Let Freedom Ring! "Thoughts about Independence Day, 2011"

Wow, what happened to the last 235 years?  Seems like only yesterday that we got together to declare our land free from the rule of the British!  Well, I wasn't there at the time; so I guess that's what happened.

Amid the fireworks and picnics, many forget what why we are celebrating in the first place.  Let's see - was it freedom or liberty?  What's the difference?  Simply - "Freedom" gives us the opportunity to do things without being held back.  "Liberty" is a little more constrained.  Liberty puts you under the rule of conscience and has a limit through consequences of your actions.  Liberty must be exercised by the restraints of laws, morals and ethics.  These must be collectively decided.

This is why we have the form of government we have in the U.S.A.  It was designed, having three branches; to keep each in check.  We enjoy a republic; not a democracy.  What's the difference? Simply again - in a democracy the majority of the people govern.  In a republic the people decide, through elected representatives, the rules by which to govern.

Perhaps, after 235 years, we should take a look to make sure things are running properly in our government!

Thomas Jefferson, who was the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, clearly understood the responsibilities of those who would govern America.  Below is a partial list of some quotes from Jefferson.

• I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
• The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.
• I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, to many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.
• The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
• When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
• The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.
• The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.
• I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
• To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
• Most bad government has grown out of too much government.
• Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.

Comparing our situation under British rule and that which we are now allowing from those we have elected to Congress, makes it more clear as to why the "Grass Roots" movement is now called, the "Tea Party"!

I agree with Patrick Henry, who said, "Give me liberty, or give me Death!"  Should this year's Independence Day celebration be our last?  God forbid!  May the people work together to make things right again!

"If we, the people, hold fast to and live by beautiful ideals, they are bound to be enacted by our government, for, in a republic, the ideas of the people reach upward to the top instead of being handed down." 
Laura Ingalls Wilder