In the past I have written some about the founders of this nation and all that they went through to bring about the birth of this nation. I have spoken of their courage and their sacrifice and their audacity at staring down the worlds most powerful empire, at the time, but something that seems to get forgotten about all these men is that many of them had doubts and great fear as well.
Friday I watched the first two parts of the mini series on the life of John Adams. I am most thankful to PBS for their honest approach to it, in that they didn't try to glorify it in any sort of Hollywood way, they just told the story as was written by the people involved.
What caught at least a part of my attention was the doubts and fear that some of these men had. We tend to forget that they were as human as the rest of us and that they feared not only for themselves but their families. Everything that they knew was at stake and many of the delegates to the Continental congress were very reluctant to declare independence.
John Adams as it turns out, is a man that I can relate to. He was what I would call a reluctant warrior.
He was a man who was deeply in love with his wife Abigail and was wise enough to listen to her council, he loved his children and was a man of God. He was a lawyer who believed deeply in the rule of law and thought that the only way to prove to England that they were worthy of respect was to uphold those laws. He was the only one in Boston who came to the defense of of the British soldiers who fired on a crowd in what became known as the "Boston massacre" and for that he earned the respect of the King of England but also the respect of Sam Adams, his cousin, who was the leader of the Sons of Liberty.
When He was approached by a delegation that included Sam Adams and Thomas Paine about being one of the delegates from Mass. to the Continental congress, he initially refused but as he watched the British impose more and more restrictions he started to give it serious thought but it wasn't until the crown abolished the court systems that he finally joined the delegation. Later he would go on to help Thomas Jefferson write the declaration of independence and was one of the first men to call this nation a republic.
He was home just outside of Boston when the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought and he was witness to the bravery of many a farmer and tradesmen who were not soldiers ,by any definition, as they took on the British and chased them all the way back to Boston. His wife and children witnessed the battle of Breeds Hill ,later called Bunker Hill, and witnessed the bravery of these same men against the British army and their Cannons. As one man was reported to have said, "they didn't beat us, we ran out of ammunition".
From that time on John Adams became a fiery supporter of the war and of independence.
Here is the point though, when the vote was over and independence was declared, it was quiet.These men understood what they had just done and they were sobered by what was to come. Their fear of the future had not gone away, but they resolved to see it through no matter the cost.
These men, along with George Washington, and the many men and, yes, women, who fought for our liberty knew what was at stake. The British had made that very clear to them during the siege of Boston, they were not blind to the truth of war they had seen it first hand, but they also understood that if they were going to have true liberty and independence they were going to have to sacrifice everything including their very lives if needed.
As I said earlier I can relate to John Adams,but I also can relate to those men who stood on that hill fighting off the British. None of them really wanted to be there, but it was their duty and they stood up to the task.
We are faced with a battle that has actually been raging for many years now, for the very liberties that our forefathers fought so hard for. Some have said; What freedoms have been taken away from you? This is my answer; Any law that restricts my freedom to choose the way that I live my life is an attack on my liberty. Any law that forces me to do something against my will is a law against my liberty. Any law that invades my privacy in any way is an attack on my liberty. Any law that attacks our freedom of speech, in any way is an attack on my liberty.Any law that is passed under the guise of " for the good of the people" that in any way affects my my constitutionally protected rights is a law against my liberty. Any law that goes against our God given rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness is an attack on my liberties and quite frankly, you should see it as an attack on yours.
Take a good hard look at what this country is becoming and then ask yourself is this what our forefathers envisioned? I doubt it.
We have been involved in constant war for the past 20 years or so. I have been a part of that war, I once supported the war. I am not for it any more. We have become a nation bent on turning it's self into a socialist country with a massive empire and we are destroying ourselves. Our forefathers envisioned a representative republic, where they served their constituents with a limited federal government and with much greater power to the states. We are now doing just the opposite. The federal government is interfering in states rights and is trying to centralize their power.
We seem to be busy empire building and yet our forefathers didn't want anything to do with foreign disputes and wars. They argued rather heatedly at times as to whether or not they should ask France for help against the British and only reluctantly asked for the help.
We can be detained and held prisoner for no other reason then we might be a threat or that we might do something in the future. Even as I have the nerve to write this there are those out there who might read this and think that I am a threat. I have all ready been labeled a potential terrorist because I am a war vet who deals with PTSD, so whats to stop them from coming after me? Am I being paranoid? Maybe but I read the news and go to a variety of sources and I can see what happening.
