We talk a lot about lost freedoms and liberties, but I find I'm not good at explaining our lost liberties. I'd like to initiate some discussion about how some of you other folks notice our lost or diminished freedoms.
The freedom I most miss is that to carry a pistol concealed. The idea of having to get the permission of some other person to carry a concealed pistol irritates me no end. And no, I don't have such a permit because I will not submit myself to that sort of thing.
I also miss the freedom to control that property that is taxed away from me and given as welfare and foreign aid, regardless of what I think of the recipients.
I feel threatened by the influx of illegals into our country and frustrated that our government is not only ignoring it, but actually fostering it.
I'd like to hear from some of you all on this subject.
I miss freedom of speech and have trouble accepting people not even caring that they’ve given up individuality to “get with the program” or become “just another brick in the wall” to serve the PTB. In past decades Americans were colorful, unique characters. Now so many look and sound alike. They don't seem to resent being mind-controlled puppets influenced by the media; they embrace this bondage. I miss the good old days when America had more “real” and stronger-willed people. I miss the privacy we enjoyed decades ago, and the safer days when we could trust more people and crime was "out there somewhere," rarely, if ever did violence intrude upon our comfortable little towns.
The way noticing liberty is lost, I think, usually begins with a person missing something or feeling angry, hurt, rejected, misplaced, or not being able to understand why they failed after trying so hard. Then they ask themselves, “Am I the only one who feels this way?” because no single incident prompts one large group to experience the sensations of loss at the same time. At least now we have the Internet and can see that no, we aren’t the only ones, who feel the pain of lost liberties. Plenty of other like-minded souls mourn daily for the same things we miss.
Lack of good, strong leadership is a sign of poor judgment by the people, and this apathy and bad judgment leads to loss of liberties. We’re seeing a perfect example of this now with Bush I, Clinton, Dubya. As Shawnee stated above, weak-willed people make perfect zombie-like “sheeple,” as the PTB like to call us. If people would learn to have tougher spines and show more mettle, we might still have time to head off the approaching NWO police state.
Money is (1) a unit of account that is (2) accepted as a medium of exchange and can (3) store value.
The right, liberty and freedom I would most like returned is the right to money.
The right to money as private personal property was protected but has since been shifted from the people to the government.
This is a trajedy of the highest order in my opinion.
Not that we ever had the following right in our lifetimes since the tax system has been rigged against us for decades, but I miss the right to be taxed fairly. I don’t mind working and paying my fair share, but I deeply resent when so large of a chunk is taken out of my paycheck weekly before I even get to see or touch my full wages. I resent inflation, soaring real estate tax bills, rip off insurance companies, NAFTA and outsourcing, the wrecked health system…the list of what the PTB ruined is endless.
I’m with Jonah. If we could work with real money instead of fiat currency, we wouldn’t all be on the tight leash that threatens to choke us to death. Besides their greed, the PTB use play money to keep citizens weak. If we could deal with real money, like gold and silver, we’d have more choices. More choices lead to more happiness, which leads to confidence and inner strength. Inner strength leads to strong will to resist evil. Those interested in destroying our liberties are cowards at heart. Instead of face-to-face confrontations, they hide behind fiat money and other deceptive games of their own invention so they can try to control everyone’s minds, break our will, break our spirits.
With a broken, despondent spirit, one feels helpless as a cornered rat…exactly like the PTB would like us to be—a dumbed down, “barefoot and pregnant” America that will allow itself to be easily herded into the New World Order. One world government. One world religion. One sappy, spineless, weak-willed “yesmanship” of a populace. That’s what they want—and hopefully what they will never get!
Justice for all is another thing I miss. I'm thinking of the Sandy Berger incident in which Berger was caught stealing sensitive documents from a library and got off the hook. Also, the criminals that Clinton pardoned at the end of this reign demonstrated to me that justice has little meaning with the government.
