Live Free! Die Hard!

Last night (Sunday, October 31st, 2010) on the Rantus Politicus radio show, I posed the more or less hypothetical scenario of tomorrow’s mid-term elections having negative results for our Republic.  Meaning, Obama and his ilk are able to continue our rapid progression towards Socialism and the American Police State.  And in posing this scenario, I also posed the related question, “What do we do?”.

While I offered several of my own thoughts and observations as to what we, as sovereign American citizens, should do when November fails to yield a reversal of tyranny, I feel that the concept requires clarification.

Traditionally, Americans — with varying degrees of grumbling — have been content to stomp off like irate children, steel their political resolve, regroup and then return after a political defeat, usually chanting the “wait ’till next election”, or “we’ll get ’em next time” mantras.  The repercussions from the 2010 mid-terms, however, will be of critical historical importance, and it seems to me that the average, Patriotic, sovereign American citizen fully understands this, and will not be so keen on continuing the drastically ineffective practices of letter-writing, petition-signing, demonstrating and protesting.  There is already talk of “revolution”, and “marching on D.C.”, albeit mostly from individuals with an abundance of motivation, and a lack of forethought.  While “revolution” may, indeed, be the true American Patriot’s only eventual choice, anyone considering it must also consider — very deeply, and very seriously — the myriad challenges and consequences thereof.  For when one truly considers the depth and detail involved, one soon realizes that going off half-cocked against the leviathan that is the modern American government, would quickly become an exercise in futility.

So again, we face the daunting question of what to do when “the system” fails us.  The answer is both simple and complex.  I often tell people, “Live free, in spite of them!”.  Quaint little phrases carry within them an unseen and often unconsidered depth.  The idea is simple enough to understand on its face, but again, the concept is deeper than what is reflected from the surface.

You say to me, “Griz, what do you mean ‘live free in spite of them'”?”  “Who is ‘them’?”  “What the hell are you talking about?”  And I tell you now, the answers are laid out before us, my dear friends.  They are in our own heritage!  Our own history! The words of our Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers!  They’re in Black’s Law Dictionary!  They’re in the words of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, George Washington!

Living free in spite of them, means we live our lives as free men and women!  They say we can’t grow our own gardens — we grow them!  They say we can’t home-school our children — we school them!  They say we can’t own this gun or that — we own several!  They say we aren’t a Christian nation — we show them that we are!

But, once again, the idea is simpler than its undertaking.  The powers that be don’t appreciate being told “no”, do they?  But what are our choices, ladies and gentlemen?  So long as we continue to protest, demonstrate, send emails and sign petitions, we are playing their game, with their rules — rules that, more often than not violate our rights, instead of protecting them.  I don’t know about you, but I refuse to be violated again.  I refuse to be their fool.

Living free means you keep them at as far a distance from your life as possible.  Living free means you fully understand that what you’re doing is right, is within your rights, and is none of their damn business!  Living free means you understand that, sooner or later, they will come to tell you “No, you can’t!”, and you are prepared to clearly deliver the undeniable counter-message of “YES!  I CAN!”.  Living free means you don’t need the government, or any of their agents, snooping into the lives of you and your family, and you’re ready, willing, and quite able to ensure that if they ever do, it’s going to cost them more than they can ever pay.

Living free in spite of them, generally speaking, is the concept which founded the single greatest nation this world has ever seen.  And it can be the concept which restores that same nation to her former glory.  But we, as sovereign American citizens must reach into the very depths of our souls and muster the courage to match our convictions.  Because if we don’t America dies.  And if America dies, freedom the world over dies with her.  So do we, and our children and grandchildren along with us.

Living free means we know our history.  Living free means we know our rights, and that they are ours even before we are born, and that no man can ever regulate them, or take them away.  Living free means we live as much “off the grid” as each of us can.  Living free means we lead by example, so that more people will want to follow that example and live free as well.

If each of us takes it upon ourselves to start living free, living according to Constitutional principles, and sets the example for others to follow, then in time others will do the same.  And if we can continue to live free within our own immediate neighborhoods and communities, then the concept will grow, spreading out like the branches of a tree.

It is no small undertaking, I know.  But if I can accept it as duty, so can you.

The day is coming, very soon, when each of us will be forced to decide whether or not we care as much about restoring our Constitutional Republic as our Founders did about establishing it.  And when that day comes to you, I hope that the following words will guide you in your decision.

“Do not pray for easy lives.  Pray to be stronger men.  Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers.  Pray for powers equal to your tasks.  Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.”

– Phillips Brooks, U.S. Episcopal Bishop (1835-1893)

As for me, I made my decision long ago.  And in my heart and mind, I believe as Thomas Jefferson did, so long ago:  “I have sworn on the altar of God eternal enmity against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Yours in Liberty,

The Griz