So, they fought and many died to gain independence to pursue liberties they believed every person should have. They accomplished the feat because they were united in a common cause. But, what of now?
Just how united are we in the common cause of maintaining our liberty? Or are we divided by forces having the intent of our liberties being removed one by one just as surely as the sun rises each day?
If push came to shove, could we actually unite for a common cause? I would like to think so but am not certain it would happen regardless of the provocation.
The greatest threat our liberty now faces is not from outside this country, although the world does have many problems. No, the biggest threat now faced concerning liberty is the government removing rights by ignoring or changing the Constitution.
We are so easily manipulated by the government that most do not realize the extent that the government, spear-headed by the Republican and Democratic parties, keeps us divided. It is to their benefit that prejudices between whites and blacks, male and female, rich verses poor, urban verses rural, the abortion issue which seems to never die, pro-gun verses gun control, and public education verses private education, as examples, continue. As long as there are clear divisions, then union of the different factions is not apt to occur.
Education is utilized to its fullest. Or, maybe I should state, 'lack of education' since education is failing at an increasing rate. Dividing those who believe in standards against those who believe in local requirements or parental established standards, is probably the most dominant, damaging division. And, as long as strong disagreements can be maintained, education will remain at its same poor level, in which 50 percent 'graduate' high school functionally illiterate.
Politicians then align themselves with the groups they feel will result in the most votes for them. It doesn't matter whether they agree with any group, only that the politicians can convince the members of the group they believe as the group believes. For politicians bent on increasing the strength of the federal government (most, if not all), it is no more than a vote-getting issue.
Then, of course, it is easy for politicians to keep the opposing sides, opposed. As long as this continues, then hundreds, thousands of Americans remain in controversies that blind them to other aspects of government, especially those that remove liberties or affect them negatively.
Thus, the stressing of remaining vigilant over the central government by our forefathers who could foresee the dangers of placing power in the hands of a few, is more or less ignored by the masses making up so many different factions. They only remain vigilant against the people in opposition to their beliefs.
So, the question I must bring up is whether or not we can get united as long as two extremely strong political powers remain in power. The two parties keep alive issues which are sure to divide the public while completely duping the public concerning taxes, social security, law enforcement, the judicial system,
and racial prejudices.
Simultaneously, issues of the government's violation of the Constitutionality of their legislation is ignored, not only by the politicians but by the public. They ignore the right of the people to know exactly what a bill states. They do so by making the bills so complicated that one would have to spend days analyzing the bill, time that most people don't have.
Thus, it is easy for Congress to keep people divided on any legislative proposal. Since the people don't know the truth and cannot obtain it from television (remember 50 percent can't read above the 4th grade level), politicians can state whatever they want and add into any bill anything they want, whether what they add in actually refers to the topic of the bill in question or not.
The division produced will keep the people divided. And, if any strong union appears to be happening, then other issues are brought up. And, the people respond as if they are brain dead.
As an example, by polls the majority of people were behind President Clinton concerning Whitewater, especially after months of investigation without a shred of evidence against Mr. Clinton. They wanted the investigation stopped. Suddenly, the issue became his sex life, a topic that had been completely taboo between politicians and the media prior to Mr. Clinton.
Then, opponents of Mr. Clinton turned to family values. But, family values became far less important when the facts concerning Gingrich (Anne Manning) and Burton's illegitimate
son came out. (Remember anti-Clintonites pushing the public has a right to know about Clinton's private life, that is, until the private lives of leading Republicans starting coming out?)
As a matter of fact, the Republican Party was hard pushed to find someone to take Gingrich's place following Gingrich being forced to resign. It seemed as if they all had skeletons in their closets they didn't want made public.
Now, most people out here in middle-America believes the Republican Party orchestrated the entire Starr investigation with the intent of totally descrediting President Clinton. Illegalities couldn't be found so they turned to sex, an issue that invariably brings about division of the masses, and one that Clinton (as would any married person having an illicit affair) would be sure to lie about. Of course, it backfired on them and their media supporters; Clinton's popularity continued to increase.
Then, they brought up China and Clinton's relationship with China, along with stolen or secrets sold to China. That has been the hot topic but what has not been hot is that Clinton's continued relationship with China is necessary, just as it was when Reagan started it and Bush pursued it.
Now, whether you agree with the above or not isn't important. It doesn't even matter if it is factual!!! What is important is that I caused you to think about the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and the shoddy actions of the Republican Party concerning the Clinton issues rather than the topic of this essay.
While I had your attention elsewhere, I could have, (had I been the Congress of the US), passed any bill I wished, whether unconstitutional or not, whether it removed a liberty or not, and most of the public would not have paid a bit of attention or even knew a bill had passed affecting liberties.
United thinking could produce united results while division will keep people from uniting. As long as we allow ourselves to be manipulated by politicians knowing this, with the power to cause people to believe in them even when in opposition to liberty, we will continue having liberties affected that effectively give more power to the federal government.
Poor education, especially in regards to the foundation on which this union of States was enacted, will ease their task. Knowledge is power and unified knowledge is all powerful in protecting our 'unalienable' rights.
There are dozens of sites on the Internet attempting to tell people the truth. (Some, including government sites, continue, however, to perpetuate the myths.) But, what I don't see are the people of the sites working together to form a union. If we can't get together and communicate as a unified whole, then how in the devil can we ever expect to unify across the country to the degree necessary to force the government to reinstate and protect our Constitutional rights?
To answer my own question, I don't believe we can organize to the extent needed to force the federal government to observe our rights, to do away with unconstitutional procedures, such as directly taxing incomes, taking money for social security (a volunteer system at best), or numbering us as animals headed for slaughter.
For once, I would love to be proved wrong.