Audemus jura nostra defendere

Audemus jura nostra defendere

We Dare defend our rights! This is the motto of the State of Alabama. Taken from a poem by Sir William Jones, an eighteenth century English philologist titled "An Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus", also known as "What Constitutes a State". In that, he declares:

Men, who their duties know,But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain,
Prevent the long-aimed blow,And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain

It seems to be somewhat more common recently to question anyone who would dare quote or base opinions on that tired old document known as the Constitution of the United States of America. We've heard such dependence on and adherence to called into question by legislators at all levels, the President, courts, up to and including the Supreme court and of course, the media. We've even heard them question whether or not the Founders really meant what they said when they wrote it. 

I stand firm in my belief that not only did they mean what they said, but they were some of, if not the greatest visionaries the world has ever seen. They knew full well that we would encounter men who would make it their business to undo the freedoms that they expressed in their writings. The freedoms that Crispus Attucks, widely considered the first man to die in the American Revolution to Jamar Hicks, the most recent to die (as of this writing) in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, died for. The freedoms that roughly 2.75 millions Americans have died or been injured fighting to protect. The freedoms that have been and are now, systematically being rolled back, dismantled and outright abolished in many cases.

John Adams, a decade before the American Revolution, was already speaking of the necessity to defend our rights when he said: 

Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood. 

James Madison, in 1792, said:

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions. 

We own our rights and we have the right to own them! A couple of days later, Madison wen on to say:

Government is instituted to protect property of every sort; as well that which lies in the various rights of individuals, as that which the term particularly expresses. This being the end of government, that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man whatever is his own 

Our rights are to be protected by our government, not taken away!
There are so many wise words, far beyond the few I've quoted here on how important our rights are and to what extent we should go to protect them. 

You often hear the question, what would the founders do if they were alive today. I don't think that is difficult in the least to answer. Just read what they had to say. They would do everything in their power, which is well laid out in the Constitution, to return our rights to us and return our government to us, as it was designed, not this aberration that we have lording over us today. More than that, I think that the task they would face would be far less than that which we face, because they would have never let it become what it has. One things is for sure, they would wholeheartedly believe in the concept of audemus jura nostra defendere, we dare defend our rights!

Sam Adams summed it up well in 1771, when he said"

The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought.

Not only should we dare to defend our liberty, but we have a duty to do so. A duty! We have a call to be responsible with our liberty, for it is not ours alone, we share it with our fellow men. If one of us shirks this duty, it diminishes the ability for other men to fight for theirs! We are at a place in history where it seems there are more people who are denouncing their responsibility to fight for their liberty than there are those who are standing up for it. If this trend continues, we as a nation will lose the ability to stand up and proclaim, audemus jura nostra defendere!

I dare, do you?
  

First They Came...

There was a Lutheran pastor named Martin Niemöller that lived in nazi Germany. He suffered greatly at the hands of Hitler after believing the lies Hitler told him regarding potential persecution of the church and of the Jews. Hitler was a fantastic liar. He got an entire country to believe him. He convinced them of mighty things and better ways of life, and they believed him. They voted for him. They followed him. Then, when he had all the power he needed, he showed them who he really was. That whole episode didn't really turn out that well for a whole bunch of people.

Mr. Niemöller wrote this little verse at some point, presumably after everything fell apart.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Catholic.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

We Americans are in the cross hairs of a very similar "they" referred to in his poem. They aren't nazis. They are best described as statists, as defined by Mark Levin. They are those who want state, or government control of everything. Every aspect of our lives would be controlled and limited as they see fit. These statists aren't limited to liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, left or right, young or old, no, they are a disgusting mixture of everything. Labels like those are merely hiding places for these would be tyrants.

They aren't rounding people up, putting them on trains and sending them off to camps, or worse. They aren't that bold yet. Hitler worked fairly quickly. Stalin wasn't much of a dawdler either. Mao made quick work of his people. America's statists have been very determined and have been working for well over 100 years. Woodrow Wilson could rightly be called the modern father of progressivism. FDR took the ball and ran. LBJ continued and modern liberals have been the main group for the last 40 years or so.

What has been the main tools they use in this creeping tyrannical oppression? The two I contend that have had the biggest impact are the administrative state and judges that have legislated from the bench by way of the decisions they made. The examples are many in both instances. Some examples of the administrative state gone wild are the multitudinous regulations forced upon us by the likes of the FDA, EPA, IRS and countless other agencies that are accountable to no one. I could post specific examples, but the number of pages of law they have created was well over 75,000 last time I looked at it. Meanwhile the federal courts at all levels have been acting as lawmakers with very little oversight for over 200 years. If you don't know how Roe v Wade came into being for example, it's a fascinating, yet maddening read. It has far less to do with abortion than you would imagine. It is just one example of how judges have picked out a word or phrase here and inserted a word or phrase there in order to change meanings and open up door that had been shut either legislatively or by popular vote.

So, back to Mr. Niemöller. How are "they" coming for us? I believe they are coming one freedom at a time. His poem could be re-worded to fit our time.

