The final lines of the first stanza of our national anthem end with, " Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave/O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" Honestly, that is a good question. Don't misunderstand me, I am not accusing anyone of being a coward. However, could it be that we, as a nation in general, have lost the willingness to stand up; speak out; and possibly even fight, against tyranny, especially when it is our own government that has become tyrannical? Have we, as a nation, become so blinded by fear that we have allowed government to enact laws which deprive us of our most sacred and unalienable rights?
Have you ever seen a herd of stampeding cattle, or buffalo? In the face of danger they all follow each other in the general direction away from whatever it is that threatens them. It seems that as a nation there is that same herd mentality that allows our government to enact laws which restrict our rights, all under the guise of taking care of us, or making us more secure.
I know a good many people do not have the time, nor inclination, to spend researching the truth as to what is happening in this country. For the most part they rely upon the news media to provide them with enough facts to form, what they consider to be, an informed position regarding the issues. What if the owners of the media ensured that you only heard one side to every story, the side they wanted you to hear, and the side which coincided with any agenda they might have? If that were the case, would you honestly be making an informed decision, or would you find that you are being manipulated?
I don't know about anyone else, but as Patrick Henry said in his famous Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death speech, "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." Therefore, if you were being lied to, or manipulated, by the media whom you had trusted to present you with all the facts, wouldn't you want to know about it?
In 1917 a United States Congressman, Oscar Calloway, made the following statement to the House of Representatives, " In March, 1915, the J.P. Morgan interests, the steel, shipbuilding, and powder interests, and their subsidiary organizations, got together 12 men high up in the newspaper world and employed them to select the most influential newspapers in the United States, and a sufficient number of them, to control generally the policy of the daily press..They found it was only necessary to purchase the control of 25 of the greatest papers.
An agreement was reached; the policy of the papers was bought, to be paid for by the month; an editor was furnished for each paper, to properly supervise and edit information regarding the questions of preparedness, militarism, financial policies, and other things of national and international nature, considered vital to the interests of the purchasers." (emphasis added)
Since then, with the growth of broadcast news, these same people have expanded their control to that of the network news media as well. It does not matter if you watch NBC, CBS, FOX, or CNN, they own and control them all, thereby controlling what news you receive. Therefore, if you trust the news to give you the truth, you are being misled and fed the propaganda they want you to receive. In other words, your thoughts are being manipulated towards whatever desired goal they have in mind.
For instance, everyone knows about these recent shooting sprees in which people go on the rampage and kill dozens of innocent bystanders. Every single time that you hear about someone using a firearm on the news is when they use them in the commission of a crime.
Why is it that the news media refuses to report facts which support the fact that guns are used with far more frequency to prevent crime than they are used in the commission of a crime?
Did you know, that according to the National Safety Council, guns are used almost 2.5 million times a year in self-defense? That is 6,850 times a day people! Yet according to the same report the total number of firearm related deaths, including accidents, suicides, and homicides is only 30,000 per year, our roughly 82 times a day.
While I am in no way saying that the loss of 30,000 lives a year is not tragic, the point I am trying to make is that the news media is clearly on a campaign to promote the idea that gun violence is rampant and that the private ownership of firearms serves no legitimate purpose. In short, they are attempting to scare people in such a way as to weaken their resolve to stand up against infringements of their Second Amendment right. Do you see the point I am trying to make here?
Let's look at one more example. On September 11, 2001 the United States suffered a tragic attack which caused the collapse of the Twin Towers, damage to the Pentagon, and the loss of United Airlines flight 93,killing 44 passengers. Whether or not the government knew about these attacks in advance, had any hand in them, or was completely caught off guard is irrelevant. What is relevant is the laws that have been passed in the aftermath of 9/11.
We have seen the growth of the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, as well as numerous laws, all of which, in some fashion, infringe upon nearly half of the rights protected by the Bill of Rights. Our phone calls, internet activity, bank accounts, and homes are all subject to unwarranted searches simply because some analyst somewhere might deem something we do, or say, as reasonable grounds for labeling us a suspected terrorist.
Every time we see a news report about a suspected, or thwarted terrorist attack it is closely followed by more intrusive searches upon ourselves, or the loss of more rights in our day to day affairs.
While I am not saying our government is behind all these acts, the idea that they might be is not completely unheard of. Author Robert Stinnett, in his book Day of Deceit, claims that Roosevelt knew in advance of the impending Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor. Stinnett claims that Japanese codes had been broken prior to the attack and in one on the intercepts they found the following, "...the task force, keeping its movements strictly secret and maintaining close guard against submarines and aircraft, shall advance into Hawaiian waters, and upon the very opening of hostilities shall attack the main force of the United States fleet in Hawaii and deal it a mortal blow..."
