- OK, do you want to live in an independent United States,
or would you prefer to be incorporated into a world government?
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- It's no contest, as far as I'm concerned. I will answer
to no laws except those of the United States. I believe it would be a crime
if the present generation resubmerged the United States into a world empire
after our forefathers fought a bitter war to get us out of one.
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- And why did they do that? Because they believed that
the people in this land ought to have the right to govern themselves, to
write their own laws, to set up their own form of government. That's what
the Declaration of Independence states:
-
- "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness - that to secure these rights, governments are instituted
among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute
new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness."
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- There is the essence, the principles of the American
Revolution.
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- Rights come from God and cannot be taken away or transferred.
That's what "unalienable" meant. Our rights, so our forefathers
believed, are beyond the reach of man.
-
- The sovereignty lies with the people, not with the government.
The people set up the government for the sole purpose of protecting their
rights. Its only "just" powers are those given to it by the people.
-
- When government abuses the rights of the people, the
people have the right to overthrow it. That, of course, is just what they
did with the British colonial administration. They seceded from the British
Empire.
-
- Later in the Declaration, this right to revolution is
emphasized. It states: "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
government."
-
- So whenever Americans see a lot of abuses and usurpations
of their rights that show a pattern of intending to place them under a
non-free government, they not only have the right but the duty to throw
that government off. And the only way a despotic government can be thrown
off is with force and violence.
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- Now, I hope, you see why the right to keep and bear arms
"shall not be infringed." It would be stupid to say to people
that they have the right and the duty to overthrow an abusive government
but deny them the right to have the means to do so. And the right to keep
and bear arms is one of those unalienable rights that comes from God, not
from the government. That's why Americans should oppose licensing gun owners.
Rights don't need a government license, and if a government license is
required, then it is not a right.
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- America, as it was conceived by our Founding Fathers,
was the most wonderful country in the history of mankind. Naturally, we
have messed it up, but at least as a minimum, today's generation of Americans
should not surrender the independence of their country to any type of international
government.
-
- The trick is to back off and look at the big picture.
Don't ever give up what you are celebrating July Fourth. Your freedom depends
on it.
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- Charley Reese can be contacted at briarl@earthlink.net.
© 2002 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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- http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20020701/index.php
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