IDEPENDENCE DAY: A MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE, OR STATEMENT OF INTENT?

 

 

 

Dorothy A. Seese
July 3, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

Will the barbecue be the centerpiece of your day off? Or will the day off be the highlight of your Independence Day celebration? Will you even take time to remember those who gave their lives that we could have over two hundred years of freedom, even though the freedoms as enumerated in our founding documents have been diminishing for over a century?

There will be many memorial services to honor those who died in battles that were supposed to be just wars so that Americans could be a light of liberty to the rest of the world. Actually, compared to most of the nations throughout history, America has been better than the majority if not all. We really have had a legal system based on the rule of law, with the usual exceptions for some of the elite who are a law unto themselves. But even more of those have been charged and convicted than might have happened in other lands.

Our founding fathers set forth their statement of grievances and intent to found a nation based on man's God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Constitution that followed some years later, after the Revolution had been won, set forth those powers that were delegated by the nation, that is, the people, to a central but limited government. The Bill of Rights set forth those rights of citizens upon which the government was not to infringe, among which are freedom of speech, religion, the press and the right to peaceably assemble.

Now our government has far exceeded all authority granted to it, with the consent of the people who seem to have less than the vaguest idea why they are as free as they are, or that the power of this government rests with their elected representatives. That is why we have a federal republic and not, as media repeats ad nauseum, a "democracy." A democracy is mob rule. We do have democratically elected representatives from city halls to the halls of Congress. And it is in this ballot that the people held the power -- along with the enabling act that gave them that power, our Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

The so-called "Doomsdayers" have been writing for years that this nation was being subverted, and the "ism" that was supposedly at the root was Communism. We even had the House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950's that went looking for suspected/active Communists. The late Senator Joseph McCarthy was demonized for his Communist "witch hunts" which the supposedly free press roundly denounced, thus making McCarthy the butt of jokes and McCarthyism a synonym for unjust government intrusion into private lives.

We hadn't seen real government intrusion in those days, and we didn't know what it was. To some extent, it still hasn't come into full ripe fruition, but it will at the appropriate time if there is not some regime change to staff our Congress with senators and representatives who have more integrity than the majority presently sitting there, at taxpayer expense, undoing the taxpayers through globalization acts like CAFTA and FTAA.

Our Congress wields far too much power, and so does our executive branch, to say nothing of the judiciary, both federal and state. The Supreme Court has become the ruling junta as to the law in all aspects, even those that have absolutely nothing to do with constitutionality other than the SCOTUS says so.

With the dismal prospect of almost total loss of American freedom staring us in the face, what is this Independence Day about? For one thing, honoring the dead who fought for an America that was freer and in which they believed. So in that respect it is a memorial day for the freedoms we once had, once cherished and once believed in enough to fight for it willingly and with the full backing of Americans.

Or, it is possible that some may be using the memory of a freer nation to look forward to once again gaining individual freedom from government interference. It seems highly unlikely but stranger things have happened. Possibly the barbecue meat and sauce, buns and beer will only serve to bring about some discussions of just how shackled to government whimsy we as a people have become, being called upon to die for the nation's industrial billionaires rather than the freedom of we, the people.

That would be a very worthwhile way to spend the day.

It would also be well to remember that the power is still with the people, if they choose to take it, use it, and throw out the subversives in office, at our expense, buying our chains with which to shackle us to a government pillory.

That's also worth considering.

Are Americans worthy of and capable of being a free people? Time will tell.

© 2005 Dorothy A. Seese - All Rights Reserved