Change We Can Believe In: Freedom or Tyranny?

Do you understand the importance of freedom? If you think you do, try to express it in your own words. Having difficulty? I am not surprised. The word Freedom is ingrained in us and our culture at an early age. We are Americans. Of course we are for freedom. Okay, then! Tell me what it is.

Webster’s Dictionary defines “freedom” as follows:

“The quality or state of being free: as a : the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action b : liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : independence c : the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous."

If we are a free people, can anyone explain to me what is going on today? It is with disdain and concern that I watch the mentality in our country today. How much freedom are you willing to give up…and for what?

Let’s start with the health care proposal in the Senate. If it passes, the government will then tell the health insurance companies what kind of insurance they can sell, and tell you what kind of insurance you can buy. It will tell employers they have to provide the insurance or be fined. And it will tell people under 30 they have to purchase one of the approved policies and what they have to pay for them, even if less onerous options are available. If you violate these mandates, you will be fined or go to jail. This is what it does, folks. Really!! And you taxes will skyrocket...and if you are senior...watch out! The extreme left of the Democratic Party isn’t even trying to hide it anymore. Does that sound like freedom to you?

How about this? You own a piece of real estate across from Columbia University, a private institution. The University wants to expand, and your parcel plus six others are right in the path of this private institution’s plans. The City of New York decides to take your property by Eminent Domain and give it to Columbia University so this private institution can build on your property. The city likes it better than you. Does that sound like freedom to you?

Here’s another one. You are a rancher in Texas, and have a pond on your property. It doesn’t go anywhere. It just kind of sits there and occasionally will run over its banks. The water source for the pond is an underground spring, and occasional rain water. The Supreme Court of the United States said the EPA has no control over that pond under the Clean Water Act. Now Congress is currently passing legislation to allow the EPA to regulate you self contained pond…just because they know what’s good for you. And if they don’t want you to raise cattle, they will forbid your cattle from drinking at your pond. Does that sound like freedom to you?

Finally: the EPA has just declared Carbon Dioxide…air…a dangerous gas. And it now claims it regulate everything that produces Carbon Dioxide. That includes you. The Financial Post, the unofficial Canadian national newspaper, is calling for world-wide adoption of a one child policy to limit carbon emissions. You know… like China. Of course, our EPA says it will monitor carbon emissions with common sense…based on population! THERE IS NO LEGISLATION GIVING THE EPA POWER OF CARBON EMISSIONS. THEY JUST TOOK IT. Does that sound like freedom to you?

I keep writing, and writing again that it is time for America to wake up. The government tells us what kind of toilets we can have. It tells us what kind of light bulbs we must use. It tells us the kind of food we should eat. It will tell us how much and what kind of health care we can have. It will tell you how much money you can make. It will tell you how many children you can have. And it will eventually tell you how much air you can breathe.

Unless we come to our senses quickly, this will be the brave new world created brought you by that hope and change you voted for last year. Never has the threat been so real and so insidious.

That, my friends, is not freedom! That is tyranny!