Am I suggesting a civil war? No. I am against war. But if "we the people" do not make a stand, if we refuse to stop the madness and continue to allow it through our silence, if we continue to put into office those who have forgotten that they work for you and me, then we deserve what ever fate comes our way.
One of the delegates from Pennsylvania was a Quaker by the name of Charles Humphreys. It is said that because of his Quaker beliefs that he wouldn't vote for the declaration of Independence, because of the possibility and likely hood that it would escalate the war and as such he couldn't advocate for trading one tyrant through bloodshed, whom he still believed could be reasoned with, with a group of what could be turned in to tyrants.
Perhaps he was more right then he knew. Perhaps what he was having was a vision of the future where he could see that the people would become complacent about who was in charge and what they were doing and in the end we would be right back to where we started.
I understand John Adams and his reluctance to get involved. But I am involved.You need to be involved, even if you disagree with me you have no excuse not to be involved.
I am speaking my mind against what I think is becoming a tyrannical government that only has it's own interest at heart or should I say special interest.
I don't give a rip as to who is president or what party they belong to. All they do is reword the same policies and pass the crown back and forth. They are consolidating their power in Washington as they have been for the last 20 years but they are now doing it openly and flipping us the bird in the process. For the record if you think that because I don't care for Obama and his policies, that this somehow makes me a racist, please feel free to call me that, though you will have to suppose that I hate everyone because I opposed Bush's policies as well, once my vision cleared anyhow.
Our elected representatives have shown a great contempt for our constitution and our bill of rights, they are going to force upon us things that our forefathers never intended and in the end , if we don't change it, our republic will be gone.
If this is your hope for the future so be it, but it sure isn't mine.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Greed , Power,and Stupidity
Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I am rather a bit of a news junkie. I focus a lot of my reading towards politics and all that it involves. I read multiple news sources from various places and sources. So I would say considering all things, that while I am not as smart as some folks are, I think I can sum up our current economic and political messes in three words; Greed , Power,and stupidity.
Greed seems to be everywhere.Everything from the car you drive to your home is costing you a small fortune,I am not against making a profit but by the time you are done paying for these items you have actually payed upwards of 2 1/2 times what you had originally borrowed and ,at least as far as the car goes, it's worth almost nothing.
Wall street investors got greedy with your money as well. I don't make claims that I understand how all this works, but the way it has been explained to me, is that they made very risky investments, knowing full well that the whole thing could collapse on top of them but apparently they didn't care because the potential to make big bucks was just to tempting.It didn't work and they crashed taking a lot of other peoples money with them.
You ever wonder why they are so slow in even attempting to fix the mess in the gulf?
Greed. There is a lot of money to be made by moving slow and letting this disaster linger on. No matter who wins this mess, whether it's the oil companies or the president pushing his green agenda, you and I will lose. We will either have higher fuel prices or we will be forced into costly green technology for our cars and homes. Neither option, at least in my household, is affordable.
But it's more then just greed it's about power as well.
Look at what has happened since the time,just before the TARP bill came into play.
Our Federal government has taken over everything from the auto industry to insurance and is poised to take over the financial markets as well. It's supposed to be for our protection and good.We have been told that these industries and institutions are to big to fail and so for the good of all, the government needs to control them. Where is that written in the constitution? You know, the freedom from failure? and the right to have the Fed. bail you out? If you find it let me know.
To me it is little more then an excuse for the government to gain control of the economy. Don't believe it? Let me use my own examples and see if that gets your attention.
My car payment used to go to Wachovia. They went belly up and was taken over by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is now owned by the Fed.
My car it's self is made by GM. The Fed owns them as well.
My mortgage came from the VA through 1st Arkansas then sold to Bank of America which is also owned by the fed.
My paycheck comes from the VA, Fed again, along with over 50% ( I think the actual number is something like 52%) of the American people, whether they work for the government or just get benefits such as VA or Social Security etc.
The government owns and controls a massive amount of our economy and they are trying to get more. Read the news, regulations equal more control which equals higher costs to you and me. This isn't brain surgery, it's right out in the open.
This of course leads us to stupidity. Who's? Ours.
We have spent many years now ignoring or disbelieving the simple fact that the government is stripping away our freedoms and constitutional rights all in the name of security. They claim that they are protecting us from terrorists by allowing them to tap our phones,looking at our naked bodies at airports, or giving them access to our library records. For the good of the people,we allow all aspects of our privacy to be invaded and our Constitutional rights either disregarded or completely dismissed.
