The Tyrants on the Left up the meme that Our Rights do not come from our Creator, rather they insist that ‘rights’ are ‘agreed to’ and ‘permitted’ by Government
The seig-heiling of government power and the rewriting of our history by Leftists in media and education, from Obama on down – is accelerating to obscene levels of the ridiculous and false. Just as we saw with Brian Williams, the media no longer reports news – it lies to further the Leftist Narrative and the MarxoFascist Agenda.
In this case of Godless media propaganda, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo attempted to shame Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in a heated argument over the imposition of homosexual marriage upon the states and the people of this country. When Judge Moore stated that our Rights come from God – Cuomo went ballistic and insisted that our “collective rights” come from men and government, NOT God.
The fact of the matter is that if Rights are granted by men or government, Rights can be easily rescinded by men and their governments at any time of their choosing – and if that be the case – then they are not rights at all – merely ‘privileges’, granted by government. I have heard Leftists often state and opine that ‘rights’ they disagree with should be recategorized as ‘privileges’ – especially speech and religion, while at the same time they insist homosexual sex and marriage is an inalienable right they are born with and must be upheld and agreed to by all.
What you see taking place here with this whole homosexual marriage agenda is Genesis 19 come alive right in your face. It will never stop, they will never be satisfied – not until they have their way and until your beliefs match theirs or is exterminated.
Liberty and a republic cannot exist within a society that thinks Rights come from men and government. Because the moment enough people actually believe their inalienable rights come from men and government, a tyranny of men will ALWAYS make legal, the justification to eliminate such ‘rights’ it finds an obstacle to complete and total power and control.
During a heated discussion over gay marriage, CNN morning Anchor Chris Cuomo opined that the unalienable rights endowed to all Americans do not come from God.
Cuomo was debating Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Near the end of the back-and-forth and after Moore argued that rights cannot be handed down by men, Cuomo blurted out:
“Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from man… That’s your faith, that’s my faith, but that’s not our country. Our laws come from collective agreement and compromise.”
Maybe Mr. Cuomo flunked elementary civics. The opening sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence clearly affirms:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
It may be more convenient to Cuomo’s political philosophy that a select few are empowered to grant rights to the masses, but it certainly is not part of this country’s foundation.
What’s worse is Cuomo is advocating “collective” rights. He speaks as if every American right can simply be overturned at a whim simply because “times change.” “Sure, freedom of speech was great in 1789, but we’ve evolved beyond that as a collective society.” This is a very dangerous slope on which to tread.
The Federal Behemoth in Washington no longer has any legitimate authority over a free people. So what now? Our own history provides the answer.
Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. – Declaration of Independence
Part 2: What Do We Do Now?
In Part 1 of this essay, I laid out the evidence that the federal government is being run by an ideological oligarchy that has corrupted the entire institution of national government and grown into a tyranny. I specifically cited two examples of federal agencies that are completely lawless and being used as weapons against the American people to abolish Constitutional rights. That was last quarter of last year.
The plain truth is this, whether you will admit it openly or not: the federal government can no longer be trusted to safeguard our rights, our liberties or the rule of law to effect our happiness OR our security (open borders with Executive Amnesty decreed anyone?). It has abused and usurped power from the people to implement a design to reduce us all under absolute Despotism. It has made itself above the Law, outside the Law and a law unto itself. In short, it is no different than if the Mafia had taken over the nation.
So what can we do? The Declaration of Independence states that we have a duty to fulfill in the case of tyranny. The argument being waged among those of us who recognize where we have arrived, is what form of ‘throwing off such government’ entails in this ‘enlightened age? Some point to elections and civility within the existing system as our path to throwing off a tyrannical yoke. Let’s take a look at those arguments.
Some say write and call your federal Representatives. I cannot think of anything that resembles passing wind better than this suggestion. I offer that this is as ineffectual as sending another Olive Branch Petition to the Throne of King George. The results will be the same; repeated injury en masse. For petitioning our rulers for a redress of grievances is now being met with the same contempt and charge of sedition as it was when George III did it. Or to use the same phrase as the Declaration: repeated injury.
