On July Fourth we celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and we proclaim America to be free. The U.S. Constitution secured to their posterity YOUR blessings of liberty.
Yet today’s Millennials are demanding that we have fewer rights. Ben Franklin had a message for them.
Here is a Ben Franklin quote inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the Statue of Liberty:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
If you demand that government protect your safety, you will lose your freedom. Are you still free? Rights only come with responsibilities. You are responsible for your own safety. Those who are irresponsible lose their rights. Every Law Dictionary will tell you “The civil laws reduce an ungrateful freedman to his original slavery” Libertinum ingratum leges civiles in pristinam servitutem redigunt.
The Declaration of Independence used the phrase we “are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights” to refer to our God-given rights that government is instituted among men to secure.
God gave us a free will to make our own decisions.
Just how free are we to make our own decisions?
Can you grow your front lawn to any height you want? Can you flush your toilet with more than 1.6 gallons, or buy a 60 Watt light bulb, or did someone else make these decisions for you?
The Constitution prohibits States from impairing the obligation of contracts. Can you sell lemonade from your own front lawn without begging for a permit and paying a fee?
Your great-grandfather blasted through mountains without permits to build a railroad from sea to shining sea. They lived in a nation that secured the blessings of liberty to their posterity. Can you repair your back porch without begging for a permit?
In 1753 the world knew that eating citrus fruit prevented scurvy. In the U.S. today, it is illegal for me to tell you that eating citrus will prevent scurvy. It is illegal for me to tell you that drinking water will prevent dehydration. When the U.S. Constitution was written, everyone knew that they had a right to buy medications to defend against corporal assaults. It was the right of self-defense.
In 1919 everyone in America knew that it would take a constitutional amendment to ban a substance. That was here in America where Coca-Cola once had cocaine and you could buy Opium from the Sears Catalog and you could buy dynamite from the hardware store. What about now? Can you buy a life-saving medication without begging permission from a government-supervised pharmacist and a government regulated physician? There was ONLY one drug law when the United States became a country. Slaves needed their owners permission to take medications. The Constitution changed this. The Constitution prohibited slave owners from controlling their slaves’ medications. Slave rights had been “wholly annihilated, or reduced to a shadow” and the Constitution changed this.* Have your rights been “wholly annihilated, or reduced to a shadow”? If so then you are a slave.
The Supreme Court says that your labor is your most sacred property. Can you sell your labor without a wage authorization number? Can you buy or sell in normal transactions without a banking authorization number?
Government was created to secure the blessings of liberty. The right to personal liberty is defined as the right to unrestrained locomotion. Yet today you can be arrested for being on a sidewalk without first purchasing a credential from a government.
The Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for Nevada to tax stagecoach passengers leaving the state. You can no longer buy a ticket for an airline, train or Greyhound bus without presenting an ID (travel permit) issued by a government. You must first apply for and pay for the government credential to travel.
Don’t claim to live in a free country until you see freedom.
For more information on liberty read my essay America Held Captive — Part 1 — How to recognize liberty if you see it.
For more information on personal liberty read my essay on driving.
For more information on identification credentials read my eBook on Identification Credentials.
If you want to know how you were tricked into waiving most of your rights read my eBook The Citizen Cannot Complain.
* see my essay America Held Captive — Part 4 — How to recognize oppression when you see it.