After a long train of abuses and usurpations we come to this.
…that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
Understanding that many of you attended public school during the last twenty years and either ignored or glossed over the founding period of the United States of America, the above quote is from the Declaration of Independence, approved and signed on July 4, 1776.
In January of 2016, every United States citizen should take a moment to consider whether or not the words written on that parchment over two hundred years ago were a quaint comment on that time in history or whether or not they applied to all men and women regardless of the date on the calendar. Are those words and the ideals they represent timeless?
Take a moment to read a portion of the June 28, 1776 draft of the Declaration
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the equal and independent station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change
We hold these truths to be [sacred and undeniable] selfevident, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienables, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;
that whenever any form of government shall become 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 it’s powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes:
and 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. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to [subject] reduce them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. —
Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge their former systems of government. the history of his present majesty is a history of unremitting injuries and usurpations, among which no fact stands single or solitary to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, all of which have in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. to prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world, for the truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.
Bundy Ranch, Oregon Militia, BLM
Given the attention span of the average American adult, it is extremely difficult to convey a thoughtful and detailed message to the masses. Nonetheless, we must make our best attempt. The current situation in Oregon, the previous situation at the Bundy Ranch, and future events yet to come, have at the core an ever expanding U.S. Federal Government with an seemingly unquenchable thirst for control over state land.
“Government land” that the peasants may be allowed to visit.
Federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives, Chips and Dip, have been given a blank check to write memorandums and issue directives all without the burden of accountability to the American voter and taxpayer.
The question before the people of the United States is whether or not the creation of autonomous agencies, whose allegiance is to their masters in the District of Columbia, not the individual citizen, jives with the founding principles of the nation and indeed passes Constitutional muster.
When the Federal government creates bureaucracies and then grants them the authority to defacto create law by decree, definition, and memorandum, do they violate their oaths to the Constitution of the United States of America and thereby the people?
When a government agency, whose leaders and personnel are unaccountable to the voters and in fact immune from repercussions from the taxpayers, create defacto laws and then persecute the people for violation of their memorandums, what state do we have other than tyranny?
How can you have a representative republic where the the powers of the government are derived from the people when an unmonitored, self-ruling bureaucracy can at will write its own definitions and create its own parameters? When what was a simple pond yesterday can be declared a “protected wetland” today and a what is a lawfully owned firearm today can be declared a “destructive device” tomorrow, how can the people expect to be safe from an unchecked overreach of despotic government greed?
A Choice
Whether or not you are concerned about the specific incidents surrounding the Bundy Ranch event or current Oregon protests, you have a choice to make. Do you believe that by the very nature of its existence that the US Federal Government has the Constitutional authority to create autonomous agencies to oversee all aspects of your daily life?
Are the decrees, re-definitions, and memorandums issued by government bureaucracies the same as laws proposed, debated, and passed by congress and signed by the executive? Do you wish to be ruled by decree and executive order? Is the United States of America, as codified by the Constitution, a Representative Republic or are we fated to be ruled by a mass of faceless agencies manned by men and women who see themselves not as employees of the people, but a separate and elite ruling class beholden to only their masters in the capital city?
The choice it yours to make. Tory or Patriot, make your decision today.
Paul Markel became a United States Marine in 1987. He has been a police officer, professional bodyguard, and Small Arms and Tactics Instructor for the US Military during the Global War on Terror. Paul is the author of numerous books; to include “Faith and the Patriot”, “The Patriot Fire Team”, “Student of the Gun, a beginner once, a student for life”.
Go to StudentoftheGun.com for more information.
Paul Markel
America, it’s time to listen to these words. Apathy is the best friend to those in power. You must get involved, you must get active. Don’ t leave it to someone else.
YOU are the someone else.