In the grand scheme of things, man is but a very young and successful species on the third planet from a common star, in a garden-variety galaxy among billions of similar galaxies, in a Universe, the dimensions of which are not yet fully known. It is preordained that one day, we as a species will simply disappear. Earth will be but a burned-out cinder as the Sun writhes in the death throws of its Red Giant phase, on its way to becoming a White Dwarf. The Universe won't even take notice of the event, as the death struggle of stars like our Sun, is a common occurrence throughout the trillions of suns and the billions of galaxies that are known to inhabit what is visible to our eyes and our instruments. The question is, will man hasten his demise by his own hand, long before we reach the Red Giant phase of our dying Sun, some 3 to 4 Billion years from now? It remains to be seen if man can continue his "successful species" status. But no matter what we do to ourselves, the Universe won't shed a single tear.

If one were to project man's current path into the future, "successful species" may turn into apocryphal extinction. Irrespective of what Mother Nature can do to us in an instant, man's only hope of long term survival is the overwhelming expression of the great goodness that lies within all of us. That goodness in man overrides the evil within him best, when he lives under the umbrella of freedom. That goodness will be the single most important tool in meeting the challenges we face, both foreign and domestic.

Only one country on Earth has shown the best in man and what can be accomplished under the combination of inalienable freedom and our God-given goodness. If we lose that freedom and the goodness that flourishes under it, we shall surely descend into the abyss of the evil within us, where greed and avarice are the rule, rather than the exception. We are dangerously close.

Some ordinary men, with vision and the wisdom of age and experience in a time of turmoil and confusion, gathered together on the distant shores of a new land and laid down a 'blue print' for free men and women with common purpose and resolve to live out their lives and govern their individual and collective affairs by adhering to that 'blue print'. The guidance of that 'blue print', through 160 years of significant change, allowed a free society to pioneer, grow and prosper into the strongest nation in all of recorded human history. In the early 1930's a much heralded shift in the 'blue print' was made by a not-so-wise group of people, responding to the perceived national threat of the Great Depression, forever altering that "blue print' to such an extent it would have filled the hearts and minds of its founders with loathing and disgust. The alteration was deceptively simple. Just pervert the phrase in the U. S. Constitution where it states '........ and promote the general welfare'. And promote they did. As anyone with any vision at all can see, their promotion has brought them years of immense power and signaled the beginnings of a drastic erosion of our individual freedoms and liberty. But we have been warned on numerous occasions, not only by our Founding Fathers, but so many more since then who realized the danger of a government abusing its powers and spinning out of control. Senator Benjamin H. Hill, in March of 1887, (120 years ago) delivered one such warning, when he addressed the U. S. Senate with these words:

"I have said I do not dread industrial corporations as instruments of power to destroy this country, because there are a thousand agencies which can regulate, restrain and control them; but there is a corporation we may all dread. That corporation is the federal government. From the aggressions of this corporation, there can be no safety, if it is allowed to go beyond the well-defined limits of its powers. I dread nothing so much as the exercise of un-granted and doubtful powers by the government. It is, in my opinion, the danger of dangers to the future of this country. Let us be sure to keep it always within its limits. If this great, ambitious, ever growing corporation becomes oppressive, who shall check it? If it becomes too wayward, who shall control it? If it becomes unjust, who shall trust it?"

Indeed!

I am but a humble writer who believes deeply in freedom and liberty. A freedom and liberty for the individual. An individual freedom and liberty that is natural, as comes from nature, not from governments. A freedom and liberty that was envisioned by our Founding Fathers and codified into the law of man through our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. I believe that when governments, or groups of people attempt to stifle freedom and liberty, or remove man from them, man's progress through time is depressed and he retreats further backwards into depravity, immorality and serfdom. I believe that freedom and liberty are our strengths not our weakness and if we inhibit freedom by any means, we as a people become weaker. If we as a people become weaker, we lose our creative ability, we lose our ingenuity, we lose our industriousness, we lose our productivity, we lose our can-do spirit, we lose our pride in our accomplishments, we lose our strength and courage to right a wrong when we see it, we lose our generosity and finally, we lose our great goodness. I believe that if the people look to government to solve their problems and acquiesce to its unauthorized power, they abdicate their duty and responsibility to control their own lives and hand it over to a collective. Having done so, they are no longer free men. And further, their actions encourage the government to usurp even greater power.