First, they came for the guns,
I didn't speak because I wasn't a gun owner.
Then they came for the gas-guzzling cars,
I didn't speak because I drove a Prius.
Then they came for the right to speak against the government,
I didn't speak because I said no such things.
Then they came for the right to vote,
I didn't speak because I wasn't registered.
Then they came for the churches,
I didn't speak because I'm not religious.
Then they came for me...

There is no time to wait. This is no time to be silent. They have been and continue to get more bold as they come for our rights as American citizens.Our constitution was written to be the law of the land. There are provisions within the document that lay out, very clearly, how to amend it. The back door to the constitution has been left open for too long now. We can not afford to let progressive statism run rampant any longer. This is a critical point in the history of this great nation. Should we let our freedom be taken away, like John Adams said, it will be gone forever.

I enjoy what freedom I have by virtue of being born an American. If you sit silent and watch me lose my freedoms and wind up in the same train car, rest assured, I'm going to punch you in the throat.

Wake up America. Be responsible with the liberty you still have.

Deceptive Media

Thomas Jefferson said. " If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The people cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe." He also said, "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government."



It used to be mostly true that those in the media would gather facts and report those facts in a clear, concise manner. This served the very useful purpose of presenting the public with news about events.  By having the information, generally speaking, people were able to make well-informed decisions about things. Being well-informed did not always mean they made good decisions, but that is another discussion. 

Among other things, the First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of...  the press. This means that the press is free to print whatever they wish, with the exception of defamatory or indecent content. This is largely still upheld to be the case. Freedom of the Press in generally alive and well. 

I do not think freedom of the press is being attacked openly or overtly currently. I think most of the problem with what we are being disseminated comes directly from the free will of the press. The bias of the media is undeniable. Those who would deny it are either stupid or they are in on it. This is why it is so important for people to become educated. John Adams said "Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people". Our liberties are being assaulted, in part, because people are too ignorant to see that they are being lied to.

One common thing I notice in news stories is that the headline, all too often presents a thought that never gets addressed or backed up with facts in the story. I was reading up on Zerlina Maxwell, the lady that recently argued on national television that instead of women arming themselves for protection against violence, we should just tell men not to rape them in the first place. I only bring that story up to remind you about who the lady is. I don't have room here to address that nonsense.

 I came across an article she had written for EBONY online. I found the article because I was interested in a quote I read from her stating "black women are also among those groups more likely to be impacted by voter ID laws". This grabbed my attention because I fail to understand how requiring someone to show an ID could impact any group other than those who don't have IDs. This quote showed up in an article titled: VOTER SUPPRESSION:Why Black Women Are Under Attack.[1] 

Black women are under attack? Why, I wondered, as would anyone who read that headline. So, I read the article. I encourage you to do the same. I could find absolutely no evidence of black women being under attack in the realm of voter suppression(or any other realm). The article spoke at length about just the opposite actually. The main theme was how black women had the highest voter turnout of any group. How they are being registered to vote by organizations like the NCCP and the NAACP. How Michelle Obama urged them to register during her speech at a Black Caucus event. Nothing I could find short of the statement I quoted about voter ID and the following statement mentioned anything to back up the assertion that they were under attack. She also stated, "this year, like so many before it, they are on the front lines to protect and exercise their fundamental rights in the face of opposition."

I applaud black women(and all people) who are getting out there and voting, except maybe that poll worker in Cincinnati that voted six times[2]. I don't encourage that at all. But all who legally vote, that is a good thing. 

Ms. Maxwell, however, is irresponsible in her journalistic efforts. Most people aren't going to comb through stories and try to find facts, much less search out other sources to independently verify what they are reading or hearing. I don't have data, but I have read articles that lead me to believe my thinking is on track about headline skimming. People see the headline and little else, especially online. If there isn't a photo or video, there is a good chance that it gets ignored beyond the headline. When people use headlines that have almost no basis in fact, they are going a long way towards insuring those quotes by Jefferson and Adams will come true.

I believe that is the intent in many ways. Our freedoms are being directly assaulted by the dumbing down of Americans. If we don't take responsibility and educate those around us, we don't deserve to be trusted with our own liberty. Another great American, well, not really, he's a drummer in a Canadian rock band, said "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." What choice are we going to make? We have the responsibility not only to educate ourselves, but also those around us so that we can all take part in our God given liberty!

Responsible Liberty

Ronald Reagan said, “A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill.” 

The responsible liberty that Reagan speaks of is not some new idea that he invented. He understood full well what our founding fathers and those who have followed meant when they spoke of our freedoms, given to us by our Creator, as unalienable rights. He understood that liberty without responsibility is the road to anarchy. He understood that responsibility without liberty is the road to tyranny. Anarchy and tyranny are ideas that we, as Americans should never accept. We must maintain the necessary dependency of liberty upon responsibility and vice versa. They cannot exist, meaningfully, without one another.

Reagan also said ,“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.” Government power consumes liberty. An unchecked government will abuse and add to its power until we, the people, stop it from further doing so. The Constitution of the United States was not meant to restrict what the people could do, it was written to restrict what the government can do. We must not allow the government to ignore and trample on the Constitution any longer. The founding fathers knew this. We must not forget. John Adams said, “But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”Read that again, liberty, once lost, is lost forever. It is our duty as Americans to insure that this never happens.