“Give me liberty or give me death!” Thomas Paine
We have all heard the quote that titles this piece. Some of us may have spoken it and in some sense, we meant it. But what exactly does it mean and what made it a symbol of our country’s history? In today’s world this is a group of words that form a sentence. Most of us acknowledge that it has some importance in our history, but not many of us really relate to it being a declaration from a large majority of The New World, from the 1700′s into the 1800′s. It is what has allowed us to have what we think we have today.
Today, I am focusing on how these liberties we all think we have are an illusion. What we have today is very similar to what our ancestors had in the mid 1700′s. I feel that we are actually worse off than they were, but I will get to that shortly. What we think we have are rights we ought to have. But what began as sneaking infringements in here and there has rapidly increased to an almost weekly event. Rights you think you still possess have been taken. Unless you are following the congress and senate session you have no idea, until after the votes are cast. Even after the votes most people have no idea that a new law has passed. The government doesn’t announce these loud and proud and they most certainly do not campaign on them. The mainstream media very rarely reports them, and even when they do, it is never really a major news story. It’s kind of like the brief mention of your local church’s potluck dinner, no real story is told. I am going to tell that story and I encourage you to take time to research yourself. Until we all start being informed and caring about what is being voted on, and why they are voting on it to begin with, we can do nothing effective to change it. I know that reading bills can be boring and mundane, but maybe that is their point. Make it so boring and long that “We the People” will not care to pay attention. That allows them to basically do what they want. If we were paying attention there is absolutely no way we would be where we are today!
In the early to mid 1700′s, America was still very much under the reign of the British Crown. As the King and his Parliament bombarded America with laws and taxes and oppressive control, the people began to question the validity of a government with unlimited power. The King said they were committing high treason. So are the people who gave us this nation guilty of treason in your eyes? I want to lay out the laws that led to the turmoil. I will also lay out the way things changed and what they became. Then I will lay out what happened since those great documents that made us the United States of America were written. Then we can decide if liberty, as defined and as paid for with the blood of our founders, is still alive today.
Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for R3publicans
Illustrator and cartoonist Vic Lockman on the web! Kings and Queens of the Jury and more available to order via his website.
