If Liberty Means We Are Free, Then What?

Dangerous trends are rampant in American society that hold up to question our commitment to liberty. It goes without saying that a free people should be truly free. But is that what we are? Are we truly free? What is the status of liberty in America today?

The news, frankly, is not good. On many fronts our basic liberties and rights are being eroded away.

In the famous Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton and other Founders spelled out in precise detail what freedom means with regard to our basic rights as citizens. The Bill of Rights need no 'interpretation' if one honestly considers the principles delineated in the Federalist Papers. Liberty means we are free. That being the case, then what?

Take the Second Amendment, for example. Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, and company stated clearly that an armed citizenry was the thing that would keep us free. There is no indication here of any notion that the Second Amendment referred exclusively to a state militia. If this were the case, then the very men who wrote the Constitution would not have asserted unequivocally that citizens who are armed would protect themselves from government tyranny, INCLUDING THE POTENTIAL TYRANNY OF THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT!

Yet there are powerful voices in America today that contend that the Second Amendment guarantees no such personal rights. And year by year, little by little, they have succeeded in chopping away at the Second Amendment, utilizing state law and the courts, in order to render the amendment meaningless, except for their own blatantly false 'interpretation.'

Why should a law abiding citizen not be allowed to own and carry firearms when the Founders make it clear this is what they had in mind for the citizens of this Republic?

In addition, the assault on smoking, eating fat, driving a motorcycle without a helmet, and the like, are additional examples of government's intrusion into our private lives and whittling away at our basic liberties. It is not the government's business to make sure I stop smoking. My choice to eat fatty foods is just that--a personal choice. If I drive a motorcycle without a helmet, I made my decision, albeit a stupid one. But government's role was never to prevent its citizens from making stupid decisions. If I smoke, eat fat, refuse to wear a helmet, etc, etc., I will probably suffer some adverse consequence. My government is not charged with saving me from myself.

Other rights that are under assault are freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of religious expression, and freedom of the press. These First Amendment rights were held sacred and inviolate for nearly two centuries. The latter half of the 20th century, however, saw a chilling attempt to limit these rights as well. Examples of these violations of personal liberties are too numerous to mention in one short article, but you know as well as I do that they are there.

For years Americans were asleep as these things happened. However, I sense a growing alarm in many sectors of our society that leads me to believe that sooner or later Americans are going to put their foot down and say, 'Enough is enough.'

I hope that what we are awakening is a giant in the cause of liberty.