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    Setting Brushfires of Freedom by Don Jans

    The United States Has Forsaken Liberty

     

     

    By Don Jans

    Statue of Liberty

    The word liberty is often used, but seldom does the person using such a critical term explain what they mean. Tyrants have used the term liberty in defense of their desire to eliminate liberty. Lenin said that liberty was so precious it had to be carefully rationed. The first nation founded on the principle of Natural liberty was the United States. This declaration was made in the Declaration of Independence where we as a nation stated that our Liberties come from God, they do not come from government or man, and for sure did not have to be rationed. This truth that liberty comes from God, and accepted by our founders was primarily based on the teachings of John Locke.

    From the Declaration of Independence:

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed . . . with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness;”

    Locke said, “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, and reason which is that law teaches all mankind who will but consult it that being all equal and independent no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.”

    Some of our founders elaborated on what is American Liberty.

    “Liberty is the power to do everything that does not interfere with the rights of others: thus, the exercise of the natural rights of every individual has no limits save those that assure to other members of society the enjoyment of the same rights.” Thomas Paine,

    “The fundamental source of all your errors, sophisms, and false reasoning, is a total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. Were you once to become acquainted with these, you could never entertain a thought, that all men are not, by nature, entitled to a parity of privileges. You would be convinced, that natural liberty is a gift of the beneficent Creator, to the whole human race; and that civil liberty is founded in that; and cannot be wrested from any people, without the most manifest violation of justice.” Alexander Hamilton

    “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” Thomas Jefferson

    Yes, the United States was the first nation to be founded, in fact, I can not think of another nation since our founding that was founded upon or adopted this same declaration of liberty, on liberties coming from God and not government. These liberties include things such as our right to live our own lives and have our own thoughts without dictates by others including our government.

    This is in direct contrast with the collectivist movement that is sweeping our nation. Collectivism is the ideology that is represented by Marxism, Communism, Socialism, and progressivism. It is the essence of the American left and the Democrat party which states that you have the liberty to live your own life and have your own thoughts so long as they conform to the dictates of collectivism. If they do not, you are told that government, under the disguise of law, as stated by Jefferson, can and will demand conformity by using such tactics as to demonize, isolate, and eliminate the “enemies of the people.”

    Liberty means that I have the right to life so long as I do not take the right to life of another person, even if I refer to that action as “choice”. I have the right to speak and think freely, so long as I do not hinder through such actions as censorship your right to speak and think freely. I have the right to peaceably assemble, so long as I do not violate your right to peaceably assemble. I have the right to own property and control my property so long as I do not hinder your right or take your property from you against your will. I have liberty so long as I do not hinder your right to liberty.

    Liberty includes my right to pursue my own happiness, even economically, which would include the Right to gain, keep, use, trade or otherwise dispose of the possessions I have freely and justly acquired. Any act that transfers the just gains to another or restricts my freedom of action for the sake of benefiting another is a violation of liberty.

    No single person has a right to “take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the Life, Liberty, Health, Limb or Goods of another,” so no society or public institution can ever acquire such a power – not a single despot and not a duly constituted legislative majority. Locke is clear as crystal on the point:

     …for nobody can transfer to another more power than he has in himself; and no Body has an absolute Arbitrary Power to . . . take away the Life or Property of another, and having in the State of Nature no Arbitrary Power over the Life, Liberty or Possessions of another, but only so much as the Law of Nature gives him to the preservation of himself; . . . this is all he doth, or can give up to the Commonwealth . . . so that the Legislative can have no more than this.”

    According to Locke and our founding principles, it can be said: where there is Socialist redistribution, there is a deprivation of Liberty and Property. Where there is Welfare (corporate subsidies or social entitlements), there is Socialism. What the American left, the Democrat party (Communist), is putting forth as liberty and the American way, is in fact the antithesis of liberty and the American way.

    You must decide, do you want liberty, or you do you want communism? Do you want to make your own decisions and have your own thoughts, or do you want a despotic institution, even if that despotic institution is acting under the law, to dictate how you live your life and how you think? Every time you directly or indirectly support big government, and do not demand less government, support more laws and regulations, and do not demand less laws and regulations, you are supporting the transformation of the United States as called for by the left from a nation of liberty to a nation slavery.

    Samuel Adams stated, “It is high time the people of this country explicitly declare whether they be free or slaves.”

    Barry Goldwater declared, “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

    What will you do? Will you explicitly declare free, will you become extreme is your defense of liberty? There is no neutral ground.

     

    Don Jans is a national acclaimed author and speaker.  He is also a lifelong student of history, with a special emphasis on Russian history.  His study of Russian history led to 1917 which led to the study of the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.  Don has written five books on the topic of Collectivism (Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Fascism, and Progressivism). 

    Don has been a guest on numerous nationally and regionally broadcast radio programs.  He is a weekly guest on a nationally broadcast radio program where he discusses collectivism and how it is impacting the United States, relating current happenings to the collectivist agenda.

    Don has spoken to numerous groups across the nation on the topic of who and what is the United States and who and what is collectivism. The collectivist movement has called for a transformation of the United States. What is critical for all to understand is what is the transformation; what are we now and into what will we be transformed.  

    Don’s speaking approach is the same as his writing approach, and that is to be direct and straight forward with no regard for the current mandated approach of political correctness. 

    Samuel Adams said, “It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” If we are to remain free, we must be about setting brushfires of freedom.

     


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