Section 8 Housing Frenzy

How often have you heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. (Click on the Photo to enlarge it.) According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution over 30,000 people lined up to get a chance at federally subsidized housing. Look carefully at this photo from that same source and tell me just exactly what have we done to this country?

Supposedly riot police were needed to control the crowd. Heat and violence took its toll on more than 60 people and all that was being handed out was the chance to be put on a list for housing if it opened up. Here is a portion of that AJC article:

Some of the crowd waited for two days at the Tri-Cities Plaza shopping center. As the temperature rose Wednesday, people fell ill.

Sgt. Cliff Chandler, spokesman for the East Point Police Department, said a toddler was treated earlier in the morning for "some type of seizure," Chandler said.

"A lot of it was heat and some was health-related issues" such people not taking their medications, Chandler said.

By the time everyone had left around 2 p.m., the temperature had climbed into the low 90s.

East Point police, some wearing riot helmets, were patrolling the area. Firefighters and EMTs were attending to people who were overheating in the sun. Police from College Park, Hapeville, Fulton County and MARTA assisted in crowd control.

Chandler said there were no arrests.

Felecia McGhee told the AJC she arrived around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. She said the major problem began when people started breaking into the line and then officials handing out applications started moving those areas and those line breakers. She said she saw at least two small children trampled when the crowd rushed the building where the applications were to be handed out.

"It's a real mess out here," she said.

Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik said fights were breaking out and police had to stop people who were storming the door.

Channel 2 reporter Tom Jones said, “There are thousands, I mean, thousands of people here. I’ve seen people fall out from the heat.”

By late morning the crowd had thinned considerably and people were walking up and getting their applications without delay. But just before the 1 p.m. deadline, a line of about 200 people had formed. Shortly after 1 p.m., several people ran across the parking lot to get in line but were told by police that the line was closed.

Socialism or Bust...

Well there is some good news and some bad news: you decide which is which. The wheels are starting to come off the Obama “Yes We Can” bus. Yes, people in his administration have been saying stupid things and acting incompetently. They have been doing that all along but now even Barry is becoming embarrassed by it. In a totally related story it has been determined that never is a Rat more dangerous than when backed into a corner. Science has determined that when a Rat’s primary goal gets blocked that they will exhibit all manner of bizarre behaviors before giving up. Okay. You caught me. Both stories are about our Rat-In-Chief. Yes. It appears that the “anointed one” and his administration is faltering, he is scrambling, and Americans are rapidly waking from their Kool-Aid stupors. Sadly, many awake in time to witness him putting his last few pieces of evil into place, and that in a panicked pace.

Notice also that Obama is slowing his support of struggling incumbent democrats and beginning to occupy himself with other items of mischief. I mean, in the past if you waved a microphone and a camera lens past the man he was on it like a duck on a June bug. In all fairness the best thing for most politicians these days is to distance themselves from Obama. Barry is turning out to be political kryptonite. This was predicted months ago yet the Congress tossed off America’s wishes for a presidential pat on the head. Indeed while moderates and conservatives were pleading with Congress for representation their voices went unheeded. Perhaps our congress is going to get that “Fundamental Change” they so longed for.

However this shyness towards the lights of the media seems almost out of place. The last time Barry gave a press conference seems like just a year ago and all the questions appeared staged. Oh well. Now he has the US version of Pravda and he can create his own limelight. Of course his official opinion was that he did nothing to keep his “illegal immigrant Auntie” here who had already received her deportation orders. Instead she has been living in public housing on our tab and now has miraculously been granted asylum. You would have to be in an asylum to believe that Obama didn’t manipulate that one. What is so bad is that Obama lies so often one never knows whether to ever believe him. I tend to err on the side of “No friggin’ way. He is the most practiced liar I have ever witnessed.”

As of now a Tea Party backed candidate has won the GOP nomination in Kentucky. Rand Paul, son of Ron Paul, has been declared the winner in the Kentucky Republican primary. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is bumped from the Democratic ticket so I suppose he will have to settle for an Obama appointment. Blanch Lincoln has a runoff election in Arkansas and that won’t get her out of the woods with the Tea Party. Democratic candidates are scrambling like roaches with the light flipped on trying to pull out their elections. The White House seems eerily silent. Normally that is the way I like my Obama administration but then he is like a kid in some ways: If he is playing too quietly you know he is up to mischief. We do know that he has his hands full with trying to get another anti-gun, anti-military, pro-abortion, softball player on the Supreme Court. Right now you can bet the White House is in full “Coach Elena” mode helping her learn what her thinking is and how to speak for minutes and not say anything.