Also, the freedom from fear of attack by foreign enemies. Our FedGov has for decades, I've come to realize, cooperated with the transfer of militarily important technology to our avowed enemies, especially Russia and China. I've invrestiaged some of this by reading "From Major Jordan's Diaries" and Anthony Sutton's books that detail transfer of atom bomb materials and technology, other weapons technology and manufacturing technology and equipment to Russia and China. ChinaGate, for example.
Re: comments above about our broken, corrupt tax system. Check out the actual numbers at:
How Big Is Bush's Big Government?
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/190406_b_Government.htm
The list of lost liberties is getting longer. Some are a result of harmful policies followed by federal, state and local governments. Here are some of the losses that I have noticed:
1.) The freedom to spend our income as we choose. With the total tax bite (from fed., state, & local governments) at or exceeding 50%, more and more of us are seeing our money (that we could have used to get ahead, start a business, pay off our homes, etc., ad infinitum) - being siphoned off for the benefit of those who can't or, often, WON'T work, and to subsidize money-losing government enterprises, and to prop up dictatorial regimes in other countries, most of whom hate America and Americans.
2.) Independence of thought and action - With the
siphoning off of a large percentage of our income, more and more of us are becoming dependent on government programs to educate our children, to have even the HOPE of owning our own homes, or even making ends meet or surviving in our old age.
3.) Freedom of speech - We become meek and silent as mice because of the fear that our benefits may in some way be curtailed or eliminated if we speak out against the depredations of the PTB and their exercise of illegitimate power. We fear ostracism by our dumbed-down, propagandized, and brain-washed family, friends, and neighbors. Many have become 21st-Century Pharaoh worshippers without realizing it. "O bless me, great God Government with large amounts of OPM!" (Other People's Money.)
4.) Real, Constitutional money - as Jonah Trainer mentioned. 'Nuff said.
5.) NATIONAL Independence and
6.) NATIONAL Sovereignty - gradually being destroyed, first by GATT (the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs), then NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), and recently CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement), and then the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas). All of these, in reality, having little or nothing to do with "free trade" but everything to do with erasing our borders and our sovereignty and independence as a nation.
7.) The un-infringed Right to Keep and Bear Arms - starting in the '30s with the prohibition of ownership of automatic firearms, we are seeing a relentless drive to disarm us, making us easy prey for both street criminals and those wearing government uniforms.
8.) The Right to Worship unmolested.- Now that the Bible is considered by many in government to be "hate speech," because it condemns sexual perversions, we can expect more attacks here.
9.) The Freedom to be safe in our papers and personal effects, and safe from unreasonable searches and seizures (the mis-named USA Patriot Acts, I and II, among others, trashed this.)
10.) The Right to own and control property - Many "latter-day aints" promote land-use and zoning laws that directly infringe upon this right, ignoring D. & C. 134
11.) Many more freedoms have been lost whose description I will have to leave for another time.
The proper role of government is to "... protect [our] lives, liberty, and property. Anything more than this is usurpation and oppression." (This is from one of the state constitutions. Alabama's, I believe.)
Cyrus35
God Bless Neil Young
As an avid Neil Young fan of a few years now I am so happy to see him take an important stance against the criminal NeoCons in the White House and the illegal activities they are perpetrating at home and elsewhere. But why does it take a 60 year old Canadian musician to generate political activism in America? What is wrong with the youth of today? Is this indicative of the fact that kids today do not even understand what freedom is supposed to be?-Steve Watson/Prison Planet
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/220406_b_Young.htm
As a full time substitute teacher in the public high schools and junior high schools, I experience and observe a great deal of what school kids learn and don't learn about the founding of America, and about the Constitution, freedom and liberty. Much of it is the fault or ignorance of the teachers, and much of it is due to the rewriting of history since I was a pup. A few of us do the best we can to instill in the students an appreciation of American history and freedom and liberty, and the stories behind the current events, sometimes at the risk of being fired.
Well, I sure opened a can of worms. Of course, I am a strong believer in ‘following the yellow brick road’ if one wants to find the root cause.
“What is wrong with the youth of today?”
Look at the miserable, inept and negligent performance by their parents, grandparents and great grandparents. Is it any wonder?