We have allowed our government to take over private companies and financial institutions, all on our dime, when they should have been allowed to fail.
We have bought into their lies, over and over again, that somehow all this is good for us and the nation. Worse yet, we continue to elect people who do the same things over and over. These life long politicians laugh us to scorn when we threaten them because they know that there are not enough of us paying attention to vote them out.
So there is my rather simple analysis of the whole mess we are in. Simple but no less true. If you want real change then remember in November.
Ignacio
Greed seems to be everywhere.Everything from the car you drive to your home is costing you a small fortune,I am not against making a profit but by the time you are done paying for these items you have actually payed upwards of 2 1/2 times what you had originally borrowed and ,at least as far as the car goes, it's worth almost nothing.
Wall street investors got greedy with your money as well. I don't make claims that I understand how all this works, but the way it has been explained to me, is that they made very risky investments, knowing full well that the whole thing could collapse on top of them but apparently they didn't care because the potential to make big bucks was just to tempting.It didn't work and they crashed taking a lot of other peoples money with them.
You ever wonder why they are so slow in even attempting to fix the mess in the gulf?
Greed. There is a lot of money to be made by moving slow and letting this disaster linger on. No matter who wins this mess, whether it's the oil companies or the president pushing his green agenda, you and I will lose. We will either have higher fuel prices or we will be forced into costly green technology for our cars and homes. Neither option, at least in my household, is affordable.
But it's more then just greed it's about power as well.
Look at what has happened since the time,just before the TARP bill came into play.
Our Federal government has taken over everything from the auto industry to insurance and is poised to take over the financial markets as well. It's supposed to be for our protection and good.We have been told that these industries and institutions are to big to fail and so for the good of all, the government needs to control them. Where is that written in the constitution? You know, the freedom from failure? and the right to have the Fed. bail you out? If you find it let me know.
To me it is little more then an excuse for the government to gain control of the economy. Don't believe it? Let me use my own examples and see if that gets your attention.
My car payment used to go to Wachovia. They went belly up and was taken over by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is now owned by the Fed.
My car it's self is made by GM. The Fed owns them as well.
My mortgage came from the VA through 1st Arkansas then sold to Bank of America which is also owned by the fed.
My paycheck comes from the VA, Fed again, along with over 50% ( I think the actual number is something like 52%) of the American people, whether they work for the government or just get benefits such as VA or Social Security etc.
The government owns and controls a massive amount of our economy and they are trying to get more. Read the news, regulations equal more control which equals higher costs to you and me. This isn't brain surgery, it's right out in the open.
This of course leads us to stupidity. Who's? Ours.
We have spent many years now ignoring or disbelieving the simple fact that the government is stripping away our freedoms and constitutional rights all in the name of security. They claim that they are protecting us from terrorists by allowing them to tap our phones,looking at our naked bodies at airports, or giving them access to our library records. For the good of the people,we allow all aspects of our privacy to be invaded and our Constitutional rights either disregarded or completely dismissed.
We have allowed our government to take over private companies and financial institutions, all on our dime, when they should have been allowed to fail.
We have bought into their lies, over and over again, that somehow all this is good for us and the nation. Worse yet, we continue to elect people who do the same things over and over. These life long politicians laugh us to scorn when we threaten them because they know that there are not enough of us paying attention to vote them out.
So there is my rather simple analysis of the whole mess we are in. Simple but no less true. If you want real change then remember in November.
Ignacio
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Independence Day
So once again we have reached the 4Th of July Holiday and just like many of you I have some wonderful plans that involve BBQ, drink and great company. I suspect that we will have everything from heartburn to sunburn but still a good time to be had by all.
So here is my thought or should I say question to you; What does the Independence day really mean to you? I am not asking that to accuse anyone of being stupid, I actually knew someone who thought that the 4Th was nothing more then a day that people got together and just had a good time. She had no clue that there was some real significance in this day. So how about it, what does it mean to you? Does it mean anything at all to you?
I believe that to most Americans , Independence day doesn't mean what it once did. How can it? We are no longer a nation of people who think and act for themselves. We are or ,I should say have become, a nation of dependent people who ,instead of enjoying their G-D given rights of freedom and liberty,have become dependent on the government for everything. We expect the government to fix all our problems and when they don't we whine and whimper, rather then doing for ourselves as our ancestors would have done.
