Keep independence part of holiday

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 30, 2024)

Do you celebrate Independence Day or do you celebrate the Fourth of July instead?

It’s the difference between celebrating insurrection, secession, and the violent overthrow of a tyrannical government in the cause of independence, or demonstrating your loyalty to an even more tyrannical government and its military.

I know which one most people celebrate.

Most holidays get corrupted and co-opted over time. Complaints about the commercialization of Christmas are as traditional as Christmas gifts. Yet, no holiday has changed more than Independence Day. It has become a celebration of the opposite of its original spirit. It would be as though Christmas had become a day of hatred and theft. This is probably why almost no one calls it "Independence Day" anymore, choosing instead to simply identify it by the calendar date.

I'm sure this is no accident. The US federal government would prefer you believe the holiday is about remembering it as the hero of the story for defeating the evil British government centuries ago. It wouldn't want you to think outside the box and make any inconvenient connections beyond the curated events as told in history books. Or notice that the British government of that time was less authoritarian and tyrannical than the current US federal government has become-- by a wide margin.

Independence Day is not about cookouts, fireworks, or military appreciation. It's about violently throwing off the rule of the most powerful government in the world at that time.

Unfortunately, those who accomplished this feat immediately made the fatal mistake of replacing the cancerous tumor they had removed with a "new and improved" cancerous tumor; one which has grown larger and worse than the original had ever dreamed of being. It's an error most revolutionaries make. I suppose they didn't know any better. They were apparently still suspicious of liberty in spite of their impassioned speeches praising it.

Where do you stand? With liberty and against political government, or with the majority?

Do you love liberty, or do you prefer "liberty, but"?

Do you follow the crowd which rejects liberty-- the right to do everything which doesn't violate anyone else-- preferring the freedom to do whatever you feel like doing, regardless of who you violate, as long as it's legal? Or, like a politician, do you not understand any of these words apart from what government says they mean?

Keep independence in Independence Day; it’s the reason for the season.

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It's not a political issue

The fundamental, natural human right to own and to carry weapons is NOT a political issue. It's a survival issue. On both sides.

Those who are against the right to own and to carry weapons say the weapons are the problem. The weapons threaten their survival. They blame the weapons for the acts of bad guys. This isn't too bright.

Those who respect the right to "keep and bear arms" understand that bad guys are the problem Regardless of the weapons available for them to choose from. And that bad guys will continue to be bad guys; willing to attack and murder, even if all guns magically vanished from the Earth. 

Bad guys are willing to be more brutal than good people can generally bring themselves to be. They also get more real-life practice being brutal. Even with identical weaponry this gives the bad guys an advantage. 

If you criminalize weapons, or simply make it slightly harder-- more complicated or costly-- for the good people to obtain and carry them so they'll have them available when needed, you've given the bad guys, who already have an advantage, a greater advantage. 

Because the bad guys don't care about your rules. They'll find weapons even if you ban them entirely.

So, yes, the natural human right to own and carry weapons is a survival issue. Only one side of the argument is making a smart argument that actually gives the good guys a survival advantage- or at least levels the field. 

The anti-gun side is making a terrible, stupid "argument" which gives bad guys a survival advantage. An "argument" that only works with brainwashed drones who are already on their side. Once upon a time when I was young and gullible, I seriously considered that they had a point, but then I started thinking and realized they didn't. They still don't/

They may say, like Whoopi Goldberg says, that they aren't going to take all your guns; only your AR-15. But that's only right now. If they were successful, next week they'll demand you give up something else. And something else the week after that. Not one inch.

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