I give the youth a break because if I were in their shoes I am not too sure I would want to carry on with what is in the pipeline. Their future is so dark and the clouds so thick there is hardly any hope. They will have to live the fantasy tales in their popular movies like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. Many will perish. Peak Oil, a New World Order and Apocalypse.
Here are a couple quotes in regards to money and banking:
This institution [Bank of the United States] is one of the most deadly hostility existing, against the principles & form of our Constitution. The nation is, at this time, so strong & united in it's sentiments, that it cannot be shaken at this moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur, sufficient to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by it's branches every part of the Union, acting by command & in phalanx, may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or it's regular functionaries. – Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, December 13, 1803. (Paul Leicester Ford ed., The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes. Federal Edition.), at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(tj100026)) or http://tinyurl.com/r4usv
Joseph Smith, a United States Presidential candidate in 1844 was assassinated shortly after declaring his position on banking and paper currency. Concerning the central bank and paper money he declared, “I consider that it is not only prudential, but absolutely necessary to protect the inhabitants of this city from being imposed upon by a spurious currency. … I think it much safer to go upon the hard money system altogether. I have examined the Constitution upon this subject and find my doubts removed.”
Joseph Smith, Jr., Scriptural Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 314 (Richard C. Galbraith ed., Deseret Book 1993) (1843).
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.
This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.”
Alan Greenspan, Gold and Economic Freedom, The Objectivist (1966) available at http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html or http://tinyurl.com/yztf
I agree with Shawnee that too many people are TV zombies and accept anything the media say uncritically. Many of the other people’s complaints seem to be in regards to Political Correctness, which is also a direct result of our biased media. Passing laws is understandable and is a basic premise of society. For example, the Brady Bill came about after John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Reagan. Hinckley had planned the assassination a few days earlier but was caught by police officers carrying fire arms. The police officers took the gun away from Hinckley, and he simply went to a pawn shop and bought new guns without any problem. The Brady Bill was established because Brady was shot during the assassination attempt, and had the Hinckley been required to wait a couple of days to receive the guns the assassination attempt would not have taken place. The law is not bad per se; it is the exact same type of thing parents do to their children when their children prove to need more supervision. Because of the actions of a few criminals, law abiding citizens may be faced with a minor inconvenience, but that is a small price to pay if it will save lives. After all, the waiting period is only aimed at preventing criminals from obtaining guns. If making them wait will protect your children from being murdered by them, then it is worth it. Now the checks are done electronically and the waiting period in no longer a factor anyways. The government does not make laws because it wants to disarm it citizens, it passes laws to protect its citizens. You might need to take a course in order to receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but we don’t want criminals to carry concealed weapons (that why people get robbed) and we don’t need to place the police in any more risk than they face everyday.
The Patriot Act
If anyone is concerned about the Patriot Act I suggest you read it. Don’t fall for what the biased media says, or the liberals and communists. If you read the Patriot Act you will see that it does very little to change our US Codes. Mostly it amends US Codes that are already in existence to include the word ‘Terrorism’ in them. The US Codes have already been in existence http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/ , people just don’t take the time to read them. If you research the Patriot Act you will also learn that the only court ruling against it was done because communists wished to donate money to communist terrorists in foreign countries that are listed as actively engaging in terrorism http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/briefs/2000/0responses/2000-0910.resp.html , and as opposing a direct threat to the United States. I don’t think people should donate money to terrorists.
If we promote better morals and values in are society perhaps we wouldn’t need as many laws, but the bottom line is that it is crime and criminals that create a need for additional restrictions, and not a wicked government. The government doesn’t want to control anybodies lives, and they do not wish to listen to your phone calls (even if they had the man power to do so). The government doesn’t care who you are going to dinner with, or if you decide to go bowling or to the movies on the weekend. The government is there to protect its citizen, and that is what it sets out to do. If you are not a threat to society then the government is not going to waste its time on you. If you are a threat to society, then the government should listen to your calls and investigate you in order to protect the honest citizens of the United States.