-o.  Quayle says "don't you need an e? P-o-t-a-t-o-e?"  The media ran with that tape.  It ran over and over and over and over.  What an idiot!  Can't even spell as well as a 4th grader!  And the republicans picked him to be vice-president.  Hope President Bush is healthy!

Our current vice-president, Joe Biden asked a congressman at a rally to stand and be recognized.  Problem was the congressman, supposedly a "longtime friend," was in a wheelchair.  Last week, he told a story about another "close friend's" mother, "God rest her soul."  What?  She's still alive.  Well, God bless her!  Then at a big healthcare conference, with C-Span cameras rolling, Biden tells a fellow senator that he has the easiest job in the world.  Don't have to do anything.  "Kind of like being the grandparent instead of the parent."  And of course at the press conference announcing the passage of the healthcare takeover.  Biden again forgets about the open microphone, and says to President Obama, "this is a big f____ing deal!"

Remember the stories about Sarah Palin saying that she could see Russia from her front porch in Alaska?  How stupid!  Only problem, she never said it.  Tina Fey said it in a comedy skit where she portrayed Governor Palin.   Or the NBC morning hostess making fun of Sarah Palin for saying that George Washington was her favorite founding father.  The hostess chose to move Abraham Lincoln back almost 100 years and make him her favorite "founder."

Now we have Rep Steven Cohen from Tennessee saying that the Tea Party is only missing their hoods and robes, and are "followers of George Wallace."  Coincidentally Wallace, like Cohen, was a democrat.  How about congressman Phil Hare a democrat from Illinois?  He is on video saying that he "doesn't care about the Constitution."  He then quotes the Constitution.  Oops, that's the Declaration of Independence.   Then he claims to have read the healthcare law three times.  A total of 8,100 pages!  And he can't answer a specific question about the law.  Still waiting to see that one on the news.  

Former democratic presidential candidate, congressman, and Democratic National Party chairman, Howard Dean stated in an interview, that "of course, the president's agenda is a socialist agenda."  And his advisor/supporter Al Sharpton, says that America "voted overwhelmingly for socialism when they voted for Obama."


But will anyone ever top congressman Johnson from Georgia, yeah, he's a democrat too.  8,000 marines and their families might cause Guam to tip over and capsize!  That's just too easy.  A friend suggested that we import thousands of elephants to the Texas panhandle.  That much weight would tip the state up and make it easy to just scoop up all that oil.  No environmental concerns there!  

I think maybe the president himself topped the list when he claimed that one of the biggest benefits of the campaign was the opportunity to visit "57 states so far."  And he wasn't going to be able to get to Alaska or Hawaii.   Just "one left to go."





And he's the "smartest man in the room???"  Only when he's in a room full of democrats.