But any government, even ours, no matter how all-encompassing are its constitutional safeguards for individual rights, will eventually, on the guise of making a more perfect society or protect us from ourselves, exert more and more control over the individual lives of its citizens, if those same citizens abdicate their right and duty to hold their government to within its constitutional limits. The increasing and pervasive nature of that control will arrive slowly, bit by bit, so that it is hardly noticeable. Each succeeding generation will succumb to wider and deeper restrictions on their freedoms and will lack the capacity or the will to resist in any meaningful way.

Perhaps the "Eye of the Universe" may not be watching what happens on planet Earth, but we know who is. The rest of the world, whether they admit it or not, is looking at America to fulfill its promise of freedom, liberty and goodness and show the way for all other peoples that our 230-year experiment in freedom is still alive and well and is the light and the beacon for all others to follow. They may say they hate us, but what they really mean is they envy us and would like to be like us, or have what we have. Unfortunately, the culture of most countries is so ingrained in tribalism or socialism, they cannot fathom ever reaching or touching where we have been and where we can still go. We can show them the way, unless we lose our heads and our goodness.

Daniel Webster admonished us 230 years ago with: "Miracles do not cluster. Hold on to the Constitution of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands -- what has happened once in six thousand years may never happen again. Hold on to your Constitution, for if the American Constitution shall fail there will be anarchy throughout the world."

You may not realize just how important are these words we speak. What America does will determine the fate of the world. If we forsake freedom, if we sell our sovereignty for expediency or a few pieces of silver, if we break the bonds of our Constitution, if we abdicate our right and duty to defend freedom for ourselves and future generations, we shall descend into the mediocrity, apathy and self loathing under which the rest of the world operates and will be pulled down to their level, never to rise again.

The few of us who truly care about America and freedom, cannot hold up its flag by ourselves. If you do not help us, we shall do as the Greek God Atlas did, when the world became too heavy. He just shrugged and threw the Earth into the void. We shall surely "shrug" if so few understand the gravity of our words, or if they do understand, lack the courage to join with us in the defense of freedom and goodness.

In the end, it will make no never mind to the Universe. The Universe contains the seeds of intelligent life, but it doesn't provide instructions on how that intelligent life will, or should behave. It's all up to us to get it right. But getting it right remains to be seen.

Ron Ewart, President
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS
P. O. Box 1031, Issaquah, WA  98027
425 222-4742 or 1 800 682-7848
(Fax No. 425 222-4743)
Website: www.narlo.org
Think about forming a NARLO affiliate in your state.

WE'RE REALLY COUNTING ON YOU TO HELP US CONTINUE THIS FIGHT.
 
To donate to NARLO, send us a check or money order by U. S. mail to:
 
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS (NARLO)
P. O. Box 1031, Issaquah, WA  98027
425 222-4742 or 1 800 682-7848
(Fax No. 425 222-4743)
E-mail: info@narlo.org
 
You are welcome to use the printable form on our website at: www.narlo.org/membershipapp.html.
Or to make a credit card donation to NARLO, visit our website at:
http://www.narlo.org/donate.html
 
 
DONATE AN ITEM:
 
You are also welcome to donate any article or item of value that is just sitting around taking up space,
that you don't need or want any more.  We accept computer or office equipment of any kind, old books,
coins and stamp collections, cameras and binoculars, saleable art, hand or electric tools,  stereos, tv's,
radios, amateur radio equipment, IPODS, cell phones, microwave ovens, old 33, 45 or 75 RPM
records, CD-ROM discs, antiques, small appliances, etc.
 
Send the item, UPS or Fed EX, pre-paid, to:  4451 308th Ave. S. E., Fall City, WA  98024.
 
or send it by U. S. Mail, pre-paid, to:  P. O. Box 813, Fall City, WA  98024.
 
Do you have a house, lot or land parcel that you aren't going to use or build on, anywhere in the
11 Western States.  Or a car, truck, boat, trailer, airplane, or an ORV, snowmobile or jet ski,
that is just sitting around.  We also willingly accept donated real estate or vehicles.

Good Neighbor Committee
P.O. Box 155 - La Salle, CO  80645
info@goodneighborlaw.com

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