As for the rest of the news it is all good. It just depends on your perspective. If you are a freedom loving patriot, don’t blink.

What Would Jefferson Do?

With all that has happened in the last year and ½ you can be sure that the founding fathers have rolled in their graves. I’ve recently found it useful to suppose what Thomas Jefferson might write if he were alive today. While I cannot pretend to write with the genius he possessed, I can put to paper the spirit of what he would say; or at least my impression of it. The following is my analysis of his words, and what he might say today including his encouragements to us.

When Thomas Jefferson wrote that, "experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable" he shows his understanding of the nature of the human being. Apart from faith, few have the courage or the foresight to stand against 'evils' that are sufferable. Any human with some life experience can see how these changes to America have come about: little by little. A little suffering now becomes more over time. Abuses by government that cause this suffering only increase. They will continue to increase until the American people “right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” Those “forms” of suffering are the abuses of power, the increase of taxes, the failure to respond to the will of the people, and the increase in government to the point that We the People have become the servants of the government instead of they serving us.

As Jefferson so eloquently put it, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”. It is we that institute government. It is we that empower this same government, and it is we that are ultimately responsible for managing that same government. We have failed ourselves in allowing our government to deteriorate to this point. How long have we known that our government was driven by special interests, kickbacks, and pork barrel spending? How long have we endured elections where we choose the lesser of the evils? How long have we suffered under government mismanagement and wasteful spending and how much longer do we plan to allow this? Did we not know that the governments “get their just powers from the consent of the governed”? Instinctively we know this. We have lost our way and our wily leaders have been illuminating our paths with their darkness. To this we must accept responsibility.

Consider this. Everyone has a different tolerance for pain or even recalling when their suffering first began. So often we recall only the moment when a pain became quite unpleasant. I contend that few people are not aware of the gradual onset of pain, or of change, or of wrongdoing. History teaches us that people will often be led away by the thousands by a measly handful of armed soldiers. It is within us, our very natures. We tend to hope for the best and believe what we will; waking only when hope is on the precipice of eternity. Unawares we find ourselves being led off by whomever will take our hearts, minds, body and hopes hostage. Obama and this congress are such a government and Americans may just be such a people.

We all hope, and rightly so, that some peaceful process will turn away this evil that has befallen us. Everywhere there are those crying out that America is in great trouble but millions of Americans continue on with little or no awareness to the seriousness of our times. We must awaken them. Surely I now understand how bizarre the prophets of old must have seen the future as it became the present all transpiring amidst their cries of alarm; the people remained lost in their own pursuits. While not a prophet, I have foretold these events and have been calling out for more than a-year-and-a-half now and others led the way before me.

It is completely within the nature of the human race to ignore the obvious. We do the things that are bad for us and ignore those things which would aid us. We seek riches rather than wisdom, and progress rather than serenity. We chose between the lesser of evils until the choices were no choice at all. Then we blame the evildoers for being evil. But what can we do? Read on.
Truly there is a great difference between our Founding Fathers and the Leaders of today. We citizenry have neither the spine nor stomach for the job currently set before us and so many ignore it. Those who don’t ignore it feel powerless. The question asked by millions of Concerned Americans: What can we do? While the specific answer to that question is yet to be decided here is what we cannot do;

We cannot sit by and wring our hands as if nothing can be done and we are hopeless.
We cannot remain silent because of fear that we will offend someone with the truth.
We cannot allow wrongs to go unchallenged or uncorrected.
We must face evil and call it what it is.
We must shed our fear. Yes this new fascist government is watching you and wants you to be afraid; afraid of your own voice and beliefs. Owning that fear is to be their slave.

We cannot cower to tactics of intimidation and accusations of racism. Certainly there are racial aspects to the Obama presidency but neither opposing him nor his goals is of itself racist. These are the tools of the manipulator and a manipulator will not cease their efforts to control others. Yet we control ourselves if we choose to.