Some say protest. Another wasted effort. The amount of disdain and contempt by the Ruling Class for liberty-minded Americans and Conservative Christians is off the scale. When hundreds of thousands took the steps of the Capitol to protest ObamaCare and flooded town hall meetings, the Ruling Class ignored and demonized them declaring them to be ‘terrorists’ . When citizens called their representatives to complain, phones are left unanswered or off the hook and e-mailboxes are left full without reply. If an answer is received, often it is a useless form letter or repeated injury.
Some say elect more Republicans. Well, we have over 20 years of results by a people who have been doing so, and I say that is a proven exercise in practicing insanity. The GOP and the nation continue to pick up speed Leftward, until today we are fundamentally transformed into a Marxist/Fascist oligarchy.
The last election more than showcased the fact that the Will of The People will be ignored, undermined and thwarted each time the Oligarchy decides it will not allow itself to be restrained by The People.
So what shall we do? Is it time to grab your gun, pitchforks and torches and head to the village green to face the Redcoats? That history is certainly growing in consideration among many.
Some will argue and rightfully so, that such an acton would give the Fascist juggernaut now ruling us the justification to do what they have already prepared to do to put down their political enemies and create the climate of fear that is next on the schedule to be implemented in the nation to criminalize the very spirit that birthed the nation.
So then what now? Do we do nothing? Do we just keep voting in this shell game of a corrupted system and blindly hope that someday, someone will do something that is not an attack on liberty?
What can we do in the face of our nation being fundamentally transformed into an Imperial Marxist/Fascist Oligarchy with a Roman-esue Senate doing the bidding of a Caesar with Praetorians in the media and every federal agency ready to pounce on whomever is targeted on command?
Our own history provides the answer to what God Himself honored in granting a determined bunch of farmers willing to sacrifice everything, a victory over the greatest military might on earth at the time.
The answer is this: We refuse to comply with edicts from the Federal Beast. We ignore unjust “laws” and “requirements” that contravene the Laws of God, the Constitution and your natural rights as established by God. We no longer consent to be governed by such a tyrannical cabal and as such, we from this point forward, refuse to comply with it. We must remind ourselves that ‘It is better to obey God than men’ (Acts 5:29) as scripture says. He is Our Sovereign, not the regime and it’s proponents now attempting to rule us.
That is what we must do.
And make no mistake, you will be called an insurrectionist, a rebel, a domestic terrorist for daring to defy the bullies in D.C., to which I offer this wisdom from Benjamin Franklin “Disobedience to tyrants is obedience to God”. I state again, the entire Federal Governmental Beast is become tyrannical.
From a purely secular standpoint – since all the branches of the Federal Government can ignore the Supreme Law of the Land; refuse to comply with it’s limitations; decide not to enforce ‘laws’ they do not agree with; and issue decrees of new laws that contravene the existing Constitution; deem treaties signed by the Executive without Congressional ratification ‘law’ – why then are the people obligated to follow what the Rulers on High demand? Can we not also ignore their “laws”; refuse to comply with their edicts; decide not to obey “laws” we do not agree with and deem ‘memoranda’ issued by executive decree unlawful and of no effect? Or have we truly arrived at the time where law only applies to the “little people”; we serfs ruled on high by a Ruling Caste? Are some animals more equal than others in this fundamentally transformed nation?
The answer is obviously ‘yes’ to the latter judging facts and events currently ongoing.
Yet let this truth ring in your ears: a gun to our proverbial heads is the only power a tyranny such as the current Federal Government has over us.
Read that again and let it sink in: the only power the current Federal Government has over us, is a gun to our head with the threat to pull the trigger and put us down. All they have is the threat to strip you of your wealth, property and life at the end of the guns that serve the state and the Caesar. That is the only power they now have.
It no longer has any legitimate authority under Heaven, or the Constitution they have usurped and ignored, therefore We are no longer obligated under Heaven to abide such a tyranny.
From a biblical standpoint the question becomes; are we obligated to subject ourselves to governing authorities that are tyrannical and contravene the Laws of God and our rights?