While that may be speculation and conspiracy theory, the following is not. During the height of the Cold War, when John F. Kennedy was president, groups within the government proposed a series of false-flag attacks, under the code name Operation Northwoods. The idea was to stage a series of hijackings and bombings and then produce phony evidence which would implicate Cuba and create public support for war with Cuba. Part of the documents released to the public state, " The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere."
Although the plan was rejected by Kennedy, it sounds eerily similar to the same events which caused George Bush to make his declaration of total war on global terror. Not saying it happened that way, just saying that the idea never crossed the minds of our government. I merely want you to realize that even our government is capable of, at least, proposing attacks against US targets to sway public sentiment towards a specific goal.
Now you may have blown me off with my talk of conspiracy theories, but let me once again reiterate the point, that this nation's fear of the bogeyman terrorists has given their government all the excuses it needed to pass laws which, once again, deprive you of certain unalienable rights.
If people would just pay attention to what our founders said they would realize that James Madison warned us that things like this could happen, " It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."
There is something Ben Franklin once said that people need to think about, " Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." How many of our rights have we given up because we have been afraid? How many more will we give up because we continue to be afraid?
Our government, and the media are guilty of fear mongering, something those within our government often accuse their 'so-called opponents' across the political aisle. Well I can play that game too, there are a few things I am afraid of. One thing I am fearful of is our government declaring open war upon anyone who declares an unconditional support for the Constitution.
Are you aware that our government is stockpiling massive amounts of ammunition...not for use in foreign wars, but right here on US soil ? Awhile back the Department of Homeland Security submitted a request to purchase 450 million rounds of ammunition, followed just a week or so ago with another request for 750 million rounds of ammo. On top of that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admistration, (didn't even know that existed) has stated that the National Marine Fisheries service requires a mere 46,000 rounds of ammo. And now it is the Social Security Administration which is buying up 174,000 rounds of hollow points. That certainly seems to be a whole lot of ammo being purchased by various branches of the government―all within a short time frame.
You know something else that scares me, the fact that our government hasn't passed a federal budget in 3 years, and in those 3 years the national debt has increased by $4.9 trillion in that same time frame, more than it did under the 8 years of the Bush administration. Now I'm not cutting George Bush any slack, it was he who got us into these wars that are costing billions monthly. On top of that he was the one who began bailing out private sector companies with the bailout of AIG.
What I'm getting at is that our government spends way more than it takes in from taxes. In fact, if we shut down the entire US government, including the military, there would still be a budget deficit which means that our government would still have to borrow money just to cover its other obligations, such as Social Security and Medicare.
If you'll allow me, I'd like to present a quote to you, and then have you guess who said it. The quote goes as follows, " I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all American history - one which piled bureau on bureau, commission on commission, and has failed to anticipate the dire needs or reduced earning power of the people. Bureaus and bureaucrats have been retained at the expense of the taxpayer. We are spending altogether too much money for government services which are neither practical nor necessary. In addition to this, we are attempting too many functions and we need a simplification of what the Federal government is giving the people."
How long do you think we can keep this borrowing up until the whole house of cards collapses in upon us, and when it does, what do you think is going to happen? Believe me, what the news is reporting on Greece's economic troubles will be minor compared to what this country will go through when it all comes crumbling down around us. The government will need all that ammo to stave off the riots and anarchy.
And just in case you don't think the government will deploy troops within the borders of the US to quell riots, it did it during the Civil War when Lincoln deployed US soldiers to New York City, and ended up killing between 300-1,000 rioters. So don't tell me it wouldn't do it again!
Allow me to close with two final quotes. The first was made by James Wilson in 1791, and can be found in his Lectures on Laws, " Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every government, which has not this in view, as its principal object, is not a government of the legitimate kind." Does that sound like the type government we have today, one that cares about preserving and enlarging our rights?
Let me also give you something else to think about. H. L. Mencken once said that "The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe." I suppose that is true. If it is, then does it answer the question I asked in the beginning, are we still the land of the free and the home of the brave, or are we a nation succumbed to our worst fears? I'll leave that for you to ponder.
Source: Neal Ross. Visit my blog for further enlightenment: http://www.zombie-slayer.com/neal/ Comments may be sent to: bonsai@syix.com
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