Our founders cherished liberty. Some cherished only God more. All committed their lives for the concept and reality of liberty. In the lead up to the Tea Party the men of Marlborough, Massachusetts declared:"Death is more eligible than slavery. A free-born people are not required by the religion of Jesus Christ to submit to tyranny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and support their laws and liberties..."
Thomas Jefferson, wrote the famous words in the Declaration of Independence - Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. These simple and profound words meant something to colonists seeking to overthrow a tyrant and declare their independence. They understood that men were born free and granted liberty from God. Government had, for most of man's existence, not been a friend and guardian of liberty but had been an enemy to it.
Being students of history and having lived under tyranny, the founders proposed a limited government. The power would rest with the people. The government would acknowledge the God-given liberties of the people and owe its existence to the good will of the free people. These ideas of limited government and the acknowledgement of man's natural liberty were enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Why do I write this reminder of our history? I cherish liberty. I cherish liberty, but I see and feel its decline. I am shocked at how cavalier many Americans are when their liberties are stolen by an ever growing government. Can we actually claim to have a limited government today? Not when we can't even choose which light bulbs we'd liked to purchase or we are told we must buy health insurance.
Can I truly enjoy my liberty when the government seizes more and more of my hard income to the point where I only get to keep half of the next dollar I make? To add insult to injury they take my taxes to support all kinds of excesses and immoralities even to the extent of the killing of the unborn. If I object then the government can use my taxes to support its agents to harass me, spy on me, and litigate me to death.
The ever growing assault on our religious liberty should awaken Americans. Religious institutions are being told they must hire unbelievers, supply them with contraceptives and abortifacients, and keep their "freedom of worship" in their houses of worship. Correction, Mr. Obama. It is freedom of religion, not freedom of worship! We must insist that our liberties be defended and we must not suffer any perversion of them. I will express my freedom of religion any darn place I wish in this land of the "free!"
I wrote of Thomas Jefferson's understanding of liberty above. I will close with this statement of Jefferson's, found on his monument in D.C. . . .
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secured when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever."
Give me liberty!
