Home of Today's Common Sense

Published Brownsville Herald July 4, 2011

Today is the 235th anniversary of our nation’s independence. It commemorates the day when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence from kingdom of England.
The declaration had been prepared by the “Committee of Five”: John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the principal author.
On July 4, 1776, an estimated 2.5 million people lived in the new United States; today our population numbers about 311 million.
Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts and such.
Our founders created a “government instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” It was designed that the government would obey laws empowered by “We the people.” The folks would be sovereigns in a nation that would work in our best interest. It was definitely not the intention to create a nation ruled by professional politicos whose primary interests are selfpromotion and personal benefit. In today’s federal government aiming for one size and style for all, subsidies, programs and entitlements are created in Washington and enforced on everyone in the country, uniformly, whether or not they are needed or even work.
Lobbyists, politicos, program vendors, etc., are the real beneficiaries and rarely are they uniformly satisfied.
The nation that was conceived following our Declaration of Independence was defined as a confederation by the Constitution, which specifically limited the powers of our representatives in the Congress to reserve power to the individual — the community — then the states.
Today, we live in a politically correct world where federal authority pervades our lives through a system of extortion of resources called taxes and the reassignment of those resources to affect control over “We the people.”
Just consider how our children are educated these days. “We the people” pay taxes and then the federal government dispenses “assistance” to states and local educational systems that follow the rules and teach what the government directs to be taught, and how the government wants it taught, using materials approved by government authorities.
One need only scan the Department of Education mandates and documented “guidance” to get a sense of the extent of the loss of freedoms we have traded for the “assistance.”
Clearly, some social benefits such as security like that provided by the police and military are needed to maintain order, and arguments can be made that some public assistance may be justified for those obviously unable to care for themselves.
However, our way of life has become threatened by a greatly expanded concept of socialism and the entitlements that are making “we the people” slaves to the government largesse dictated by the president and his royal band of followers.
These dangers to our representative system of government and freedoms afforded by our capitalistic economy have poked their heads up in recent speeches in this political season.
The coming election looks to be a referendum on the amount of socialism and government control that we can tolerate.
We need to look for candidates that would demand that the federal government act within the bounds of the authority granted to it by the individual states. Who will stand up for what is right and lead our people back to our roots of liberty?
It is high time we as a people reject the politics of derision and embrace the mutual goal of returning our nation to its roots of individual liberty and personal responsibility.
On this anniversary of the founding of our nation we have a unique opportunity to advance our goals in a new congressional district (34) organized to provide for folks who have similar needs and views as to how they should be supported.
I ask you to take an interest in the selecting a leadership that will support the people, not the rulers.
Get involved and make a difference. Challenge those who would rule over us as opposed to representing the interests of the people. Begin by helping clean our own house (locally), and rejecting those moneyed politicians who place the profits of their specialinterest benefactors above the rights of the people. Look beyond parties and follow the money. Become an informed citizen, for only an informed electorate can be the guardian of liberty.