Versión Español
EspañolMartin Luther King Jr. had a dream. It was a good one. I also have a dream. My dream also deals with equality, but it is the kind of equality that can only be achieved with liberty.
That is not just the commonly understood definition of community or national freedom, but liberty — individual, undeniable, unalienable rights. I have a dream of a finding a place or building a place where liberty reigns supreme. I dream of a place where the majority cannot use the power and force of government to enforce their whims and preferences upon an unpopular minority or their choices.
I love the United States of America — not for what it is today, but for what it has done. Sure, we’ve done some regrettable things, but the balance of our actions is still positive. Yet, this great nation has so far lost its way that I fear, as many of my colleagues do, that there is no way back to the fundamental ideals laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights of the Constitution.
I dream of a place where it is a matter of personal choice what you eat, what you drink, what you smoke, and whether to allow smoking in your home. Medical care, property, and what drugs you take are decisions entirely in your hands and not in the hands of a government body that can be persuaded or bribed.
I dream of a place where people are free to choose when and where to associate, and that means a place where unions and associations can never be mandatory. Where government employees are servants of the people, not arrogant, unionized bureaucrats who make choices based on politics or based on preserving their budget and their job.
Don’t get me wrong. I like roads, bridges, clean drinking water, and electricity; heck, I even like national parks and doing at least something to help preserve species and protect our environment with reasonable, logical rules. My libertarian friends have often said that the best way to preserve a species is to find a way to make a profit from preserving it, and profit isn’t always made of cash. I think they are right.
I believe in national defense. I believe in security. I know there is no better security than a well-armed citizenry with the right and authority to use their weapons to defend their property, person, and family, regardless of where they are located. I believe only a sovereign nation will help us protect these natural rights.
I am tired, damn tired of government intrusion and people who support it. I am tired of those who are so certain in their faith, whether religious, vegan, atheist, or whatever — who know what is best for me and my family and want to make sure I am protected from my own will. I am sick of how information and education are changed ever so slightly in every venue to create generations of robots who say they believe in freedom and yet endorse everything that stifles it. I am fed up beyond words with those who use children as an excuse to regulate adult behavior. I dream of a place where children are wards of their parents, not on loan as wards of the state.
I am frustrated that we continually provide and protect freedom for those whose only goal is to take it from us. Call me a fascist if you must, but I would rather have a place where advocating government control of personal choice is not just limited, it is criminal. Those who would use government to control personal choice would be expelled.
I am finished with those who ignore a century and a half of evidence of the brutality and evil of socialism only to push for more of it in Puerto Rico and the United States. And I am I sick of those who demand obedience to the law, except when it comes to the fundamental organic laws that created the nation. I am ever haunted by the question, if those in power ignore the laws that gave them their authority, what legitimate authority do they hold over us?
They hold only the authority implied in force.
I rage against the intrusions, the enslavement, and the abuse. From the more mundane and arguably reasonable seat belt laws to the more intrusive soda, trans fat, and contradictory smoking bans, to the oppressive and criminal “stop and frisk” and random highway stops and NSA spying; I rage against them all. All of these are connected. One limit to personal freedom is used to justify the next and the next, until you get to where we are today.
I am tired of the wealthiest nation in the world finding any and every way to destroy itself and a populace that supports it and demands more. I am tired of politicians selling social programs to help the poor, while tens of trillions of dollars later there is more poverty. Instead of accepting the failure of the programs, however, always they demand more.
I dream of a place where the government is truly limited — where a community might be able to make laws governing the community, but not the county or the state, and never the federal government. I dream of a place where the individual is the supreme court of his or her own sovereignty, where you can never face a fine or a special tax for not buying something, where you can choose your own social programs or none at all.
Yes, I dream of a place that has good roads, but no seat belt laws. I yearn for a place where marriage is not the purview of government, whether it’s a man and woman, or woman and woman, or man and many women, or woman and many men, or many of both. I’m tired of explaining that what I just said has nothing to do with morality and nothing to do with religion, it has to do with the individual and choice.
I dream of a place where government is smart enough to understand that the war on drugs is a war on people and their liberty, and all drugs are legal all the time. I demand a place where civil law, regulation, and “administrative” decisions are not used as a way to circumvent the constitution and the “other rights” not granted to government, but reserved to the people.
The United States of America is no longer that place. That place does not exist anymore anywhere on this earth. Isn’t it time that those of us who understand this concept offer to the tree of liberty our lives, our fortunes, our freedom, and our sacred honor? We need not overthrow any government, we need not initiate force; but if we do not act, and soon, we condemn our children and theirs to the horror of modern slavery and the newest form of socialism that is sweeping this country and the world.
The next election will not solve this matter. A Republican, no matter how dedicated, will not solve a US$17 trillion national debt and a $60 trillion total debt. A Republican will not turn Social Security into a true interest and dividend-earning trust fund. He will not stop NSA surveillance, and while he may or may not repeal Obamacare, he won’t end the war on drugs nor the laws against other personal choices like marriage and prostitution — and yes, the latter should absolutely be legal.
I believe it is possible to have a working society with all of the modern conveniences without having to regulate every aspect of our lives. I believe we are running out of time to make it a reality.
I have a dream too, but who is there left to dream with me . . .