Have you ever considered just what the founding fathers risked by signing the Declaration of Independence? They risked everything, including their lives, just to bring about this very freedom that we have casually tossed aside. They stood up to the strongest empire on the earth ,at that time ,and defeated them. Very few of those men had ever been soldiers, most were farmers or trappers or various tradesmen. They were bankers and lawyers and politicians as well. They came from all walks of life and included blacks and women, and all came because of a simple dream, freedom from tyranny and oppression. All risked their lives and their fortunes on a simple dream; Liberty and Freedom.
This country that was born from that Declaration has had it's problems and we haven't done everything perfectly, but until recently we have tried,as a people, to make right those things that we have gotten wrong, without sacrificing our G-d given rights, to life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Now that has all changed. We have given up our freedom and liberty for "security".
We have gone from a "we the people" to "they the government".
We have traded in our representative Republic for a poor excuse of so called democracy.
We demand that the government take control of everything thus giving them the powers of a tyrant. Instead of firing them, which is the Constitutional thing to do, we embrace them.
We have removed G-D from everything and yet the founders depended on G-D and I might add only G-D. They knew that this nation would not last long if the very foundations of this Republic, the Judeo-Christian laws and principals, were destroyed, and they were right. We have taken G-D out of the class rooms and the downplayed His importance in the lives of our founders and we are now morally bankrupt and we have accepted the very tyranny that our founders fought and died to get away from.
There is a lot more then I could say, but my guess is that most people will be busy eating their burgers and waiting for the fireworks to start, to pay any attention to what I am saying. I am old fashioned and out of touch with so called reality, but here is my small word of reality for you; We gave up our "Independence" a long time ago.
So in reality we are not celebrating our independence, instead we are "celebrating" that warm fuzzy feeling we get knowing that the benevolent government will be there to fix all our problems for another year.
Cynical? Perhaps, but if I am show me where I am wrong....good luck.
Ignacio
So here is my thought or should I say question to you; What does the Independence day really mean to you? I am not asking that to accuse anyone of being stupid, I actually knew someone who thought that the 4Th was nothing more then a day that people got together and just had a good time. She had no clue that there was some real significance in this day. So how about it, what does it mean to you? Does it mean anything at all to you?
I believe that to most Americans , Independence day doesn't mean what it once did. How can it? We are no longer a nation of people who think and act for themselves. We are or ,I should say have become, a nation of dependent people who ,instead of enjoying their G-D given rights of freedom and liberty,have become dependent on the government for everything. We expect the government to fix all our problems and when they don't we whine and whimper, rather then doing for ourselves as our ancestors would have done.
Have you ever considered just what the founding fathers risked by signing the Declaration of Independence? They risked everything, including their lives, just to bring about this very freedom that we have casually tossed aside. They stood up to the strongest empire on the earth ,at that time ,and defeated them. Very few of those men had ever been soldiers, most were farmers or trappers or various tradesmen. They were bankers and lawyers and politicians as well. They came from all walks of life and included blacks and women, and all came because of a simple dream, freedom from tyranny and oppression. All risked their lives and their fortunes on a simple dream; Liberty and Freedom.
This country that was born from that Declaration has had it's problems and we haven't done everything perfectly, but until recently we have tried,as a people, to make right those things that we have gotten wrong, without sacrificing our G-d given rights, to life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Now that has all changed. We have given up our freedom and liberty for "security".
We have gone from a "we the people" to "they the government".
We have traded in our representative Republic for a poor excuse of so called democracy.
We demand that the government take control of everything thus giving them the powers of a tyrant. Instead of firing them, which is the Constitutional thing to do, we embrace them.
We have removed G-D from everything and yet the founders depended on G-D and I might add only G-D. They knew that this nation would not last long if the very foundations of this Republic, the Judeo-Christian laws and principals, were destroyed, and they were right. We have taken G-D out of the class rooms and the downplayed His importance in the lives of our founders and we are now morally bankrupt and we have accepted the very tyranny that our founders fought and died to get away from.
There is a lot more then I could say, but my guess is that most people will be busy eating their burgers and waiting for the fireworks to start, to pay any attention to what I am saying. I am old fashioned and out of touch with so called reality, but here is my small word of reality for you; We gave up our "Independence" a long time ago.
So in reality we are not celebrating our independence, instead we are "celebrating" that warm fuzzy feeling we get knowing that the benevolent government will be there to fix all our problems for another year.
Cynical? Perhaps, but if I am show me where I am wrong....good luck.
Ignacio
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