Take Back Our Country.

What does that mean?

During that last election we had those yard signs and they were popular, perhaps more so than any one candidate’s signs.  We didn't have enough.

What basic fire do those words ignite in so many people?

That answer is as varied as there are people who say it.

Just before I moved from Muskegon to Oceana County a Black lady I knew asked me “Take the Country back from who?”  I simply told her “not from you but from big government”.  I could tell that she couldn't quite wrap her mind around that idea.  The idea of the government as the problem and not the solution to the problem.  She I feared thought that I wanted to take the Country away from her.  I didn't

When most politicians are asked, “What can we do to combat the power of Big Government: our loss of Individual Freedom?” ; they simply shrug and say it’s too complicated and there is nothing they can do.

 

Taking this question down to the local level, it becomes what can we do to get the government back to its original role in the constitution and out of our lives?

Simple, Stand Up For Our Rights.

That Black Lady Understood that.  When I talked of our/her rights and fighting for them, we had common ground.  From there we began a real conversation.  We talked not about high and lofty things but upon the trouble and frustration we both saw in the over reach of government, no matter at what level.  That is how we connect with others, find what bugs them about government and talk with them about it.

We all need to step back and in a clear head look at the big picture and once we get that in mind base our individual actions upon that.  Goal setting is so important in any endeavor.

That goal is to create a limited government whose main purpose is to help individuals achieve their goals.  This government needs to have a bureaucracy albeit smaller that is there to help individuals not hinder them.  To only be called upon for suggestions to help an individual, not to arbitrarily decide and demand through the threat of force what an individual may or may not do.  We as individuals need to learn to take care of more of our own problems and demand that the government stop interfering with our efforts to do that.

To stop this increasing loss of our freedoms we need to stand up for those freedoms where ever and whenever they are demeaned by government restraint.  We need to fight for our right to take care of ourselves and demand the government leave us alone. For too long we have forsaken our duty as responsible citizens.   It is time to put our foot down and demand from our legislators (our representatives) that they put back and mend the fences that used to confine the government.  It is time that we demand of ourselves the time and effort it takes to do in our daily lives what we can to keep government accountable to us and not themselves.

This takes constant work and takes up time.  We need to start at the local level and go to our township/city/village/school board meetings.  No one can go to them all but if we go to one a month we will find the one that is the best fit for us then specialize in it.  Perhaps at some point become one of its members.

The more we interact with bureaucracy the better we can understand it.

But be careful to not become that which you wish to change.

But beyond that, we need to start talking with the local leaders in the professions.  They have earned a position of responsibility within our community.  We need to remind them.  Talk with a lawyer about the rule of law.  Ask him/her the difference between administrative law and judicial law, then ask why the two are different?  Why shouldn’t there be a check and balance on the bureaucracy by the judicial system?  Always ask them what we can do about it.  Keep them thinking.

Talk to doctors about the Affordable Care Act and its effect upon them.  Again ask them what can be done about it?

Talk with others; the Pizza shop owner, the barber, the auto parts store manager, the farmer big and small.  Ask them about the over burdensome regulations upon them, under which they have to try to make a living, and whether they could do a better job without them?  Time to get these leaders thinking that change in regulations is necessary and most important that there is public support (you) for that idea.  Remind them to talk with their other professionals and then their legislators and support the idea of getting rid of regulations.

Self-Governance means me and you.

Even though it requires a lot of work especially to start, think of the rewards in the long run for ourselves and our children that a freer less regulated system can provide.

Joel Salatin in the introduction to his book “Everything I Want To Do is Illegal” he asks the following question.  “If a little girl wants to make cornbread muffins and sell them to families in her church, why should the first question be “but is it legal?”. “As a culture, we should praise such self-motivated entrepreneurism.  We should be presenting her with awards and writing stories about her creativity.”  Notice the “We” in the quote.  That means you and me.

If we are to live in a free country, we need to make it free.  If we are to live in a country ruled by reason and the Rule of Law where everybody has equal rights and freedom from the arbitrary decisions of government upon those freedoms, we have to continually earn it.  We have to work at it, in short; it is You and I that have to  ---

Take Back Our Country.