We must reaffirm ourselves to the Constitution of the United States and wearing the breastplate of the Declaration of Independence; we must once again refuse to be governed by those who are not responsible to us:

“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, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

These words the Declaration of Independence (emphasis added by me) clearly mirror the level of frustration that much of America now feels and millions more will soon endorse. It is not we that have chosen to be governed by such but rather that they have misrepresented themselves to be something that they are not and have shown by their actions to be altogether undesirable. As such, congress and its many offices have betrayed the American People; led by a president who himself has established his character by his lying and deceitful ways. To these things we are now conscious.

To this end I know that Mr. Jefferson would call for the dispelling of all of these beguilers and to the renewing again of America with committed servants, not tyrannical bureaucrats. Obama may govern those who desire him yet neither I myself nor any that I know desire his leadership. Moreover is the case with both houses of Congress. We have lost our faith in congress. As for me, my loyalty is to my God and my Country, in that order, and neither to this man, nor to his legions of minions. Within that Constitution these loyalties do not exclude each other, even though this presidents’ seeks to have a secular government with loyalties of his making and as this defiant congress would dictate. I myself have given oath to the Constitution of these United States of America and pledged my allegiance to my country, something few in Washington now find honorable and some even openly denounce.

Furthermore, considering that this president now risks our National sovereignty and security should he not be immediately abrogated? Again I refer to The Declaration of Independence, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes”. Yet change is his sole purpose. He did openly state that under him America would undergo “fundamental change” and yet his intentions were couched in specious language. True to that pledge, Obama has assaulted and attempts to breach the very foundations of America beginning with disregard for The Constitution of the United States of America. To these ends we have, “have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: 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.” Yes again quoting Jefferson and considering the actions of Americans who have written often to their representatives, and petitioned publically on the steps of their offices and even at the steps of congress only to be treated with disdain and disrespect by all branches of the government and the President himself; who calling American Patriots “tea baggers” ,“extremists”, “right-wing radicals”, and “the minority of Americans”. To this extent Obama and Congress has ignored those instruments which publicly poll and state that the majority of Americans oppose his policies. Amidst the appeals of this nation he has chosen to follow his wishes and to manipulate law to benefit his personal goals and ideals; cowering to those surreptitious organizations such as SEIU, ACORN, MoveOn.org, etc…. To this “We the People” freely choose to exercise our rights in asking that he, Barack Hussein Obama, cease and desist of all his official duties and resign the high office he has so brazenly disgraced making himself “unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”

And so to this 111th Congress we state:

“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.”

And that…

“to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

Regarding which you have repeated denied our voices choosing rather a path and ambitions of your own making for your own reasons thereby rendering yourselves useless as representatives of the people. While not expected, we encourage you to do the honorable thing, resigning your office and surrendering all authority back to the people you have so failed. Failing that “We the People” do hereby exercise our right to choose from within our number from within our own states as afforded by Our Constitution of these United States.

It is not within us to disrespect the High Office of president of these United States or to the Congress which is to serve this great nation. Be that as it may by your own actions and words you have disgraced this people and this nation deeming yourselves unfit. Show yourselves honorable enough to withdraw while this Republic remains intact, averting further division and instability to our badly bruised Nation. Realizing that you have lacked courage, honor, and integrity until this very day, “We the People” are prepared to wrest your power from you by whatever means necessary and available to us. May God bless America.

I can almost hear Mr. Jefferson now. Do you?

Truth in Government?

To lie, to tell an untruth, BS, be untruthful, bear false witness, beguile, break promise, bull, con, concoct, deceive, delude, dissemble, dissimulate, distort, dupe, equivocate, exaggerate, fabricate, fake, falsify, fib, forswear, frame, fudge, go back on, invent, make believe, malign, misguide, misinform, mis-instruct, mislead, misrepresent, misspeak, misstate, overdraw, palter, perjure, pervert, prevaricate, promote, put on, put up a front, snow, soft-soap, string along, victimize, beguile, betray, bunco, con, counterfeit, defraud, delude, double-cross, fake out, fake, feign, fool, humbug, illude, jive, juggle, mislead, pretend, psych out, put on, sham, shuck, simulate, snow, take in, trick, etc…

Say what you will. Only the truth adds up to the truth no matter how you "Spin" it.

