Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. - 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)

According to Kris Kristofferson in his song, Me and Bobby McGee, “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” I agree with him. When everything else is lost, if you choose it, you still have freedom. 

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America begins:

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. 

In our founding declaration, we affirmed to the world and acknowledged before God, that freedom is God given. For most of our country’s history, we have defended the affirmations in our declaration. Americans have sacrificed their lives to defend the spirit of freedom, even in foreign lands. Because we have understood and defended the principle that men are the guardians of freedom and not the givers of it, our country is blessed. For many years, men, considering themselves progressives who would move us to something better, have tried to nudge us away from the enduring principle that forms our nation’s foundation.

Men can take from you material possessions, but they cannot take freedom because unlike material things freedom does not originate with men. Men have the free will to choose so it is only by choice that freedom is lost. People who are not free are so because they made men the givers of freedom by permitting them to make seemingly insignificant choices that they should have made for themselves. That was their first precarious step taken down a primrose pathway. A pathway painted by men who desire to control other men and who aspire to replace God as the givers of freedom. These progressives promise that their pathway leads to utopia when truthfully it leads directly to living hell. It is only utopian for them because they will not abide by the freedom restricting rules that they will impose on everyone else.  When we allow men to replace God as the givers of freedom, freedom is lost.

Just as man cannot give you integrity, dignity, courage, your values or cannot determine whether you live honorably, neither can he give you freedom.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. – Galatians 5:1 (NIV)

As Americans, we can continue as the guardians of freedom or our citizenry can submissively slip the yoke of slavery around its neck.

C. S. Lewis tells us:

Most, I fancy, have discovered that to be born is to be exposed to delights and miseries greater than imagination could have anticipated; that the choice of ways and any cross-road may be more important than we think; and that short cuts may lead to very nasty places.

Bound by the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness endowed to us by our Creator, choices for now are ours to make in the United States of America. If living in a cardboard box is your idea of the pursuit of happiness and you are not breaking any laws, infringing on the rights of others, or insisting that others provide for your needs, then that is a choice you are free to make. Allowing other men to choose for you is a short cut that may lead to very nasty places.

I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete. – Luke 6:47-49 (NIV)

The cornerstone of our nation’s foundation is trust in God and God given freedom. Preserved on this foundation is our most enduring principle. We arrive in this life as free men with unalienable rights, blessed by God, and equipped with the ability to reason, choose and distinguish right from wrong and good from evil. God instilled that spirit of freedom in the hearts of all men, not just those who were fortunate to have been born American. Being born in the world’s freest nation is indeed a blessing, but being born here does not ensure freedom.

The gift of freedom and the blessing of life in the United States of America obligate us to defend the one place on this earth founded on the principles of trust in God and God given freedom. Allowing men to be the givers of freedom will crush the rock on which our nation stands. We must protect the foundation that lights the one true pathway of hope for the un-free world.

© 2009

I have been standing by waiting for the multitude who I am told are busily knocking on doors and inviting citizens to sign a pledge of allegiance to the President and his dangerously socialist, freedom restricting, free market destroying policies.  I have something special planned for them.  I am curious, however.  Is this legion comprised of the same people that hope to be able to show up at the doors of non-union workers and intimidate them into voting for a union they may not want?  While pondering that, the old Fats Domino tune, I Hear You Knockin’ popped into my head.
 
“You went away and left me long time ago
Now you’re knockin’ on my door
I hear you knockin’, but you can’t come in
I hear you knockin’, go back where you been”

First, let me assure you that as long as there is breath and a heartbeat in this body and my soul remains free of Faustian influence, I will not pledge allegiance to any mortal man.  Especially the lying, thieving vermin variety of mortal man that is now common to Washington, DC and its elitist sport of politics.  I do pledge my allegiance to some ideals of which I have grown fond.  Time honored and proven ones that are at the center of our national soul.  In God We Trust and the ideals of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness that many have sacrificed their lives to protect and defend come to mind.   For years America has been stuffing God into its collective closet while bringing all manner of beliefs out of it.  How many times have you heard of someone being vilified for wearing his religion on his sleeve by a person who proudly wears his commitment to deviancy on his or hers.  God and those quaint ideals of individual liberty viewed as critical to our nation’s core by our founding fathers have never been more in peril of being lost to Americans than they are presently.

Just the other day, I was watching episode 3 of the Star Wars saga.  If you are curious, I have yet to watch all the episodes in sequence.  Although recent life events have provided me with the brain numbing time to do so if I choose.  In one scene, Luke and Leah’s future mother - and Darth Vader’s future bride – commented, as the Emperor stood before the Senate and declared the end to the Republic and the establishment of the Empire, “so this is how liberty is lost, to thunderous applause.”  I thought it reminiscent of some recent scenes in American politics on which I will let your mind dwell.

Anyway, back to the door knocking multitude.  I thought quite hard about how to best express my position concerning their mission and the general direction politicians appear destined to take our country.  Having figured it out, I went out to the back porch to test it.  Bending forward and pointing my plump rear end east, which from my humble hill side is the general direction of Washington DC, I dropped my jeans.  It turns out that the general direction of Washington DC is also the direction of my neighbor’s property just up the hill.  I heard a little bit of a yelp (a yelp lies somewhere between a gasp and a scream) just before my neighbor’s wife fell over the banister and rolled half way down the hill into my backyard.  I looked up just in time to observe him driving his lawn mower into the wood pile.  Apparently he was so enamored with my exposed hind parts he never saw the wood pile coming.  There has not been that much excitement around the neighborhood since my 85 year old neighbor grabbed the tube of Ben Gay when he meant to grab the tube of Preparation H.

