SWGA Politics

Why We Must Fight For Freedom

On this date, 233 years ago, nothing of really big historical import took place according to most history books. Nothing of note. Nothing of the significance to warrant a trivial pursuit question even. And yet, this was one of the most important days in American history.

July 5, 1776 was our first day as an independent nation. It was the day that the British understood, on some level, that this wasn’t just a simple rebellion but an uprising that would later change the world. It was the day when the words of Thomas Paine and others had taken hold and people began to learn that we were no longer British subjects, but independent of the crowns rule.

Now, 233 years later, we are once again fighting for our freedoms on July 5th. Not with guns, thank God, but with words. Hundreds of speakers all over the nation spoke out against the tyranny in this country. Thousands came out to tea parties all over this great land. They heard words from regular people that stirred the soul and enlightened the mind.

Our freedoms are slowly slipping away. President Obama asked if any of us can be content so long as some of us are struggling. Mr. President? There will always be struggle. Nothing worth having is ever attained without struggle. I myself have been one of those who were so poor that family members brought us groceries so we would starve. I am no longer there. It wasn’t through the government that this changed, but through me. I struggled, and achieved. I appreciate my middle class job so much more than if Uncle Sam had just dropped it in my lap.

President Obama seems to think of struggle as a bad thing. But what kind of nation would we have had if our freedom had been cheaply attained? What kind of nation would we have if freedom had been a gift from George III? What kind of nation would we have if Thomas Paine hadn’t struggled in so many ways before writing Common Sense, or our forefathers hadn’t had to struggle to achieve a sustainable life in this new land?

Struggle isn’t enjoyable on any level. It’s hard, and it often crushes the weaker of the human species…if we allow it. But offering them a handout, taken from those who have survived their stuggles at the point of a gun isn’t the way to help them. For many, it makes them content to stay right where they are. It makes them happy that now they can function without struggle, and so what if they have so much less?

We must fight for our freedoms because if we don’t, we’ll lose even more. The government will strip what we have because someone else is “struggling” somewhere. They will block our freedoms because they might not be fair to someone else, they might be offensive to another. They will take from those who have and give to those who have not, like they think they’re Robin Hood.

However, what they forget is that Robin Hood stole tax money and returned it to the people it was taken from at the point of a sword. He didn’t do it out of a sense of altruism, but of justice. It is the people’s money in the first place. Let them decide how to help their fellow man. Let the American people, even with our taxation still among the most generous in the world, decide who and how to help with their own money.

Freedom can not exist without responsibility however. To many today don’t take that responsibility seriously. But instead of punishing the whole for one’s irresponsibility, punish the one who misbehaves. Then, people will remember their responsibilities and stand up as responsible Americans once more.

Why must we fight for freedom, 233 years and one day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Because we don’t want to continue to lose it.