John Adams And Me.

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.