by Bernie LaForest, Wisconsin Tenth Amendment Center
Have we forgotten our liberties as we trudge along in our daily lives as they are stripped away without notice? We wake up in the morning, throw on the coffee and grab something to eat before we start our day. Some read the paper and some do without because the reporting in them is pretty bad today. We go to work, put in our day in order to make a pay day and provide for ourselves and our families. After work, maybe a quick beer with coworkers or friends to talk about the latest sports news or maybe make plans for the weekend. We come home and see the family and ask the kids how school was today. We sit down to dinner and then relax before we get some sleep and start again tomorrow.Â
But what really happened? Were your liberties preserved or did something else happen that you are unaware of?  How can that happen, our founding fathers drafted a document in order to form a more perfect union. A union of states comprised of sovereign citizens. A more perfect union under our Constitution that guarantees our liberties. Sadly, our Constitution has been twisted, crumpled and stood on its head for a long time now. Where is it?Â
When I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, I used to drive up to Washington D.C. once or twice a year and spend time in the museums. But my favorite place was the National Archives. Walking into the majestic Rotunda  and staying inside that velvet rope as I walked along the display cases.  Ever vigilant guards on the lookout for trouble, there to protect those valuable documents. I always found it amazing as I approached and looked at the Declaration of Independence, The United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. There they are safe and sound. Under heavy glass and an environmentally controlled atmosphere. No climate change in there, no sir! Â
But are they safe?  No, they are not. They are not, because we have trusted others to protect them and forgotten the price for our liberties. We have forgotten that an eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Samuel Adams proclaimed in a letter to James Warren in 1775,
“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can
any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is
preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant,
and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own
weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”Â
We have been sinking under our own weight and ignoring events as our liberties have been stripped away from us like loggers clear cutting a mountainside. We surrender our property to bureaucrats who spend it wastefully or give it away. A government that has overstepped its bounds for way too long. They tell us how much money we owe them, what kind of car to drive, what kind of gas to buy, what to eat and drink. These are all liberties that we have watched freely as they have been stripped from us. Without so much as a fight in most cases we have allowed this to happen, much under our watch.Â
It does not take a constitutional scholar to understand the constitution. The powers of the government are enumerated and clearly defined. Some like to take a phrase or two out of the preamble or claim power because of a couple words found elsewhere. If the founding fathers intended for the “General Welfare” clause to grant the federal government powers to do whatever they wanted than why did they take the time to list the enumerated powers?
A number of prominent citizens were alarmed at the omission of individual liberties at the draft of the Constitution. George Mason and others refused to sign it. Thomas Jefferson, serving as the US Minister to France at the time, wrote to James Madison that he was concerned about “the omission of a bill of rights…..providing clearly……freedom of religion…..freedom of the press…..protection against standing armies and restriction against monopolies.”Â
George Washington, at his first inaugural address urged the Congress to propose amendments that offered “a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for public harmony.”   12 articles were proposed and articles 3-12 were ratified in 1791 and became the first ten amendments of our constitution.
So, is it too late? Have we failed as a society? No it is not. That is why the Tenth Amendment is important to each of us. It is not a left or right idea, not a republican or democrat idea. It is part of our Constitution and it is our duty as citizens to see that our state representatives perform that which they are “duty bound” to do. To protect the sovereign citizens of the state.Â
Resolved,
Reach out to your representatives, your coworkers and friends. This is our watch and our time to become vigilant, our time to bring our Constitution back from exile.
“In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution” – Thomas Jefferson
Bernie LaForest is the Outreach Director for the Wisconsin Tenth Amendment Center.
Nicely said!
Thank you, Mr. LaForest. Your words are inspirational, and echo my own sentiments. Our Founding Fathers did not delegate to Congress the power to restrict any part of our lives. The powers of Congress and the federal government are limited and enumerated for a reason.
