America, we are at a crossroads.
Not the first time we’ve reached a fork in the road and it will certainly not be the last, but it’s time to make a difficult choice. It’s one of sacrifice, where each and every citizen realizes that what they decide will affect future generations for decades, even centuries to come. Do we live in the present, spending for the purpose of social equality or live for the future, where we reduce our wants for the basic necessities? The decision ultimately falls upon you.
That being said, you should know that you are free. Free to speak of anything, believe in anything, and do anything that your heart desires. This freedom carries the heavy burden of responsibility. You are responsible for what you say and your actions and must face the consequences of those actions when the time comes. You are responsible for being knowledgeable about the happenings of the government in order to make the educated and important decision of picking qualified individuals into elected office every November. Nobody carries that burden but you and you alone and it’s time that we collectively realize that.
Our Constitution, for the most part, serves to protect those individual rights of every citizen providing that another individual’s rights aren’t diminished. President Obama was correct in making the accusation that the Constitution is a list of “negative” rights, but those restrictions rest solely upon the federal, state and local governments as a means to prevent abuse at the expense of our individual rights. In order to prevent a system of government that can trample on the ideas and beliefs that a person has, safeguards were put in place to protect the people from such abuse. Those rights should be defended at any cost, as one of the President’s duties; it should hold top priority over any issue as stated in the Presidential Oath.
In the last half-century, we’ve seen those rights being traded: relieving the burden of responsibility in exchange for security. We know of them as social programs, created in good intentions but whittling away at what made us…our collective independence. In the midst of this, there is a growing sense of entitlement due to these benefits that can develop into dependence on those that distribute such assistance, breeding corruption. We are pouring more money into a public education system that continues to lower standards and fails our children to the point where we’re sliding down the international scale in math and science. We’re extending the retirement age because the Social Security and Medicaid funding have been used as a slush fund, not forgetting that the system is a Ponzi scheme (illegal for private citizens to do). We have the USPS, DOT DMV, Public Railway system, etc as more examples of how convenience doesn’t necessarily the doesn’t necessarily mean efficiency. And yet, all of these programs increase the tax burden yearly and show little to no positive results in the long run.
Every time the budget is increased, we get our taxes raised, without our consent. Know this, as any government grows, taxes must be increased to order to sustain the system. Know that our tax system is based solely upon the income of the individuals that work in the private sector. That being said, every tax on business is paid by the individuals that work for the business, shareholders and /or consumers. Corporate taxes, business taxes, etc are other ways to tax the final purchaser of the products, which (for the most part) end up being the people politicians say they are trying to help. We’ve been economically enslaved by our elected officials.
For those of us that want to be free from the system, how do we obtain that freedom? The answer is simple really…arm yourselves. Not in the literal sense, but with knowledge. Become knowledgeable about our laws of the land, become aware of how those laws affect our economic system (from the corporations to the guy on main street), how our tax system works, how our economic system works, and how the individual (you) play a role in all of this. The most important thing that you must become a student of is the Constitution and our History. This may sound cliché, but knowledge is a very powerful tool. No politician can tell you what you want to hear, when you know the story behind their words.
My theory, corruption begins and ends within our governmental system. Once they are truly held accountable, then waste, fraud, abuse and the instability that results will be a thing of the past. We, the people, in order to control the system, must willingly take the responsibility of shouldering the burden in order to protect our individual rights and freedoms. The path of this nation is in our hands. No, the path of this nation is in your hands.