Cat or Pigeon? Which are you?

Years ago I learned of the “Law of Successive Approximation”. Don’t run off. This will be a fun article. I promise. It a nutshell this concept or “Law” is where you want to present a “Big Idea” that may be beyond the ability of others to accept. So, you break it down into small or even baby steps.

Now, anyone who has ever dated knows that a first date doesn’t begin with hand holding and kissing. For that matter it may not end there. But if it is ever to get there the “Idea” has to become comfortable in the minds of both daters. Usually the male begins with casual movements that allow him to get ever closer to the female. He may take her hand to help her from the car and perhaps there is a dance or two. Often hands become tangled and faces become closer and possibly that first kiss. I’m blushing. Anyway you get the idea.

Using this real life experience it is easy to understand that big leaps are often best taken with small steps. You know this and apply this in your everyday life. Sometimes it is harder to see when it occurs very, very, slowly. Political correctness is that way. It started off being a concept of being more in tune with sensitivities and now it seems that has evolved into a school of mind control. Surely you have found yourself thinking something that wasn’t politically correct and pondered whether there was something wrong for you to think this way. Sensitivity is nice. Sameness is absurd.

I am who I am and am more than the accumulation of a few thoughts. I am complex and have my life experiences and ideology to guide me; not to mention whatever effect genetics may or may not have on me. I can be sensitive without thinking like anyone: you or anyone else. (Did you ever notice that you can’t find “who” determines the rules of PC?) So I find that I can be sensitive to your thinking and still think that you are absolutely wrong. You too have that same right. Yet, someone, (the “they”) said you are wrong to think a certain something. You are even more evil if you say it. Now Elton John can say Jesus was a Homosexual but I’m not to speak out against EJ and his ideology because it would be gay bashing. I don’t hate gays. I just want them to shut up already. It is not all about gays. Now I will be labeled a “Homophobe”. Thirty years ago there wouldn’t have been any consequence for my opinion. See the “Law of Successive Approximation” at work here?

A lie used to be a “LIE”. Now it is called spin. The “War on Terror” is now a “Man Made Contingency Operation” and “Socialism is Liberalism or Progressivism”. What in the heck is going on? If you call a shooting a “high velocity projectile encounter” will the victim still be dead?

As a boy I remember my dad saying that we were becoming a nation of “educated fools”. As I consider the fact that the President, Congress, and many Americans no longer think the truth matters and that honesty is relative to the outcome, I find my dad words truer than I could have imagined. What can restore us to our sensibilities and make “right” and “wrong” real again? What can return us to “America: Land of Opportunity” thinking where you can work hard and improve things for your family? Who can put “Dignity” back into government and raise up Statesmen?

Perhaps if we make it Politically Correct to be Honest, Hardworking, and Truthful we might get it done. See you at the Polls.

PS. In the meantime, it is not wrong to speak up it is just politically incorrect.

So Who's Responsible?

Responsibility can be a difficult thing such as when it means doing the right thing and the right this is hard to do. I have found that the “right thing to do” is almost always “the hardest thing to do”. Actually, I have never found an exception in my life but I like to say it that way to leave some wiggle room. Now it is true that one can argue the semantics of right vs. wrong. I use it in a more simplified way such as to tell the truth or not tell the truth.

As I wrote the other day, Van Jones, the Green Jobs Czar had called the republicans a**holes back in February. Later he gets confronted with this his comments and he makes an apology. Okay so let’s say that we accept the apology and that he has now decided that they are not a**holes. Is he still a Marxist and a racist who believes that “White People” are the great polluters and that he can use “Green” as a means to free the “black man”? At this point some will hold this man responsible for his actions, opinions, and speeches. Others will say he is changed. I will say that he has said and done things that he must now be held responsible for. He should be fired: end of story.

However, this and other administrations have not valued personal responsibility. As a result, government official can say, do, or not do without any consequences. Charlie Rangel, D-NY has misreported his earnings, underpaid his taxes, and has usurped his power to illegally create a penthouse apartment in a rent controlled building. He doesn’t even profess to be sorry and appears to be going unpunished. He is the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Judas appears to be in charge of the money again.

