This July 4th brings unprecedented significance. It’s not that I’ve taken the American essence for granted, but that only in recent years have I formed a sense for how far we’ve strayed from our roots – and how few realize it. The fourth is the holiday for those who love life and freedom and I’ve never granted it proper acknowledgment, appropriate consideration or adequate participation.
All cliché’s aside, today’s America is a fading remnant of its splendorous infancy. We’re marching full-throttle into the stagnant misery associated with every collectivist nation throughout history, and we mostly just bicker about the trivial details along the way.
No longer does America stand for the individual – but the collective. No longer does an individual have the right to contract as he sees fit, to deal and trade with others as voluntary entities to mutual benefit – but must ask the state’s permission and guidelines for virtually every step of daily barter. No longer do individuals enjoy the security of property rights – but must fear that at any moment the statist grip might reign down and seize at will. No longer do we value objectivity in our courts – but champion diversity and compassion. No longer do bad decisions affect only the responsible parties – but the results are forced on all. No longer do we accept the notion that freedom enables individuals the potential to offend – but we strive to legally gag and bound any thought, word or action that might be offensive. No longer does the rule of law stand to protect individual rights – but embodies the primary culprit trampling them.
Let’s be clear – this is certainly not a partisan rant. Yes, the current central-planning administration is forcing horribly destructive policies on this country, but theirs is merely the foremost layer of putrid icing on a cake baking in the statist oven for the past 100 years. At best, the alternate candidate (current and previous administrations) might have possibly been marginally better in a few areas, but unlikely to offer any essential difference. Each would be equally prone to enact the same destructive policies, differing only in minor details. Those who contend that their party is not responsible should check their premises and consult history.
For us to return to the society achieved by our founders, America must resort to her roots. We must resurrect that spark of individual motivation, intuition and responsibility that underlined a nation of laws not men. We must discard the notion that mans purpose is to live for the sake of others. We must abandon the premise that the individual is subordinate to the state. We must reestablish the right and honor of parents to education their children. We must reject the premise that one man is entitled to any portion of the life of another, for any reason. We must get the state out of our schools, hospitals, businesses, cars, homes, minds, and bedrooms. We must realize that theft is morally wrong, whether committed by one man against another or by congressional committee according to consensus. We must return to the era of individual rights.
There are tremendously harmful movements currently in place; the final step in socialized medicine (we’re pretty much there already), gigantic steps to impose environmental regulations on individuals and businesses (potent enough to destroy a healthy economy and deadly to a crippled one), and the continued crusade to disarm American citizens; all pose very serious threats to the existence of this country as we know it – all are diametrically opposed to the founding principles of this nation.
Now is most certainly not the time to be passive, polite or complacent. Now is not the time to ‘turn the other cheek’. The contrasting ideals facing this country are not merely differences of opinion; they are life changing, way-of-life changing, nation-crumbling historical missteps. We are at a crossroad and currently pointing to a very dark place that will leave us yearning for the past.
The individuals who thought, fought and died for this country are responsible for the most glorious achievement in the history of man - glorious precisely because America is the only country founded on the moral basis of individual rights. Individual rights are the only possible basis and the logical underpinning for any system considered under the context of freedom. Our founders had the wisdom and forethought to devise a social structure based on these rights and the sense to realize that such a nation was worth fighting for. To these men, not only was it worth abandonment from their family, everyday routine, and livelihood, it was worth the price of their life – and not as a selfless sacrifice, but as a refusal to live under an inferior system.
The system they envisioned was and still is the only one suitable for proper human existence – where man has the right to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness, and with Government’s only proper role as the protector of those rights.
From now on I’ll meet the 4th with the earnest reverence it demands. And now more than ever, we must diligently consider our country’s path and the issues that face us through the lens of our founding ideals and in the context of individual rights. I urge any of you who value life, freedom and joy to do the same. We simply cannot continue our current route – reality cannot be evaded.
