FREEDOM

                IF FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS TAKEN AWAY, THEN DUMB

                AND SILENT WE MAY BE LED, LIKE SHEEP TO THE

                            SLAUGHTER.

                                                                      George Washington

 

     The Fourth of July has lapsed like most of our holidays to be a big party weekend.  BBQ and fireworks, getting together with friends and family.  I hope yours was special.  And as a retired firefighter I hope you did not burn up the countryside.  But did you stop to ponder what the celebration is truly about?

     The founding fathers intended for the holiday to be a religious one.  Our Declaration of Independence put forth that there are certain unalienable rights that were put forth by God.  The government that is supposed to be the servant of the people.  This does not sound as though it was intended for God to be excluded from any public functions.

     The First Amendment ensures freedom of religion, not from it.  And those who do not believe, atheism and agnostics, are a religion as well.  So this protects them from zealots.  Yet they become zealots in their own right.

     We have never been as close to losing freedom as we ever have.  The vote of the people are turned over by the courts, and the executive branch governs by mandate.  Citizen legislators who were supposed to do their civic duty and return home to work have become career politicians.  Where are the statesmen of the past?

     There is more worry on the part of the government about law abiding citizens than those who break our laws.  This means to me that the criminals take care of their own.  Those who take an oath to uphold the Constitution should be deposed when they openly attack it.

     Speaking against the regime now puts you in the sights of the Justice Dept., IRS, and Homeland Security.  If you are in business you can count on anyone of a dozen agencies that will visit you and tell you how to conduct your business.  All this while the president leaves the country during the holiday and tells others to "beware of us, US" and warns "his Press" to behave themselves.

     As a student of history the meaning of Independence takes on a whole new meaning when comparing today to the 1930's. 

     Here in Medicine Lodge there was a community choir concert performed called LIBERTY.  A musical celebration of Freedom.  A group as diverse as a county commissioner, mayor, farmer, rancher, business owner, accountant, business owners, clerks, mothers, fathers, and computer tech came together.  Together they were not Democrats, Republicans, Independents, they were Americans.  As those in the audience that gave a standing ovation for the concert were Americans.

     LIBERTY was a celebration of one nation under God.  The members came together at the busy time of year for all and celebrated our Liberties as it was intended.

     GOD BLESS AMERICA!