On the other hand, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner owed back taxes. When audited by the IRS in 2006 he was found lacking for 2003 and 2004 and he had to fess up and pay up. However, he did not pay the $25,000.00 for 2001 and 2002 until he was appointed by Obama, a full 2 years later. And so what is he in charge of? Our Money!

The list doesn’t end here. These are just 2 of the dozens of investigation into current government officials. These people lack personal responsibility. Moreover, we Americans don’t demand personal responsibility. We all have our thresholds of right and wrong. Stealing is not stealing if it is only a small item but becomes stealing when it becomes a large item. Define large? Herein lays the problem.

I am guilty as the rest and I am admitting it. I do not hold myself to the level of responsibility to which I was raised and educated to do. I am partly at fault for the corruption in Washington. I am guilty of lying which makes excusing liars easier, and on, and on, and on. I am committed to raise the level of my integrity and to demand the same of those who serve me. No longer can we tolerate sloth and greed in government. Be advised Congress. I am sure I speak for others when I say “We are putting you on notice” and that we will hold you RESPONSIBLE.

UPDATE 06/06/2009
Van Jones has resigned:

"I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.

On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.

I have been inundated with calls - from across the political spectrum - urging me to "stay and fight."

But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.

It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement. I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead."

Whether this relieves the Administration for their responsibility in appointing such Czars and circumventing the Constitution remains to be seen.

When Government Won't Listen to You

When I first started my blog my intention was to clear my thoughts by writing them out and to possibly stimulate some thought in others. I am not sure how much I have accomplished on toward either goal but I have come to a greater understanding of how our government was intended to work. In using the past tense I am inferring that the Government no longer works as intended. Furthermore, I believe that this was foreseen by the Founding Fathers and the great statesmen that have since served this magnificent nation.

My understanding of the Constitution was not formed by an education at Harvard like Mr. Obama’s. While we both have knowledge of it I think that our thoughts and beliefs are inspired by different motives. This is likely to be true of everyone and surely is one of the foundations of a person’s Ideology. My understanding of the government as formed directed in the Constitution is of a body of individuals, otherwise engaged, still dedicated to the common good of the nation. These people were to be of fine character and representatives of the states and peoples who dispatched them.

Current officials, not limited to but certainly including Mr. Obama, seem interested in the Constitution from a perspective of its loopholes and language, and to profit greatly from their office. Nearly every politician in Washington today is a lawyer and is educated in the turning of a phrase to suit one’s perspective. This gives career politicians tremendous advantage to manipulate and justify within themselves whatever meaning they choose to give this great document, or for some, a way to implement something that they believe it does not address.

Since 1776, many have written to caution us about allowing government to grow, all to great applause. With applause still echoing members of the Executive and Legislative Branches have seized more power until we now find the cost of government is far greater than its income. This we call deficit spending; spending more than you have. Every day the government spends even more. Mr. Obama has explained how spending will save us and the Congress is more than willing to comply, even anxious in some cases. Yet each thoughtful American knows this cannot be sustained. Still we allow it.

The list of grievances held by the masses is great. Each could be listed but to what purpose if allow government to speak to us and not for us.

Thomas Jefferson declared that this was the normal condition of the governed; to be mishandled, misrepresented, overtaxed, and bullied well past the point of being angry. It was only because we had leadership that united us that we ever gained our independence from tyranny in the first place. Now I am afraid that we are again being governed by tyrannical leaders.

So, while I am feeling that I have cleared my thoughts and perhaps some of yours, I must say that I fear Town Hall meetings may not get it done. Shortly we will know if I am right. I suspect that congress will pass Health Care Reform by whatever means necessary. For me that will be the legislative action that proves Americans don’t matter. I hope I am wrong but I doubt it. Maybe we have stood up to them in time. Maybe they will listen to us. Maybe Obama is not as I think he is.

Liberty? Certainly. But, at what price?

There is a condition borne by mankind whereby individuals will tolerate abuses and injustices rather than risking action with uncertain consequences. Surely, we have all had times whereby we have endured or even encouraged wrongdoing rather than risk ridicule. As a young person I found this within myself and as a very mature person I find it still there. I remember making fun of people who were different and often when I didn’t want to. Perhaps you too can remember similar acts in your past as ways to try and fit in or to avoid being the brunt of ridicule. As you read on, you may get the urge to stop reading. Please don’t quit.