However, I hold that the Romans 13 argument in the context of obeying THIS CURRENT federal beast, is bogus. Romans 13 specifically tells us that Authorities under God exist to punish evil. What happens when a government authority becomes perverted and celebrates evil and exists to punish the God-fearing? Are we still supposed to submit to that? Are edicts and “laws” passed by such an entity biblically required of Christ followers to obey?
In the understanding of what our Founders wrote on the subject, any order or “law” that contravenes God’s Holy Laws and statutes and principles is not a “law” at all, it is forced sin by government upon those they demand follow it. To them, Galatians 5:1 ended the Quaker argument for obedience to tyranny. For they saw physical tyranny as no different than spiritual sin. Most of them understood a physical tyranny such as they were suffering was the direct result of the sin of the whole people, and the 1760’s were filled with the call from pulpits to get the Colonies to repent and become the instruments against sin and tyranny they felt they needed to be. That became the First Great Awakening.
Yet Pastors today preach that we must submit to such tyranny and limit our duty to praying for Obama and Congress? I believe those that erroneously follow this bogus argument end up making the government their god, thus breaking the First Commandment. Submitting to tyranny is not of God, but of Satan. For tyranny sins against Nature’s God and violates the natural Rights endowed upon His People. As Christians, we have a duty to DEFY and DISOBEY such tyranny, and we have historical precedent for such duties to be blessed by God.
Jonathan Mayhew, one of the first pastors in America to fire the first spiritual volley against the tyranny of the Crown in 1750, spoke at the Old West Church in Boston to lay out the biblical case for disobeying a tyrant and arguing against the Quaker insistence that Romans 13 be followed to the utter end.
As soon as the prince sets himself up above law, he loses the king in the tyrant. He does, to all intents and purposes, unking himself by acting out of and beyond that sphere which the constitution allows him to move in; and in such cases he has no more right to be obeyed than any inferior officer who acts beyond his commission. – Jonathan Mayhew, 1750, ” Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission“
Americans have to come to understand and believe this same thing, before anything else can be done about what we currently are begin ruled by. Let this sink in a moment and let me paraphrase Mayhew’s admonition in modern American English; Americans have to come to understand that Obama and the Oligarchy in Congress have set themselves up above the Law, and because they have done this, they have lost the authority in their tyranny. They have, to all intents and purposes, delegitimized themselves by acting out of and beyond the sphere which the Constitution has allowed them to move in; and in this case they have no more right to be obeyed than any officer who acts beyond their commission.
Understand this; when the government no longer has any legitimate authority over you, all it has in its disposal is brutal force waged at the end of a gun to force it’s will upon you. At one time we used to recognize that as abject tyranny. But no wonder, our people no longer recognize sin as biblically defined, and instead have called evil good, and good, evil. It therefore follows that a majority of our people also do not recognize we are being ruled by a tyranny. Since Satan is a tyrant and his devices are the instruments of subjugation and slavery – is it no coincidence so many Americans are ignorant of similar devices and instruments being used by government to enslave them?
For those of us NOT ignorant of these devices and what now has established itself over us, how do we respond to a tyranny that they think is ‘elected’ to do as it pleases to us? A government that states it has lawful ‘precedent’ to tyrannize us because it is what “the people” want.
Obama said strategically: “The government is us” for the insidious purpose of asserting that the everyone supports government and therefore everything government does, whether tyrannical or not, is legitimate.
Getting a mob on the side of tyranny is a fundamental function of a despotic Oligarchy. To create the illusion that anyone standing up for what is right, is the problem. A problem that the people will applaud the tyranny to ‘take care of’. An approval of a final solution to what the power of the state deems a threat to themselves.
Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro and the host of the last few generations of despotic Socialist dictators have all used this same tactic to great effect.
So ask yourself, do we submit to the threat of impoverishment, destitution, bodily harm and death in the vain hope of remaining unscathed? Have we become ignorant of what ‘We pledge our lives, fortunes and sacred honor’ meant? Have we gone so far as to accept that this government is there for our good? If we do, we break the First Commandment by allowing government to become our god, no different than if Shaadrack, Meschak and Abednego had complied with Nebuchadnezzar and bowed to the image of gold. Submitting to tyranny therefore is breaking the first Commandment. This was the staunch belief of those who fought the lawful, legal authority of the Crown of England over the Colonies.