Anyway, legion, I am ready when I hear you knockin’.

© 2009

It could be that you despise Rush Limbaugh and everything for which the man professes to stand.  How you feel about Mr. Limbaugh and what he has to say does not matter.  The law of the land, The United States Constitution, gives him the right to express his opinions.   Our freedom to choose gives us the right to listen to him or not.  Our God given ability to think and reason provides us the capacity to believe him or not.  Our social conditioning, however, too often tempers our ability to think and reason causing us to replace the weight of logic and facts with the weight of emotion.

There are many people whose social and political views I reject.  I reject their opinions mostly because they emanate from a center that is locked in group think – drowning in cherry flavored Kool-Aide.  They are not opinions that generally stem solely from principle.  They are opinions or beliefs that ascribe to identity first with commonsense and reasoning trailing a distant second.  As humans are prone to do, we have placed them into neat little categories that trigger our emotions one way or the other.  We refer to them as conservative, liberal, gay, progressive, evangelical, black, white, feminist, hyphenated…. each of them meaning different things to each of us depending on our own social conditioning or moral underpinning.  I do not believe, however, that each time a member of one of these manmade categories of people exercises his Constitutional right to express an opinion that I or anyone else should get equal time in the same forum, in his space, to provide the opposing view.

To logically implement such an ideology each time Michael Moore or Oliver Stone made a film, Hollywood producers, distributors and movie houses would have to give equal time to filmmakers who present the same stories in a differing view.  Each time that Hollywood produced a movie making a mockery of the United States Armed Forces, they would have to give equal time for an accurate portrayal of the people who defend their right to free expression.  Whenever Chris Matthews announced the tingle running up his leg there would have to be time given for expression of the anti-tingle viewpoint.  None of that will ever happen.  It is not intended that it ever happen.  That is why attempts to force equal time when the opinions do not cause Chris’ leg to tingle are wholly dishonest.

You simply cannot force people, with legislation, in to listening to or reading opinions in which they have no interest.  If an opinion is offered for public consumption and most people choose to not listen to it, emotional arguments and demands for equal time will not force them to listen.   A law that requires equal time for all views will only serve to suppress dissenting voices.  Legislation such as the Fairness Doctrine or “diversity in media” requiring equal time in a commercial media enterprise would only serve that purpose.

One of the legs of fascism is the repression of opposition.  Another, if you are interested, is the centralized control of private enterprise – bailouts anyone?

© 2009

In sports, I never achieved anything beyond weekend warrior status.  I learned, however, that if you battled hard winning was always a possibility.  You never gave up until the last out and the bleacher bums stood and bellowed out a chorus of na-na-na-na, hey-hey- hey, good-bye.  The code of conduct in the United States Army demanded that I never give up as long as I had the means to resist.  Winners never learn to accept defeat.  As General Patton reminded us, Americans love winners and despise losers.
   
The military leaders or sport coaches I have known would never stand before the led proclaiming doom.  What Soldier would willingly march into battle if his leader told him it was hopeless?  What athlete would walk onto the field ready to battle for victory if the dugout speech only lamented to him the sad state of affairs?  Such proclamations and lamentations do not inspire.  They cause one to fortify his defensive position and wait or toss his muddy cleats into his bag, conceding defeat without taking the final stab at winning because no leader inspired him to try.  Since the leadership convinced him that there is little chance of victory, he simply hopes to hold on to what he has. 

Uninspired people do not focus on achievement or winning.  The American can do attitude that made us a great nation of achievers turns to survival.  Uninspired people brace for the promised worst that is on the horizon.  It is a mindset adverse to the risk taking that has identified Americans since our nation’s founding.  Uninspired people do not risk their treasure on new ventures.  Instead, they hide it away.  After all, they most certainly will need it as they speed along toward the proclaimed catastrophic destination of which their leaders keep reminding them.
   
There is an axiom that says an army of lambs led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a lamb.  Leaders must inspire by words and deeds.  We are a nation of lions and liberty loving people because lion-like leadership always inspired us to fight through difficult periods.  Give me liberty or give me death; we have nothing to fear, but fear itself; tear down that wall….  Inspiring words spoken to inspire a people toward greater things.
   
What if Patrick Henry insisted that the price of liberty was too high?  What if President Roosevelt told a nation at war to fear what lies ahead?  What if President Reagan lacked the courage to confront communism and demand that the Berlin Wall come down?
    
Our President and Congressional leaders must inspire Americans toward greater things.  They must offer at least a glimmer of optimism about the future - some hope maybe.  From crisis to catastrophe and worse before better, are not words that offer inspiration.  Instead, they build fear and anxiety.
 
Fear and threats may scare people in to following, but timidly and for only a short distance.  Fear creates a following that watches and waits for the promised crisis borne catastrophe.  If the calamity does not come about, the timid following becomes no following.  However, if you inspire people with your words and deeds and be their positive example, they will follow you through hell and back.  And do so while toting 5-gallon cans of gasoline.