Certainly there is a time and an age when we must begin to do the right thing regardless of the consequences. Far more intelligent people than I have pondered this thought. Thomas Jefferson comes to mind when he wrote this in the Declaration of Independence:

“…accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

He was writing about the suffering of the people at the hands of government. In 1776 he knew that the masses would suffer evils rather than correct them. I bring this up because we find ourselves with a government that has a great number of us nervous and even alarmed. As I consider this I wonder what price will I pay, or for that matter, will anyone pay to right these wrongs. Experience and history has taught me not to expect too much from anyone, let alone myself. So, I pose this question to you. What will you pay to right the wrongs, to maintain the Constitution, to continue as a Republic, and to insure the future of America in the way we have enjoyed it.

Currently I blog, I gripe, I speak out when appropriate (and sometimes when inappropriate), I write emails and faxes. It shames me to say I have not been at a Tea Party yet I promised myself to go. Even now I wonder if I will attend or am I only fooling myself. The one town hall that I could’ve attended I skipped with the excuse that “there will be so many there I will never get in”. I didn’t see my standing outside as anything beneficial enough for me to give up my evening for. My thinking was clearly clouded by convenience and not illuminated by purpose.

Now my point is this: This is a normal human condition. I suspect everyone has this character trait to some degree. My goal is not to guilt anyone into acting or doing anything but to stimulate thought as to what price is doable for you. Listening to conservative radio and reading blogs is informative but accomplishes little else. Sending a link to someone to these blogs may be some better and of course you can tweet. I suspect that the bulk of blogs and tweets inform but produce very little real effort.

In my heart I know that I don’t want to be the first one to the microphone, or leading the march, or protesting congress. Still I know it has to be done. I am convinced with every cell of my body that our nation is in trouble that only the American people can fix. And I also know that history has shown that you and I both “prefer the pain we feel over the pain we fear”.

Thanks for reading. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers that I might have the wisdom and courage to change the things I can. Good luck to you.

America's best Hope is Her People

For nearly a year now, many have remarked at what a momentous time it is in America; referencing the election of the first black president. Yet, for many Americans the honeymoon was short lived. Soon we recognized that our new Bridegroom, Obama, was not the One he appeared to be but the one we feared him to be. Obama began, not by bringing the change he promised, but rather the change he envisioned and had hidden in his heart.

Observing Obama and his style of governing has been the topic of many of my blogs. I often find in his past the evidence that should have screamed out to us what he would do, how he would govern, whom he would empower, and those he would hope to destroy.

Today I find myself reflecting upon recent events and pondering how we got here. It is said that history is the best teacher and with that in mind I read some. Below an excerpt of one of the most famous documents in American History. I think it might benefit some of us to refresh it in our minds. Do you know this Document? Read it slowly and aloud. Hear it again for the first time.

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. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

While the first line is so familiar I think recollection tends to fall off for the majority of us after that. Did you guess the Constitution? These words come from the Declaration of Independence. For me they are the foundation that the Constitution was laid upon. Notice what it says about the reason of government…

“…governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Do you ever feel that you are responding to the government or fear it or its power? Do you feel that the government is responsive to you? Yes? No? And what does it say about the rights of the people?

Now hear me clearly, I am not for violence nor am I for cessation. What I am for is a government that is responsive to the people: the governed. When I see “town halls” packed full of “plants” and the ordinary people locked out I become concerned. When I hear “Administration Officials” and even the President himself making light of our concerns, I become even more concerned. And, when I cannot get my representatives to hear nor consider my grievances, I become alarmed. And when I find that the Obama Administration has created its own media and the means of controlling the Mainstream Media, my spirit groans within me.

It is my firm belief that Americans are speaking up and that government is denying “the validity of that Right”. To that end I encourage you to recognize and commit yourself to changing that government. If you have found yourself concerned enough to be reading this far, you are concerned enough to finish your God given right. Put these tainted bureaucrats out of office. Vote. March. Protest. Let your voice be heard. Speak kindly to everyone but be heard. Hide from no one. Be bold.

Hillel, a famous Jewish scholar, wrote:

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"