My countrymen, we are dealing with a Beast. One that not only contravenes it’s established authority within the bounds of the Constitution, but the Federal Beast defies The Most High’s Authority with the agenda it has foisted upon the nation.
When King George III and his Parliament issued the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Intolerable Acts – the Colonists openly defied and refused to comply with those decrees. Instructively, upon the establishment of the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty famously chucked all the tea from the East India Tea Company that the Crown was forcing on the Colonists, into Boston Harbor in 1773 – rather than pay the tax. This resulted in the blockade of Boston and an ensuing siege intended to starve Massachusetts into submission.
Notice the order of events in this history: the tyranny of the governing authority issues decrees that trod upon the inalienable rights of the people. The People eventually refuse to comply with those decrees and openly defy them. The Authority then invokes punitive and punishing measures against those that dare defy them. They attempt impoverishment, Siege and privation. Then, if the subjects still refuse to submit and bow down, force of arms is deployed to put down their ‘rebellion’ – with the intent to kill and imprison any who dare challenge the authority.
It is at that stage, and at that point that the God-ordained inviolate Right of self defense is authorized, and indeed was used against the governing authorities. To be blunt – when the tyrants sent armed shock troops to seize their weapons and force them to comply at gunpoint and occupation – the Colonists resisted the authority of the crown with lethal means.
Which by the way, is the ENTIRE reason and purpose of the Second Amendment, and trust me when I say that the Regime in power will eliminate that Right as soon as they are able to do so because they KNOW what the intent of that Amendment is, which is why every single despotic regime that comes into power ALWAYS disarms the very people they intend to destroy.
So again, what do we do now?
We do as our forbears. We should first repent of our individual sins, work towards national repentance – and refuse to comply with the wickedness and tyranny being foisted on us by Imperial decree. As history teaches, a tyranny will never abide or allow a people who refuse to comply with it’s edicts and demands. They will crush such people and/or force them to comply by imposing every form of despotism, punishment and threat it has at it’s disposal.
Nothing new under the sun. Our Founders understood that completely.
When the Signers of the Declaration declared their vote for Independence and put their names to the parchment, it was not lost on a single one of them the gravity of what they had just done. They understood that in all practicality, they just signed their own death warrants. A long silence settled on the Continental Congress as everyone silently contemplated what their action would result in. The quiet was broken by Samuel Adams who defined what it was that they had really just accomplished by voting to rebel and defy the King and Parliament. He said:
“We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.” – Samuel Adams July 4th, 1776
The revolution against the lawful authority of a government that became a tyranny was a direct affirmation that the King and parliament had usurped God’s Sovereignty over His People. Refusing to comply, and then resisting the force being sent to subjugate them – was a solemn duty for the Christian, and it was that understanding and determination that led to the willing sacrifices to establish liberty on this land.
Sadly, human nature has not changed in 238 years, and neither has man’s desire to rule over others. America was an anomaly in all written human history, yet today we willingly have surrendered ourselves to the very system that has enslaved people since The Garden, submitting to a government that makes itself absolute ruler. A free people should only ever remain beholden to the Supreme Governor of the Universe, not submitting itself to a tyranny that stands for overt sin, wickedness, corruption and greed.
Know this truth – a people who will not be governed by God, will be ruled by the tyranny of men.
If we would be free indeed, then submitting to God first is our duty – and then to stand against any encroachment made against it by every and all means.
Our history gives us the clear blueprint of what we can and should do from this point forward, in resisting tyranny. The tyranny we suffer today may actually be insidiously worse than what the Colonists endured, because so many refuse to see it as a tyranny.
C.S. Lewis adroitly notes the kind of ‘soft tyranny’ that Alexis DeToqueville warned about:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
The soft tyranny that we have allowed ourselves to live under is now morphing into a police state that has iron fists staged all over the nation. We either refuse to comply and be ready to suffer the inevitable efforts of punishment by the illegitimate authority in the righteous cause of Restoring The Sovereign in our lives. Or we surrender to the tyranny of men and the god they have erected to subjugate us.
