Because I say I am!

By Cori Tyler

Sometimes, it seems, people occasionally want to hear our opinions on a few things, or to discuss their own, at least.  If you’ve come to know us at all, you already know that freedom is our most-loved human trait.  Open, honest, free discussion is one of the cornerstones of that freedom, all defended by our Right to Arms.  I’m going to kick off the Last Line Blog with a discussion on freedom, what liberty means to me, and the dangers I see all around today.  I hope you’ll throw a comment or seven below and share your own thoughts.

I’ve seen, and even used to agree with, intelligent people who argued that we don’t actually have any true freedom at all.  They cite several historical examples of countless freedoms being trampled by governments.  I remember reading this and thinking, “Holy crap!  We really have nothing!”  Well, life moved me in directions I never anticipated.  I’ve had to rethink a lot of my own beliefs.  Many came out strengthened, but some also changed.  I’d have to say this is probably the biggest one that’s different for me, now.

Do you know why I’m free?  Is it because my government allows it?  Is it because an academic somewhere defined freedom in such a manner as to match my circumstances?  I say no.  It is neither of those things.  By implying that a government can allow me freedom, the inverse implication is they can take it from me.  I’ve seen it on internet memes, and I can’t think of a better way to say it.  I am free because I say I am.  I know, believe, and behave that I am.

Government can restrict and try to take my freedom, to be sure.  I can be incarcerated, sued, gagged, and indoctrinated.  However – comma – as long as I hold myself as a free person, fight to protect and preserve that freedom, exercise that freedom, and show others what it looks like, I am free.  I have liberty to choose!  I have free will to plan and fight!  I have a voice to speak!

This brings me to the dangers I see for all of our liberties.  It’s like a muscle.  If you don’t exercise it, liberty can waste away until atrophied so much that you can’t use it anymore.  In our society of apathy, it seems to me this is dangerously close to happening.  What’s come to pass, then, is that as peoples’ liberties fall into disuse, there always seems to be a predator who is more than willing to follow closely behind.  I picture a guy with a mustache, with a garbage can and broom on a cart.  “You don’t need THIS anymore.  You haven’t used it in ages!”

It’s hard to even pin it on one political party anymore, too.  To me, that’s a sign of real trouble, when they’re all out to get us.  You’ve got the Left, including the current administration and Senate majority, who treat “journalists” (maybe we’ll discuss THAT profession’s decline another time) according to their support for their pet policies.  Anyone who dares disagree with them, or oppose their power grabs, is a racist, sexist, or one of several other radical bad guy names.  All the while, they’re using bailouts and incentive plans to place government control on as much of our world as they can.  So far, they’re deeply entrenched in technology and communications, transportation, banking, education, and medicine.  There aren’t many reaches of our daily lives where they don’t already have control.

Of course, the so-called Right can’t seem to help themselves either.  They really kicked the surveillance machine into overdrive on us with the USA PATRIOT Act.  The recent string of bailouts opened with Bush’s banking and automotive industry fiascos, too.  It seems you can’t turn on the TV or look at Facebook without someone claiming to be Republican either misquoting the bible in diatribe against a group of people, or using their church attendance record as part of the reason they should be in power.  It seems like both sides’ primary interest is growing their power base and proving each other inferior.

The whole time, those of us who take exception to this kind of treatment and point out how far we’ve strayed from an actual Constitutional Republic often hear how we’re reactionary or radical.  Sadly, some of the loudest voices are the ones with the least understanding on their subject.  What I’m saying is, it looks like the morons often get the spotlight.  We’re represented by the guy who carries his rifle slung down the street, and is absolutely surprised and shocked when police stop him.  Coincidentally, he has his video camera running the whole time, and knows just enough of the Constitution (and watched just enough SVU) to repeatedly ask “Am I being detained?” in response to every question the officer asks him.

We’re represented by the people who think liberty for all is fine, except for whichever phobia or prejudice they harbor.  And they’re the last ones to recognize their position as such.  Often, they go back to misquoting the bible, or misrepresenting the people they oppose.  Nobody seems to use any logic or sense in their discussions anymore, unless you ask them, of course.  Then, it’s the other side that makes no sense.

I think this is where the power brokers want us.  Look at where they’ve taken us so far.  Realistically, the current government controls the media.  Freedom of the press is withering.  Gun restrictions seem to be the cause du jour.  Some states, and groups in all of the others, push every day to see how close they can get to a ban and registry/confiscation list.  Judicial activism is rampant, circumventing the legislative process entirely.  Just the other day, Democrats virtually eliminated the filibuster as a legislative blockade, but only so long as the majority party chooses.  Each day, we see stories of governmental agencies detaining people without a warrant, or exigent circumstances based on probable cause.  The recent DNA and fluid sample checkpoint in Texas, run by the NHTSA on the premise of research comes to mind.

There’s a constant fight over reallocation of wealth versus a free market.  There’s constant concern over so-called militarization of police versus increasingly brutal and remorseless criminals (Knock-out game, anyone?).  There’s countless other examples we can put here of ways that our nation does not respect the individual freedoms our Constitution says it should.  For the most part, much of the country seems content to just allow it to happen.

So, what now?  I’ve given a lot of thought to that question over the last few years.  Countless quotes address it.  Edmund Burke:  ““The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”  I, of course, learned that one from Michael Caine’s portrayal of Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s butler.  I ponder this every day.

You see, a portion of my family can trace its roots back directly to the Mayflower.  I have a few ancestors who were involved in our Revolutionary War against the tyranny of the British Crown.  You may have heard of some of them:  John Tyler, John Adams, John Quincy Adams.  These are some of the men who really had to put their money where their mouths were.  As the quote goes, they staked their fortunes, their lives, and their reputations on the war for independence.  Had they failed, history’s only memory of them would have been as traitors to the King.

At one point, they had to look at what was happening around them, look at their families and friends, and decide their cause was important enough to leave their homes behind and risk everything in hope their children would live independent from British attempts to control them.  They had to LEAVE THEIR HOMES.  That was a conscious decision they had to make.  History tells us that only three percent of all colonists made that decision.

So, what now?  Do we face a decision on leaving our homes and going to war?  I can’t say we won’t at this point.  I don’t think today is that day, but it’s something I’ve had to worry about increasingly lately.  And I do worry.  I think if we ever reach that point, it may be our Republic is forever lost.  Even if we won, we’d be weakened to such an extent that some outside power would surely swoop in and take control.  That doesn’t mean we’ll be left with a choice.  Not if we’d call ourselves free.

As I write this, the estimated U.S. population is 317,121,603.  Three percent of that is still almost ten million people.  What would happen if all of those people voted, and voted their conscience, in all future elections, instead of along party lines?  What if three percent said, “I am free because I say I am”?  If almost ten million people took to the internet, or any other form of public discourse, to push for a return to our nation’s Constitutional protections and a departure from Washington D.C. power and wealth brokering, would we see a change?  I think so.