Dear Liberty;

I want you to speak to the hearts of all those who are standing in the shadows; you know, the ones who believe that they are witnessing the end of an era; the ones who have given up hope and have all but accepted this great nation’s departure from grace; the ones who lack the courage to stand in defense of their values and principles out of fear of being ridiculed and belittled.

Let me start off by saying that our Forefathers provided us with a system of governing that allows every individual the opportunity to stand up and not only be heard…but to be considered as well.  This form of government is formally known as a Representative Democracy and the collective union of our fifty states form a Constitutional Republic who’s representative nature is outlined in and protected by our United States Constitution.

I believe that “We the people” have lost sight of the very reasons that this country came to be.  I believe that we have lost sight of the most basic and simple principles upon which this republic was founded.  But why? Is it that we have stopped caring?  Have we grown tired of our required participation?  Is it that we have grown tired of not being accurately represented?  Or is it something different?  Could it be that we finally realize that we are being intentionally kept in the dark and misinformed by those in the “fourth estate”?  The media has a solemn and noble obligation to keep the electorate informed; but instead they ply us with useless Pop Culture as an intoxicating substitute for the valuable information that we require to make intelligent decisions for our lives and in the voting booth.

The truth of the matter is that many people just don’t know what the intended purpose of our government is.  They incorrectly refer to our legislators as “leaders” and accept the laws and regulations that they pass with their hands on their hips but accept them nonetheless.  They have even accepted slogans like “You can’t fight city hall”.  Let me give you some advice here; yes you can and yes you should fight city hall EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY PASS A LAW OR TAX THAT YOU DON’T LIKE!  It is your obligation to stand your ground in a dignified and diplomatic manner and find out what it takes to overturn the legislation, then commit to getting it done.

The purpose of government, at every level, is to protect the rights of the people.  The government is there for the people; the people are NOT there for the government.  All elected, appointed and hired people at all levels of government are our employees; that’s a fact.  We the people are supposed to state our needs and our employees are supposed to meet them.

Then why has the tail been wagging the dog?  The answer is that our founding principles have been largely hidden from us by an education system that is controlled by a department that is managed by those who want us to forget founding principles! In other words, they have stopped teaching founding principles in our schools.  Oh sure, we learn the preamble of our Constitution and we each take a turn reading a line from the Gettysburg Address but that’s about it.

That’s why we have been fooled into accepting things like “Executive Orders” and “Executive Decrees”; we’ve been fooled into believing that they are established and supported in our Constitution…but they aren’t.  They were established as a means of preventing trivial bits of legislation from “clogging” up the legislative process.  Executive orders were enacted to execute mundane and nearly insignificant items like naming parks, dedicating statues and perhaps pardoning a turkey; NOT passing gun laws, Not passing immigration laws and certainly not altering legislation that has already been passed by both Houses of Congress.  Only kings and dictators rule by executive decree; not a United States President.

I’ve heard people say that “our democracy isn’t working and we have to try something different”.  Some of these people call themselves Progressives hoping to sound like they have something more “advanced” to offer…but in a way, they’re right; the democracy is NOT working but only because they aren’t allowing the “representative” aspect of it to work.  They have adopted a top down method of governing, a more expansive role of the Federal Government and a controlled distribution of wealth, goods and services…Oh, Karl Marx would be proud!

Dear Liberty, help us find a solution.

Please guide our conversations and discussions so that we might find the way forward to protect and secure the great traditions that we inherited from our Founding Fathers.

Would it help if the founding principles of our Constitution were restored so that the voices of the States were included in the Federal Legislative Process?  Would this, perhaps, restore the delicate balance that our Founders so carefully put into place to protect us from an overbearing, dominant Federal Government?  Could this be the solution that would prevent the Federal Government from continuing to run roughshod over the will of the States?  I submit to you that a sweet and intimate balance between what the people and the States want and need was what our Founders had originally intended…the gentle mix of the timid and the brave equally voiced at the same table…men and women of all persuasions bonded together and unified against tyranny and oppression.

It is difficult for me to see how we the people are expected to control the Federal Government’s reckless spending when the States, who have lost their Federal representation, are inundated with mandates that consume about one fourth of their annual budgets.  Would restoring this balance restore States rights?

There is no doubt that the most important and noble principle that our Forefathers sought to secure for us was representation.  The House of Representatives, to represent the people and the Senate to represent the States were created and established in the very first article of our Constitution.

So, Dear Liberty, how much longer can we consider ourselves to be responsible stewards of your gifts if we stand by and let the few fundamentally transform this republic into something that so many died to protect?  How can the smart but silent majority, both Democrats and Republicans, move toward each other and redeem this nation and secure our dear liberty for our posterity?