Are We More Free Today?
Memorial Day is traditionally a day of national reflection as well as celebration. We look back on how our country has been shaped and protected by our fellow citizens who served as members of the armed forces of the United States of America. We think about the freedoms we have today because of their sacrifice and courage. What we might not think about is the systematic and methodical erosion of those same hard won freedoms by judicial fiat, legislative myopia, and bureaucratic dictate. This is being done in such a casual and off-hand manner as to be characterized by media and other enablers as business as usual.
Americans have thought of themselves as being independent, fair-minded, having great initiative and possessing innovative skills to address any challenge that might come their way. And for the most part, at least when related to external foreign threats, America has used these skills to make the world a better place. But can the same be said about the home front?
Erosion of freedoms, as it is with riverbeds, happens gradually. The erosion comes in many forms. It is the local bureaucrat zealously policing water use and punishing those who transgress municipal policy regardless that water is metered and paid for as it used. It is the faceless apparatchik who pulls the strings on local schools from a distant state or national capitol because the school is dependent on outside public finances. It is a legislature which nit picks in a way that only caters to short-term special interests while showing no inclination for restraining the heavy hand of government. It is the cynical judge who places personal bias above what is said by the jury, the voter, and the constitution.
Do these architects and purveyors of diminished freedoms care about the public trust put into their hands by so many who died for America? Hardly. They know nothing of history. They do not think of themselves as just another attempt at establishing the failed ideology of centralized authority. They do not see they have fell into the same trap of allowing themselves to become tin gods trying to force their subjects to bow down to the perverted philosophy of man as individual being above the will and consent of those they govern. For them the chance to enhance a lackluster guilt-ridden life through the abuse of power is too seductive to let pass by.
As we spend our treasured American holiday with friends and family we might just dwell upon the monuments in our national cemeteries. Now they have religious markings. A day may come when these markings are removed as they offend a single person. The monuments themselves may be removed as they are considered an ostentatious display of national pride as well as getting in the way of the bureaucrats who maintain the cemeteries. Then Memorial Day and all of those who make it holy will pass away, victim to the legion of domestic mediocrity that lives only to destroy democracy.
Americans have thought of themselves as being independent, fair-minded, having great initiative and possessing innovative skills to address any challenge that might come their way. And for the most part, at least when related to external foreign threats, America has used these skills to make the world a better place. But can the same be said about the home front?
Erosion of freedoms, as it is with riverbeds, happens gradually. The erosion comes in many forms. It is the local bureaucrat zealously policing water use and punishing those who transgress municipal policy regardless that water is metered and paid for as it used. It is the faceless apparatchik who pulls the strings on local schools from a distant state or national capitol because the school is dependent on outside public finances. It is a legislature which nit picks in a way that only caters to short-term special interests while showing no inclination for restraining the heavy hand of government. It is the cynical judge who places personal bias above what is said by the jury, the voter, and the constitution.
Do these architects and purveyors of diminished freedoms care about the public trust put into their hands by so many who died for America? Hardly. They know nothing of history. They do not think of themselves as just another attempt at establishing the failed ideology of centralized authority. They do not see they have fell into the same trap of allowing themselves to become tin gods trying to force their subjects to bow down to the perverted philosophy of man as individual being above the will and consent of those they govern. For them the chance to enhance a lackluster guilt-ridden life through the abuse of power is too seductive to let pass by.
As we spend our treasured American holiday with friends and family we might just dwell upon the monuments in our national cemeteries. Now they have religious markings. A day may come when these markings are removed as they offend a single person. The monuments themselves may be removed as they are considered an ostentatious display of national pride as well as getting in the way of the bureaucrats who maintain the cemeteries. Then Memorial Day and all of those who make it holy will pass away, victim to the legion of domestic mediocrity that lives only to destroy democracy.
posted by tovarich at 10:30 AM
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