To know liberty is to love it

To know liberty is to love it

(My Clovis News Journal column for March 15, 2013)

Why isn't liberty attractive to most people? It is a question that crosses my mind frequently.

Thomas Jefferson said "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others." He went on to state "I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

Jefferson knew that "laws", even in his day, were often wrong. They have only gotten worse today. The protection of individual rights is the only justifiable excuse for any law. Not protection of government, its employees, or their income. Not guaranteed outcomes, but no "legal" barriers. Almost every "law" now on the books is a violation of individual rights, rather than a protection thereof. The "law" has become perverted, assuming it was ever legitimate.

As a result Americans don't have much liberty left, and due to "there oughta be a law" thinking, it gets worse every day.

Yet, hardly anyone notices, and those who do notice are scorned and ridiculed. Where did this anti-American apathy and hostility toward liberty come from? Most people have allowed their fear of the freedom of others to justify the whittling away of their own liberty.

So, why isn't liberty attractive?

Maybe it is because people don't want to be responsible for their own lives. Perhaps they believe they can hand that responsibility over to someone else.

Maybe it is because people don't like to be exposed to others' "unobstructed action" even when it violates no one's rights. "I'm OK, but you need to be controlled!"

Maybe it is because so many people want to be able to dip their hands into the "tax" money fountain- believing they can come out ahead. They believe it isn't really socialism if they benefit at the expense of others, or if it has a long history of being pursued, in America, by "Salt of the Earth" people. No one wants to feel guilty. That changes nothing.

Of course, if you can convince people that they are free, then the reality doesn't matter. They'll fight you tooth and claw in denial of the fact that everything not forbidden (with the proper permits) is mandatory. They have been told they are free, so you dare not say otherwise.

Jefferson's "rightful liberty" has been replaced by the hollow "liberty" touted by a famous New York politician who claimed that liberty means doing what you are allowed to do. No wonder liberty isn't attractive- no one knows recognizes it anymore.

.

Take note and keep moving

I don't want to sound callous, but if you can't keep going with life after the latest school massacre or bombing, how will you function when the War for Liberty heats up?  When there may be dozens of such incidents every week.  Or day.  When those who value liberty are blamed- when we know it is only another false flag event calculated to turn "public opinion" toward the strong arms of Big Brother and away from scary liberty.

Don't be paralyzed by fear, or by hate.  Take note and keep moving.

I am truly sorry for all who were killed, all who are hurting, and all who had a fun day ruined by an act of violent cowardice.  But I still have a responsibility to myself and those I am accountable to.

.

Unexpected inspiration

You just never know who will inspire you.

I recently re-connected online with someone who I knew when she was about 10 through 12, when I was about 18 through 20.  At the time I worked at her grandfather's pet store.  Anyway, it has been decades since I had heard from her.

Now I find out she is a serious prepper.  She has more skills than I do, and is in a better situation than I have been in in years.  I have trouble picturing that little girl becoming who she is now, but I am in awe.

She has inspired me to work on some of the gaps I am aware of in my readiness, and to fine-tune some other areas.

She has also made me start thinking about others who have inspired me.  Some inspired me in specific areas; others inspired me in general.  I'd better not start naming names, because the list would be too long, and I'd feel awful if I forgot to list someone who was critically important to me.  But I deeply appreciate all those whose influence has made me a better person in one way or another.

So, look around you.  See the people in your life- even if they were in your life long ago- and think of what their influence has done to make you who you are.

.