Will you stand up?

I believe we're approaching a crossroads in our country. I believe that we're going to wake up soon and most of us are going to be ashamed. We have left the back door open and someone has come in and burglarized our country. They haven't stolen the TV and the DVD player. Nope. They went after everything else. They didn't do it all at once. They did it just a little at a time. Maybe a watch here, we thought we misplaced it. Maybe a earring there, we thought it fell behind the sink. Then one day we wake up and realize that our house has been vandalized and robbed. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Understand that. We did it. We have been focused on the "carrot" while being systematically changed forever.

This is a true story. During high school, Gov. Bill Clinton was running for POTUS. I remember listening to the debates. I remember by history teacher telling us how important the political process was. I remember being riveted by the words from both candidates. I remember specifically the words from Gov. Clinton about service. He said that I could go to college, for free, if he was elected. All I would have to do is pay off my loans with service. Community service. Here I am, broke, parents struggling to make ends meet, thinking that this is a good idea. Then I remember listening to the rest of his platform and I remember saying "well, it's not all that I believe in but, I can live with it". Then one day I woke up. I woke up to realize that money does not grow on trees. It does not exist magically from one day to the next. I realized that the reason my $3.15/hr looked so ridiculous is because 30% of it was going somewhere. That somewhere being the .gov. I realized right then and there that "free" isn't free. It comes with a price.

We have two political parties in this country. We have a couple of fringe parties but the major funding goes to two of them. Donkeys and Elephants. Dems vs Reps. D vs R. GOP vs Progressives. Conservatives vs liberals. Blah, blah, blah. We have come to believe that we must be branded as one or the other. Oh, there might be the occasional "I'm a libertarian" but let's face it, the true power is in these parties. I would like each and every one of you to tell me who is who. What do those evil "dems" believe in? How about those righteous right-wingers? Hmmm. What do they stand for? This is a test that you will fail. See, the media, and pundits, and "experts" will have us all believe that if you're a (D) then you want socialism, higher taxes, abortions, big government, entitlements, etc. Hmmm. That's interesting. The 2nd highest spending government was under who? That's right. President GW. Bush. He also had a (R) congress for the first four years. What did that mean for us? Let me tell you. That lent itself to the most out of control spending this country had ever seen. Anyone ever hear of the prescription drug benefit for seniors? Sounds good doesn't it. Again, sounds good. What it "costs" is $600 BILLION to $1.2 TRILLION. That's right. I said TRILLION. But wait, I thought (R)'s stood for all the exact opposites than (D)'s? What else did our "conservative" President do? He signed into law the "No Child Left Behind" act. What's that cost? "In October of 2006 the Office of Management and Budget reported that No Child Left Behind increased state and local governments’ annual paperwork burden by 6,680,334 hours, at an estimated cost of $141 million dollars. For some reason Washington didn’t seem upset about that." (Heritage foundation). Folks, that's PAPERWORK costs. So who is "right" again? Finally our "conservative" leader passed TARP. Depends on who you ask but somewhere in the $700 BILLION range. Again, who are the two parties again?

We have a white house that currently employs someone who believes that "forced abortions" are okay, that animals deserve attorneys, that the elderly should be given care only if they offer a "quality of life" to society, etc. Who are these people? These are the president's Czars. Who controls the vetting of these monsters? Uh, the president. But, this isn't an Obama phenomena. Oh no, this was started under an elephant. Remember that blurry line I was talking about earlier? One of these czars was the "Green Jobs Czar". A self admitted COMMUNIST. He believed that our .gov was responsible for 9/11. He believed that only "white suburban teens" commit mass murder ala Columbine. He recently resigned because we stood up and rebelled. But who else is in this administration? Who else has the most powerful person in the US' ear?

Every year, in every state and at the federal level, we pass laws. Not a few. THOUSANDS of them. Sometimes it's to benefit a segment of the population (Megan's law), or sometimes to benefit a wharf rat. We don't do this in the name of the betterment of society. They do this to make sure that at any time, they can throw us in prison. They do this as a knee jerk reaction to some "heinous" death. Do you need a case in point? This is one of many but please understand it's not just limited to nonsense. Here in AZ, a girl was killed while "texting". Phoenix then passed a law making it illegal to text and drive (http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/related/63511). But wait, we have a law against that already. It's called the "distracted while driving" law. Did we pass this law to benefit anyone? See the point about laws is important. It means that our .gov can enforce them at their will to control a society. Think I'm wrong? It is a federal crime to be in this country illegally. Hmmm. I guess it depends on who's in power. GW Bush decided to use ICE to raid workplaces that had suspected illegal immigrants. BH Obama decided that his administration would stop those raids. It's still illegal to be illegal. No law changed. Did you know that local law enforcement is FORBIDDEN to ask status if they aren't "specially trained" by ICE? Otherwise the ACLU says that it's profiling. Here in Phoenix, our Chief of Police has BANNED the enforcement of standing law.

