"IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA"
a weekly column published every Sunday by
Ron Ewart, President of the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS

For the week of:
Sunday, July 3, 2016

The "In Defense of Rural America" column archives are available HERE.

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"What Was That 4th of July Freedom Again?"
From * In Defense of Rural America *
By Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
and nationally recognized author on freedom and property rights issues.
We are helping to spread freedom and liberty around the globe.
© Copyright July 3, 2016 - All Rights Reserved

As Patrick Henry’s cry of freedom, “Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death” echoes across the passages of time, has it not become meaningless in the 241 years since it was uttered at the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, which ushered Virginia into the American Revolution? Future presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were at that convention but the freedom they fought for in 1776 and described in the Declaration of Independence and the new, fresh-off-the-press, U. S. Constitution, is not the freedom that exists in contemporary America today. It is so far from it as to be earth and fire.

There was no compromising or capitulating in 1776. There was only open defiance, dedicated resistance and the courage to risk it all and fight with cannons, guns, swords, knives, spies and lives, the rising tyranny of King George III. If you think that government in America, at every level, has not become tyrannical, you have been watching too much reality TV.

Once again, we celebrate the 4th of July but why do we celebrate it, if what we are celebrating no longer exists? We say our soldiers are fighting for our freedom, but what is the definition of the freedom for which they fight? Do they know? Does the general population know? Hell no!

Free you say? Freedom? My Aunt Fanny’s, fanny!

If July 4th is Independence Day, it is not the Independence that is defined in our American dictionary. It is not the freedom and independence that was crafted so carefully in our Declaration of Independence by men of vision, in a time of conflict, confusion and turmoil, over two centuries ago.

Freedom and independence means freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom of what to buy, freedom of what to wear, freedom of what to say, freedom of where to live, freedom to arm yourself, freedom to defend you and your family by violence if necessary, freedom of where to work, freedom to live on and use your land without undue government interference and freedom to roam freely throughout America without having to go through check points and body searches.

We are constantly subjected to the authority and jurisdiction of government. We are continuously being influenced by the dictates of government. We can't move sideways without butting heads with an out-of-control, arrogant bureaucrat to get some permit or license. Way too many of us are dependent on government for our very existence. We are forever relying on government for aid and support. We, as a culture and as a nation, are no longer competent, self-sufficient, self-reliant and responsible. Some of us are, but nowhere near a majority. We have been bought, sold, conquered and enslaved with out a shot being fired, for a few pieces of silver. God, Americans are cheap to sell their freedom for so little.

If we were to tell you how un-free you are, it would take a book, not an article. There have been so many laws written that every American is a lawbreaker every day of their lives, but they don’t know it, that is until they get caught. And when they plead to the court that they didn’t know there was a law they had violated, the judge will say, “ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Guilty!” That’s enslavement.

Americans have become so conditioned to ever-increasing laws they shrug them off as “that’s just the way it is.” There are no constitutional challenges to the old laws or the new ones, just capitulation. There is no repeal of out-of-date, or conflicting laws. Every American should shudder in abject fear and terror when a state or federal legislature is in session, or when bureaucrats meet to propose new rules, or when a city or county council hold public hearings, or executive sessions behind closed doors.

Government taxes the Hell out of us to pay for social programs so that they can buy votes and stay in power. Government wastes our money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Government lies to us so that we won’t know what they are doing behind our backs. Government tries to trick us by playing with our subconscious minds. Corruption is not the antithesis of government. Corruption is the very essence of government.

So just how can you be free when your government taxes you, what you buy and everything you own to death, taxes you after death, forces you to get a license or a permit for everything, or passes laws to stop you from doing anything. Do you believe that Obama Care has increased your freedom? Do you believe that allowing millions of illegal aliens to enter America illegally, without penalty and then rewarding them with “free” stuff paid for by you, is freedom? Do you think that you will be more free when the Democrats are finally successful in taking your guns away, as the liberals have already done in England and Australia? Of course it’s coming!

Did you see the Democrats stage a sit-in on the House floor and cry like babies because they didn’t get their way on more gun control legislation? It’s Democrats, liberals and unions that protest violently when they don’t get their way. Disgusting!

Are you free when your government allows a foreign enemy to grow and propagate worldwide and allowed to attack and kill American civilians at will, without a swift and overpowering response to those attacks? Are we so fearful of conflict that we will let the bullies win? Did we not learn anything from World War II?

Are you free when one anti-freedom ideology can be embedded in all of our institutions, as has Progressivism? Are you free when radical environmental law makes a human being a virus on the earth and restricts almost every human activity? Is it freedom when Google, Facebook and Twitter, Democrats all, can silence conservative speech with just a simple algorithm? Are you free when the IRS can drive you into poverty or put you in jail because of mistakes they make, target you because you might resist government, or God forbid, ask for tax-exempt status? Is freedom defined when the president can make a law simply by signing an Executive Order, in direct violation of his oath of office and Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution?

What we have described here is not freedom ladies and gentlemen, it is the very definition of tyranny. American government tyranny has surpassed King George’s tyranny by several orders of magnitude and the allegedly “free” people in America have let out not so much as a noticeable peep in opposition. In fact, the American people have been complicit in this tyranny.

Americans have been conditioned not to resist, at home, at work, in our public schools and our colleges. Compliancy with government and authority has become a virtue. The patriot’s cry of freedom, or believing in the Christian God, or defending your 2nd Amendment rights has become extreme, or dangerous. To call radical Islam, “radical Islam” is not politically correct, even though radical Islam’s plan is to kill us all.

It is OK to discriminate if you are a protected class. White men are not a protected class, but blacks, Latinos, gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, transgenders, women and the elderly are protected classes and are granted special privileges, in direct violation of the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment. Affirmative Action, which is racial discrimination on its face, has just been upheld again by the U. S. Supreme Court.

Go ahead! Compromise! Capitulate! Be compliant to authority! Roll over! Go along to get along! Don’t rock the boat! You can, but like Hell we will. That’s how America got into this mess; Republicans forsaking their principles of liberty and unalienable rights and compromising with Democrats, as Democrats moved America ever so faster towards socialism.

Life is a constant struggle over competing interests. Either protect your interests, or the other guy’s interests prevail. Freedom and property rights are our interest and we intend to protect those interests with committed defiance.

But we don’t have to have another American Revolution to fight or resist government. In our long struggle with government over our adult lifetime, we have created effective tools and defenses against government’s interests. When they come calling, which they seem want to do these days, we go on the defensive, and sometimes on the offensive. We never compromise or capitulate. We never give in or roll over. We study the law and then question government’s authority and their laws, using existing laws already on the books. If you have the courage you can challenge them as well, using the tools we have developed, HERE. Urban or rural, the tools are effective.

Everyone wants world peace or national tranquility, but world peace or national tranquility won’t happen until all competing human interests have been neutralized. That won’t happen until the next big asteroid or comet strikes earth and causes a mass extinction of the human species.

All humans have a natural, animal, God-given right to protect themselves and their offspring from all forms of tyranny, foreign or domestic. To do otherwise is cowardice. Human bodies and minds were purposely designed for survival and to resist all forces jeopardizing that survival and freedom. If you want the 4th of July to mean something again you are going to have to fight for it, now more than ever. On June 23, 2016 the English declared their Independence from the ruling class, unelected EU bureaucrats and the central banks. It’s way past time for Americans to do the same. Maybe Trump can lead the way.

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Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for urban and rural landowners. He can be reached by e-mail for comment at info@narlo.org or by 'phone at 1 800 682-7848.

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