Refuse. Defy. Then, when the tyrants send agents of the state to force it’s will, Resist.
Will we cry “Give us Liberty or give us Death!” or will we cry “Give us the promise of bread so we can live!”??
It is up to us now to decide how we will respond to tyranny, for assuredly those in power have already decided how they intend to deal with you.
What will it take to wake Americans up from the tyranny being done to them?
The Obama regime and the Democrat/Republican Oligarchy is waging war on Americans. The Obama regime is enabling Jihadists worldwide to establish a Caliphate while reducing our military to parading homosexual rights. He has handed over Egypt, Libya and Iraq over to a Jihadist group more horrifying than Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and seeks to do the same to Syria while appeasing the Mullah’s in Iran.
At the same time Obama has opened up our Southern borders wide and is trucking, bussing and even FLYING in hundreds of thousands of poor, illiterate South Americans in an unprecedented invasion to force the issue of “Immigration reform”(read AMNESTY). Our Border Patrol ordered to stand down and watch helpless as Obama facilitates this invasion while changing diapers and playing taxi drivers to refugee camps. Meanwhile our local police departments have been militarized against us, and we are being told that our rights must submit to NEW RIGHTS that the “progressive” (Marxist) is dreaming up for themselves and their goose-stepping followers. Elections are being corrupted and stolen by oligarchs, Obama rules as a dictator and punishes industry, business and individuals he targets by using the IRS, the EPA the whole of the federal beast and his InJustice Department.
At some point – we must resist by every and all means possible if you wish to hold onto some shred of liberty. Tyrants always follow a similar pattern of imposing despotism, and it is ALWAYS when a people defy the rulers, refuse to comply and RESIST that the real hard face of the tyrant is revealed – and they begin to exterminate all those they have decreed to be their enemies.
But will it unite a people in opposition, or force them to comply for the promise of relief and bread?
How long will we willingly put up with this crap from the federal beast that is evincing a plan to reduce us under absolute despotism?
Because we have every right under Heaven and a solemn duty to throw off such government.
1775 From Ken Cuccinelli:
As we celebrate the birthday of our exceptional nation, I wanted to look back just one more year than Americans usually do today – back to 1775.
Of course, the Revolutionary War began in 1775, not 1776. Before we were ready to take the historic and dramatic step of birthing our own new nation in liberty, there were long and often painful attempts to accommodate the relationship between American colonists and the British Parliament and King.
Interestingly, one of the evolutions that happened during that year is that many Americans who started 1775 thinking of themselves as “British” did not finish the year that way. I hear from many Republicans who are having similar feelings this year. One year is a short time for such a change, and it was almost entirely driven by the British themselves. As much as some colonists, especially in Virginia, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Connecticut, were advancing toward independence in 1775, most colonists were not there when the year began.
What are some of the things the British did in 1775 to drive their subjects to rebel, you ask? There were many, and you may notice how history tends to repeat itself…
First, as the possibility of armed conflict increased from 1774 into 1775, the four leading states started removing stocks of gunpowder out of reach of Royal Governors, and they commissioned buyers around the world to buy more gunpowder and weapons for their colonial militias. Needless to say, the colonial bodies undertaking these steps weren’t approved or allowed by the Crown, nonetheless, they pressed on – at great personal risk.
The British did all they could, especially the Royal Navy, to interdict these shipments.
So, my fellow 2nd Amendment supporters will not fail to notice that one of the first “battles” of the American Revolution was for the citizenry to arm itself adequately to protect its own rights against the government itself. It is also no surprise that the first true battle of the Revolutionary War was sparked by a British effort to seize gunpowder stored at Concord, Massachusetts. On their way to Concord, the shot heard round the world was fired at Lexington, Massachusetts and the shooting war was on.
Second, it is very important to note that even after the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, many colonists, especially in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland – the so-called “middle colonies” were not enthusiastic to press the colonial case so aggressively. They generally preferred continuing to try to talk through colonial difficulties with the Crown and Parliament, without any pushing, threatening and certainly not attacking the British.
But the British Navy began what may literally be called the naval version of ‘scorched earth’ tactics in 1775. They started threatening, attacking and burning colonial seaside towns! Can you imagine? Their notion seems to have been to bully the colonists back into line.