It is good to know that I am not alone in my distaste for the usurpation of power that has occurred over the past 100 years. We are NOT a democracy. We are a Republic, and in being such, the federal government has no power over our personal choices and our unalienable rights. While I understand that many in government believe their actions are serving the better good, I must respectfully point out to them that what they believe to be good is of no relevance. Our Constitution grants each and every American the right to self-governance, and not only protection from the tyrannic desires of the "few," but also the forced oppression of the "majority."
I stand with anyone who stands for true liberty. It is time to reclaim our lives as our own. It is time to take responsibility for our actions, and tell the "powers that be" to leave us to our own success or demise.
Sincerely,
Sabrina Lodrick
Utah
Times change! I doubt the framers of the constitution envisioned giant corporations would achieve personhood, and through their deep pockets be allowed to impact every aspect of our lives. We the "real" people need to keep a balance and the federal government for better or worse is our instrument. The current financial mess was caused by corporate and personal greed, which exacerbated the massive government debt on all levels, federal, state, and local. So teachers and government employees are being asked to pay for the mess? Ridiculous!
I agree that corporations should not be granted personhood, but that certainly does not mean the answer is giving unions a positive right to be the only party negotiating with employers. It's also ridiculous to absolve those (unions) who have likewise contributed the mess by distorting the market with monopolies. Perhaps if these teachers had been doing there job and teaching students about true constitutionality, true federalism, what rights really are, as opposed to government granted privileges, how the federal reserve puts more power in the hands of corporations through the private control of fiat money, why the free market/competition is necessary (real economics), etc., etc. we wouldn't have this mess.
So absolve union teachers? Absurd.
David, as a history and government teacher, my nothing pains me more than the intelligence, foresight, and genius of our Founders being underestimated. The men who forged this nation were among the greatest minds of antiquity.
Thomas Jefferson stated, "I hope we shall take warning from the example of England and crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our Government to trial, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
He also said, "This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering… And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression."
While I cannot say with certainty that our Founding Fathers could or could not envision "giant corporations" achieving "personhood," I can say for certain that what we are seeing now is not new to the world. It is simply mutated. The early monopolies and monarchs with special holdings in companies, cutting special deals and taxing the people for their own end, was very real to them.
Our folly was that we did not heed the words of Jefferson more dearly. "The way to have safe government is not to trust it all to the one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to everyone exactly the functions in which he is competent….To let the National Government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations….. The State Governments with the Civil Rights, Laws, Police and administration of what concerns the State generally. The Counties with the local concerns, and each ward direct the interests within itself. It is by dividing and subdividing these Republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations until it ends in the administration of everyman's farm by himself, by placing under everyone what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best."
In my humble, personal opinion, I believe the Founding Fathers had a very clear vision of what corruption lay ahead. Madison wrote to a colleague about his dream of America being a Republic of 300 million freemen. They new how vast this continent was, and they knew that what they created was unique and would be targeted for destruction.
[...] From The Tenth Amendment Center http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/03/02/liberty-have-we-forgotten/ [...]
What is really destroying this country, is apathy! Much of the blame for this is the news media, including the conservative leaning Fox news. There are a few who talk about, Glen Beck most notably, is branded a wacko by the rank-and-file news.
I'm not sure whether I'm more afraid of the apathy, or what future might hold…. Are we headed for a "1984" society?
Who are the "home grown terrorists" that our "beloved" Department of Homeland Security talks about? Are they radical Muslims, or are they Americans who see a hopelessly broken tyrannical federal government?
Will the Federal government come down hard on the states like Utah, Montana & Arizona, or will other many other states join in this peaceful revolution? Unless many other states join this fight, I really don't see this ending well for our great country…. I really don't!
I also have begun to fear making posts like this… Are Big Brother, Or Big Sis watching? Will I hear a knock on my door sometimes soon??
[...] article by Bernie LaForest on TenthAmendmentCenter.com. …Â We have been sinking under our own weight and ignoring events as our liberties have been [...]