To the editor:
The "Bill of Rights" expressed our Founding Fathers' solutions to the inevitable restrictions and control that all governments have put on their citizens so that they can control them and remain in power.
Government is like a beast that, once loosed from its cage, devours all before it. The restrictions placed on the federal government recognized that the beast must stay in its cage if the people are to remain free. If people are not vigilant they can easily lose these freedoms. Any government seeking to control a people must remove all possible resistance even if it be the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. There are three rights that have been under attack for decades by those seeking to enslave us in the name of social justice and safety. If any leg of a three legged stool -rights - is removed, it falls to the floor.
First leg: Amendment I (1):
"Freedom of religion, speech, and the press; rights of assembly and petition. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Tyrants, despots, dictators, kings, rulers and even presidents all would want to stifle or eliminate the free speech and assembly of its citizens to maintain control. What better way to control the people if they cannot meet nor express their views in public. Obama's attack on free speech and freedom of conscience in religious matters is an affront to all Americans.
"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face."
Second leg: Amendment II (2): Right to bear arms
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Should a people exercise their first amendment rights (and any other right) and the government wants to repress the free exercise thereof, it makes only common sense that a government must remove the peoples' means to resist. An unarmed citizenry is helpless to resist the will of the government. The framers knew this only too well.
Self defense is a basic human right, whether it be as an individual or a country. Yet, there are those in government who blame the victim rather than the criminal. The fact reminds that if the law abiding citizens of this country have no means to protect themselves, only the criminals and the government will have the guns. Both entities have the same thing in mind. Rendering you defenseless.
In his own words:
"I just want you to know that we are working on (gun control). We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar," President Obama told Sarah Brady, the former president of the Brady Campaign. - Barak Obama to Sarah Brady regarding gun control. Jason Horowitz, Washington Post, April 11th, 2011
"I don't believe that people should be able to own guns." - Barak Obama, as quoted to John R. Lott Jr., PhD, while both were working at the University of Chicago Law School in 1996. From the book "Debacle" by Grover G. Norquist and John R Lott Jr., John Wiley & Sons Inc.: Publisher
Obama refers to whomever believes in the second amendment and religious freedom as those "bitter" Americans who "cling to their guns, cling to their religion" during the 2008 campaign. Need I say more?
Third leg: Amendment X (10): Powers retained by the states and the people
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
This places severe restrictions on the power of the federal government. The states, or the people retain all other powers. Over the years we as a people have allowed the "government" to usurp powers it was never granted under the Constitution. We alone bear the ultimate responsibility for allowing this to happen and we and our children will bear the ultimate consequences.
I am somewhat dismayed that there is so little understanding of this concept. Even the so called educated elite among us seem to have little discernment as to the meaning.
Right before our eyes the government is in the process of taking even more freedoms from us. The election of Obama as president opened the door for all those who would control us.
President Obama with his programs and policies is ignoring the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He believes that he can bypass all the restrictions placed on him including Congress itself. If reelected he will accelerate his attempts to remove the rights we have as stated in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
In his own words:
"It's time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent." -Remarks of President Barack Obama, Weekly Address, April 25, 2009
Clyde Bailey
Lewistown