Who do we blame? Do we blame the Democrats or Republicans? Maybe Soros. Maybe we blame Hannity. We can stop the search for the killer to our constitution. I know where they're at. Shh. Go to your bathroom. Turn on the light and look in the mirror. That is the face of the culprit. That's right. You, me, and us. We have allowed the SLAUGHTER of our rights, the EXTERMINATION of our Republic, and the RAPING of our Constitution. We did it. We allowed a bunch of thieves and liars into the temple that is our Republic to sell their wares. All the while we stood and did nothing. We didn't want to be "extremists". We didn't want to ruffle any feathers. We wanted to just go on with our lives. We couldn't be bothered with what "those" politicians were doing. I'll ask you an easy question. Any of you living high off the land? I mean, it's cool with me. I don't begrudge anyone that's ever made a living or being "well off". Your money is yours. I want to work for mine so believe me, I don't want yours. Back to the question: Have you had to rebudget? Tough times call for us to be a little tighter with the purse strings. Maybe not the double quarter pounder with cheese. Maybe just the jumbo jack. Maybe we don't go on vacation. Maybe we cut back on driving. Whatever the case, I'll bet that most of us have had to make some sacrifices. What did our elected leaders do? We allowed $1.3 TRILLION taxpayer dollars to go for corporate bailouts. We didn't have that money. We had to print it. We had to get loans from China. You know, that country that has our best interest at heart. We wrote checks and when we didn't have money, we said screw it and printed more. Go try that. I'll see you in 5-10 years. I'll visit you though. Anyone paying off a car? Skip three payments. I'll tell you what will happen. They will come and get it, they will sell it at auction and you will be required to pay the difference. They doing that for houses. While most of us bought houses we could afford, some of these "investors" bought houses to make a profit. When the housing bubble burst, they WALKED AWAY FROM THEM. Dinged their credit. They weren't required to make up the differences. Nope, they just walked away.

Nope, this is our fault. When we have to look our children in the eyes and tell them that they will be saddled with a $120,000 tax debt, we have no one to blame but ourselves. When they are looking at double digit inflation, double digit interest rates, and double digit unemployment, we can let them know we did it. Why? We can't be bothered to actually make our politicians SERVE US. Oh, that's another little misnomer. THEY SERVE AT OUR WILL. WE OWN THEM. We must do something to stop this attack on our Republic. Our forefathers never intended for the .gov to become what it is. We must demand that our leaders do their job. We must demand that they realize they work for US. Senator Kennedy recently passed away. HE SERVED FOR OVER 40 YEARS. That's not a Senator. That's an institution. That's entrenchment. We must demand that they impose the same term limits that we have for the POTUS. We can stop them. We must look past the Republican vs Democrat bull crap and look at RIGHT VS WRONG. Write you Senators. Call them. Demand answers. Don't stop. We get indignant when our Jack in the Box order is screwed up but we allow Washington to run amok? Do we not realize what our legacy to our children is going to be? How can we sleep at night knowing that we've allowed the greatest country in all the land to become a den of thieves? Do something. In this age of instant gratification, do something. Help me make sure that our legacy is not enslavement to government for our children. That's right. Enslavement. We must stop this lunacy. Ask yourself this, when has the .gov EVER created wealth? When did the .gov interfere with something that didn't cost the taxpayer more over the years? Medicare is bankrupt. Social Security will not be there for most of us when we retire. The largest growing job sector in this country is .gov. Will you stand up or get on you knees? Will you remain silent?

I thank you for taking the time to read my rant. It's pretty long but I think we owe it to our children to do something.

Below is what our founding fathers believed.

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
Thomas Jefferson

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson

All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
George Washington

Bad seed is a robbery of the worst kind: for your pocket-book not only suffers by it, but your preparations are lost and a season passes away unimproved.
George Washington

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth.
George Washington

I'm not calling for a Revolution like our forefathers had to endure. I'm not saying it's time to overthrow our government. Our founding fathers foresaw that this may happen. They gave us the chance to change our government. This is our time. This is our chance to stand up to our oppressive government and say "NO MORE". We must realize that the more initiative we take from ourselves the worse we become. We must realize that entitlements are a form of slavery and that we are determined to end all slavery. We must not look our children in the eyes and tell them we did nothing.

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." is just one of many variations of a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

Will you speak up?