It's your job to defend liberty

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for August 27, 2025)

Liberty isn’t a gift handed to you by benevolent rulers; it’s your birthright to either exercise or lose. It won't be preserved by hoping someone else will do it for you- it’s everyone’s job, every day, to defend it. No exceptions and no excuses.

The greatest threat to liberty isn’t necessarily a tyrant’s jackboot or a lawmaker’s pen; it’s apathy. When people say, “Let government handle it,” they’re handing their power to their enemy. Every time you beg imaginary political authority to solve a problem you could tackle yourself, you’re sacrificing your own liberty. If you won’t stand up for your rights, why would anyone else take the risk on your behalf?

What can you do? Speak out when you see anyone's rights being violated, refuse to comply with arbitrary rules, or simply question why things are done a particular way. These simple, but not necessarily easy, acts are the foundation of a free society. Liberty thrives when individuals take responsibility, not when they give power to bureaucrats who benefit from control.

Look at history. Government grows like weeds after a rain, choking out everything around it. Its supporters claim it’s for your safety, your health, or the “common good”, but every law, every mandate, every tax is a chip off your autonomy; a violation of your individual sovereignty. The more you let go, the less you have left. If you’re waiting for a hero to save you, you’re missing the point: you’re the hero.

This doesn’t mean grabbing a torch and pitchfork and storming government buildings. It means living with awareness and principles. Teach your kids to think for themselves, not to parrot what schools or social media indoctrinate them with. Support the businesses that respect your rights, not the ones which demand compliance. Point out nonsense when you see it, whether it’s a politician’s promise or a neighbor’s demand for “just one more law”. Your liberty is killed by silence.

Some people claim it’s too much work, and one person can’t make a difference. anyway. They need you to believe this lie. Every act of defiance, every question asked, every refusal to bow makes waves. You don’t need permission to be free- you already are, until you give it away.

Defending liberty isn’t a job for politicians or activists. It’s the responsibility of every person who values living free. If we don’t defend liberty, no one will. So stand up, speak out, and act like your liberty depends on it- because it does.

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