Risk/Reward

Liberty is something worth fighting for. This is what our country was founded on. Entering into a fight has inherent risks attached to it. Those who stood up for our independence risked everything. Not only their lives(which is enough), but the lives of everyone who would come after them. If the tyranny of King George III had prevailed, it would not have been pretty for the colonists that remained. You can be sure that they would have been punished severely. They risked everything for Liberty. 

Today, we are in a fight for our liberty as well. It may not seem so to most of the country. It may not be boatloads of Redcoats sitting offshore preparing to attack us because we would be so bold as to proclaim that "all men are created equal" and that we have unalienable rights bestowed upon us by our Creator. Most people have become so used to those rights being there that they, in their complacency, can't even see them being stripped away from us. They are daily being stripped away from us by OUR government. In the form of over-reaching laws, executive actions and runaway regulations. According to the Office of the Federal Register, in 1998, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the official listing of all regulations in effect, contained a total of 134,723 pages. In 1970, the CFR totaled only 54,834 pages. In 2009, the page count hit a record high of 163,333. You can bet that number hasn't decreased under Obama. In its first year, the Bush Administration issued only one major rule that increased regulation. President Obama issued 13 in 2009. President Bush was in his third year before new costs hit $4 billion. President Obama has achieved the same in one year [1]. These regulations are choking this country to death.

In today's fight for liberty, there are few who are willing to risk anything, much less anything important, to stand up and fight back. They are out there, however. A recent story came out regarding Bob Woodward, an admittedly liberal journalist who had the audacity to question the Obama administration on the specifics of the sequester. Instead of investigating the story or allowing that it had any merit, his peers have piled on in attacking his 40+ years of credibility. While I agree very little with Bob Woodward, he did something that took guts, he stood up to something he saw as wrong. When he got that email telling him he would be sorry, he did not back down. This has yet to play out, but it is clear that he isn't going to back down and they are in full attack mode to follow up on the threat. Two other notables have come out and said they received the same type of emails from the White House. All are risking careers. Good for them.

Amber Lyon, a now former CNN journalist, blew the whistle in a big way on governments paying CNN for content in the stories they ran. She not only lost her job, but also her pension and insurances for not backing down in the face of threats from CNN to stop talking. She risked a lot more than that while in Bahrain covering events there that led her to the discovery and subsequent actions of CNN. 

There are a whole bunch of Sheriffs now standing up and saying they will not support laws which violate the 2nd Amendment. They have done so, not only individually, but some have even formed associations across the country to stand unified in the face of increasing danger to our rights and liberties. Richard Mack has created the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which was started to fight against the Brady Bill. They will undoubtedly face enormous pressure in coming days. We need more people like this, sworn to uphold the constitution, to actually do it!

These are just a few examples of people out there who are willing to take the risk involved in fighting for the rewards of liberty that we, mostly, take for granted now. They don't need our admiration and that isn't why they are doing it in the first place, they need our help. Liberty demands that we be responsible. We have the right to sit on our collective butts and watch while others do the work. We also risk watching this great nation circle the drain by doing so. Going out to the polls once every few years, while MUCH needed, is no longer enough. There are people working very hard to take this country away. If we don't work just as hard, or harder, they will succeed. Its not just about the next election either, this is an ongoing battle that will have to be won for decades to turn this country around. Don't be fooled into thinking if we just elect a Republican or a conservative or another Reagan that all we be well. That is what got us into this mess. 

The reward is worth so much more than the risk.