Let Freedom Ring (Will Anyone Be Left To Answer?)

(The figure of 349 billion in the above video is now at 3 TRILLION dollars. Yes, you read that right. I don't even know how many zeros are in that, do you?)

I love this country. It is not unamerican to believe we are headed in the wrong direction. Today, I prayed and participated in a parade with my children. I believe in change, for the better. And it starts with us. We have to want it. We have to want the government to do what is right and just. We have to want them to care for the interests of more than just the Almighty Dollar. We have to pull the power out of the hands of the few, those who would sacrifice us to the special interest groups. We have to fight those who would destroy our air, water and our very lives in order to grow richer!

We have to be informed. We have to vote and we have to think. We need to think about what we are doing to our childrens' future. What is the legacy we are leaving them? What values are we instilling in them if we stand by and let our resources be squaundered by those who have made it clear they have an agenda and don't care about anything else? I weep for our future if those in power continue to "stay the course."

Today is a holiday. The Fourth of July. Some privileged white guys threw a tantrum, and now we have freedom. Don't get me wrong, I am sincerely grateful that they did what they did, I value my freedom greatly. Which is why I wanted to post these quotes today..just a little reminder:

When the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny. --Thomas Jefferson

"What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?" --Thomas Jefferson

"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech" -- Benjamin Franklin

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever." --John Adams

"Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it." --John Adams

"[H]owever weak our country may be, I hope we shall never sacrifice our liberties." --Alexander Hamilton

"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others." --James Madison

"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions." --James Madison

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." --George Washington

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people!" --Patrick Henry

And finally, I leave you with my favorite quote, by a famous cultural anthropologist:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has" --Margaret Mead

*I wrote this two years ago, and it is even more true now than it was then. Gas prices, dangerous toys, global warming, loss of freedom...when do we stand up and DO SOMETHING?

T, who wants her inalienable rights back

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