The Royal Navy threatened Weymouth, Marblehead and Gloucester in Massachusetts. But the first town burned was Charlestown, Massachusetts. The Royal Navy fired red-hot cannonballs to start the fire, and later that day landed nearby to begin the fight we now know as Bunker Hill.
Next door in Rhode Island, Royal Navy Captain James Wallace had been threatening Newport for months. He threatened to burn or fire on their town if they didn’t provide supplies, or if they interfered with his men, or if they allowed Patriot troops into town, and on and on.
At that time, about half of Rhode Island’s population lived on the coast or islands along the coast, so they were very vulnerable to Wallace’s threats. Then he began cannonading Newport in the summer of 1775 and regularly thereafter. By the turn of the year, three quarters of the previous inhabitants had been driven from their homes.
Wallace’s flotilla bombarded Connecticut towns too, and stole their hay and livestock.
It should be no surprise that during the summer of 1775, both colonies were among the first to call for a colonial navy, and in fact, began fitting out their own navies!
The 64-gun line-of-battle ship Asia fired a full broad side into lower Manhattan near Wall Street! This led – as intended – to great fear among those in New York City, and within weeks, many began to leave rather than live under the threat of the Asia’s guns. By the end of the year, about half of the residents had left the city.
You can picture in your mind the trail of carts and wagons and families as refugees. Such treatment, or even just seeing the sad plight of fellow colonists, would have affected people strongly.
Rough tactics engender depression and sadness, but also resistance!
In Virginia, British Captain Montagu threatened to burn York – soon to become known as Yorktown. And the Royal Governor himself – Lord Dunmore – threatened to burn Williamsburg! Hampton Roads was fired upon and so was Jamestown – the original English foothold in America.
There was a small naval battle in Charleston Harbor, in South Carolina, in November of 1775, as patriots there tried to sink ships in the channel to protect their town from the kinds of bombardments and burnings that were taking place in New England.
Starting in October, the British issued orders to their Navy Captains to go to specific towns, e.g., Gloucester, Massachusetts to “burn, destroy and lay waste the said Town together with all Vessells and Craft in the Harbour.” They also began systematic bombardments of seacoast towns.
The most infamous town burning of them all was of Falmouth, Massachusetts in October of 1775. It was done as revenge for Falmouth’s resistance to the Royal Navy in May of 1775. After some threatening back-and-forth with the local leaders, the British Navy spent an entire day bombarding the town, and then went ashore to burn it. 130 homes were burned, along with the new courthouse, the fire station and the public library. It was an instant flashpoint across the colonies.
Then, near and dear to my heart, on New Year’s Day of 1776, Norfolk, Virginia was bombarded and burned. Ironically, it was a center of Tory sentiment.
Of course, such tactics drove undecideds to the Patriot cause and embarrassed (some) Tories. Other Tories thought even stronger measures were in order. You can imagine the Patriot response to such Tory neighbors!
The third tactic used by the British that so pushed colonists toward the independence that we celebrate today was the hiring of Hessian troops to suppress the colonists. This was seen as unleashing demons of war. The Hessians were known to take some of their pay in plunder, and it was a sign to the colonists that the British intended to treat them as “savages” and not “brothers.”
1775 was a lonely year to be a Patriot in many parts of America.
Why did they suffer such depredations and keep going? In their minds it came down to one word: Liberty.
They believed in their cause and they were willing to sacrifice everything to obtain liberty in America. At that time they didn’t know whether it would be by protecting their rights as Englishmen, or striking out alone as Americans – with the prospect of having to overcome the greatest military power in the world at that time – an imposing thought!
There is much to celebrate as we think back to 1776. The Founders of this nation were bold visionaries who stepped out on a path that had never been tried before in the history of the world. They lit a lamp for the world, and they knew the risks and confronted them boldly, closing the Declaration by saying:“with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
America isn’t a place, and Americans aren’t a tribe, we are a people brought together by our mutual commitment to shared principles. Such a basis for a nation was utterly unique in the history of the world in 1776, and it is a special gift to which each of us are heirs.
Sword At-The-Ready 