Do you trust your government?
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Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
When the delegates that represented the 13 original colonies of our nation penned their names to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, they did so as a unanimous United States of America, as “one people” to act in concert together.
When, in 1789, the delegates assembled signed their names to our United States Constitution, the preamble began with the words “We the People,” as a brief introductory statement of the constitution’s fundamental purposes and guiding principles.
Later, our congress proposed several amendments to the U.S. Constitution, adopted as “The Bill of Rights,” wherein they stated that “in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.”
In late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln echoed the sentiments of our nation’s founders when he concluded his Gettysburg Address with a “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
My point is that our governments; whether local, city, county, district, state, or federal; “are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Here in Coosa County, Alabama, one of the least populated counties of our state, we do not have a lot of government, and because of the small amount of government here, it is sort of difficult for them to abuse their authority, but not impossible.
As we move up the food chain, the larger the tax base directly correlates to a larger tax revenue, which leads to ever expanding government usurpation of the liberties and freedoms of we the people who call this place our home.
My first question for you to consider is the question as to how much taxation is enough. Our founders chose to dump British tea into Boston Harbor rather than to pay a tax on it. Today we are taxed upon our income. Taxed upon interest of any monies in savings. Taxed upon every sale.
Our property is taxed. Our vehicles are taxed. The fuel to run our vehicles is taxed. Our roads are taxed. Our food is taxed. And yet, every year, our taxes are increased. To which end, I ask, how much is enough? I do not consent to any more taxes.
At the national level, nearly every one of the alphabet agencies were created by decree, and without the authority of the consent of the people, as detailed by the limited government as described in our constitution.
Those agencies steal from your paycheck before you are paid. They will seize any asset you may own, including your bank account or life savings. They will seize your property and evict you from your home. They follow your every move, your every cell phone call, your every email, or text, and every photo you may share, no matter how private or intimate it may be.
Edward Snowden became a whistle blower to warn us about what our government was doing, and rather than granting him whistle-blower protections, our government went after him as if he were a spy. I do not consent to any more government control of my life.
At the federal level, the last time that our congress declared “war” was against the Japanese on the day after their attack upon our Navy stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Yet since the end of World War Two, American military men and women have been sent off to fight and die all around this planet, in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, and other places. I no longer consent to having my military brothers and sisters sent off to die in a war that isn’t worth our congress declaring us a part of.
While people are free to vote for their representatives in government, we must not forget the axiom attributed to Joseph Stalin, the general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and their dictator, that “It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.”
This leads me to my thoughts regarding our upcoming election in November. Do you trust the system? Do you believe that your vote really counts? Do you believe that the numbers, when reported, are accurate? Where is the transparency?
Most in our elected federal government are paid well above what we the average citizen makes, yet, some will decry that they need even more funds to get by, while others somehow manipulate their wealth into hundreds of millions through investments made upon privileged information. I no longer consent to any government that is not 100% transparent to we who finance them.
In his 1961 inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy stated, “My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” It is time for us, the possessors of the true power and authority that allows our governments to even exist, to demand that they, at a minimum, remain accountable and transparent.
That is all that I want from government, and beyond that, I want to be left alone to pursue my own life, liberty and happiness. And if we can get our governments to stop trying to expand and grow, like a cancer, then perhaps that is the greatest thing that we can do for our country.