HOME OF THE BRAVE, LAND OF THE FREE
TIME TO STAND AGAINST THE LAND OF THE FAKE - AND SUPPORT TRUTH
HOME OF THE BRAVE, LAND OF THE FREE
We, as Americans, having been conferred these unalienable rights by our creator, do solemnly swear our allegiance to the founding documents which speak to them.
To the revolutionary concept that all men and women are created free and that the cause of all mankind is the allegiance to and the real world pursuit of these causes.
In this endeavor we must pay close attention to those deeds and words which either underwrite such pursuits and those which betray them and work against them.
In the hurly burly real world our days can seem filled with gauntlets thrown down to block us from ever encompassing such lofty and worthy goals.
The day to day reality of living these dreams can seem allied against us where our every move is blocked by forces way beyond our control - forces designed to block these unalienable rights with battle plans from a figure worthy of Satan himself.
And we these vulnerable and weak human beings - so easily led astray and led into situations which seem to oppose even our most powerful dreams and aspirations.
In a world where as British immigrant Thomas Paine once wrote - summer soldiers and sunshine patriots - are the best we can hope for - supportive of these dreams when it is convenient - and working against them when it is not - all seems hopeless and forlorn.
“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
Thomas Paine American Crisis No. 1
For we have lost the lessons taught by our founding ancestors - where in a world decimated by convenience and ease - we have lost sight of the men and women who actually paved the way for us to choose such a diabolically convenient path.
We, like they, are far from perfect and learn slowly, with many errors and mistakes, on our path towards the understanding of these unalienable rights.
Our founding ancestors were far from perfect and embodied - in their error-confounded path towards a temporary victory over tyranny - the all too human foibles of falling to human weaknesses.
But despite these weaknesses they prevailed and won a historic victory - albeit a temporary one - over the tyranny they fought.
Perhaps our own errors - as the modern inheritors of these revolutionary ideas is that we expect to be summer soldiers and sunshine patriots - taking a path of ease and convenience as citizens.
For as we may clearly see with hindsight - it was in the expectation that these goals might be achieved under the guise of modern ease and convenience - where we erred.
We erred perhaps in failing to see that it was in the very convenience we expected to have at our fingertips as summer soldiers and sunshine patriots - voting once every four years - and ignoring the inroads which steadily and gradually eroded our unalienable rights - where our mistakes were made.
It is in the recognition that in the pursuit of these rights - that we made a grave error - one we must now correct by choosing the right path forward.
The words of our founding ancestors - underwritten as they were by the words of an immigrant - a man not given to the glories of office or military glory - who simply wrote down - as if taking dictation from a higher power - the phrases which would inspire generations to take a higher cause.
These words are still in our reach - words spoke by Paine - and taken to a higher level by men like Jefferson and Madison, and of all of those lesser known architects of the founding documents.
By men who worked away in the drafty halls of Philadelphia, and in the mosquito-driven humidity of Washington - on horseback across the hills, plains and rivers - and across the farms and wilderness of the as yet unknown country they would establish.
In pursuit of an impossible dream - one which was guaranteed to bring a swift death at the end of a rope or the business end of a guillotine - if they failed.
This is the majesty of the fight we have inherited and still face today - we face certain death either way - but the choice is do we embrace certain death on our knees - or as free men and women - whose lives mean something beyond the pursuit of convenience?
The choice is ours - and will always be ours - but it will not be accomplished by summer soldiers and sunshine patriots who vacillate with each changing tide of fortune.
As ordinary people - those who rose to the occasion - such as Betsy Ross and Francis Scott Key understood - it is a pursuit which will never be accomplished by those who accept the convenient path - the easy trail across these mountains the creator places in our way - but those who comprehend fully and who eagerly accept the challenge.
The flag and the National Anthem still have the power to move us all today - as we are moved through music to reconsider what the meaning of those unalienable rights.
And it is only when the acts we choose in the everyday - across the often discouraging political and social landscapes - become the difficult path - step, by lonely and difficult, step - that the way is made clear.
The difficult work goes to the light workers who are willing to forgo the easy path of the summer soldier and place their shoulders to the wheel in the darkness and halting steps of the everyday.
To the real work - to the real work which must be accomplished.
For if we gain the world but lose our souls what then has been accomplished?
Find the people who believe in the dreams we believe in and help make a highway through these as yet unblazed trails so we all - and our children - may become the very changes we all wish to see in the world.
in the midst of this matrix in which we currently wander with few signposts to guide us along the way - find the human beings who speak to the values and life ways of the things we hold dear.
Make a decision - we are going to need trustworthy ways to go forward - led by men and women who see the way forward - and who are willing to walk the walk and to talk the talk.
Mainstream candidates with the power and money behind them are simply not going to be able to do this.
Politics is the art and science of the possible.
Become the citizen politician we are meant to be and offer our hallowed votes and support to those who matter.
Today I take the big step of supporting someone for President who I believe has the personal strength and the values we the people can fully support.
Please look into this and please support the candidates and the ideas who you personally believe may actually make a difference here.
Thank you so much for the restack!
If you are a Christian you likely believe you are born free. If you are a realist, you believe you have to fight for any freedom you may achieve and keep in your lifetime. Like all animals, humans will be devoured or enslaved unless we do something to prevent that from happening. Resting on the notion that we are "free" and fighting for your freedom could both be harmful to your health. Are you going to be passive or aggressive about your freedom? In these times we live in there isn't much of a choice.