Tomorrow we celebrate Independence Day. It is the 233rd anniversary of our country's founding when we told the king of England that we were no longer interested in living under his oppressive thumb and decided it was time for us to create our own course, to determine our own destiny as a free people. Not only did our Founding Fathers throw off King George's shackles, but we also rejected the relative security that came from being a colony of England. We had to build our own government from nothing and make our own laws for a free people. Ultimately, we came up with the Constitution, a document filled with the radical idea that men's rights came from God and not man. It was a document of negative rights, which meant it enumerated what the government could not do to its citizens. It outlined the federal government's responsibilities to its citizens, and all those powers that were not explicitly outlined in the Constitution were left to the states. The Constitution was written with the monarchy's oppression fresh in the minds of our founders, so it deliberately created the leanest, least obtrusive government that could be devised, allowing the American people the greatest freedoms possible.
Since government interference into Americans' daily lives was kept to a minimum, independence and self reliance were principles that were valued not just because they were good character traits but because they were necessary for everyday life. These values, though, had been ingrained into the people who created and built our fledgling Republic, for they were the descendants of the brave men and women who sailed, cramped in wooden ships for months, from Britain to the New World to build the colonies. The new Americans had been handed down a hardiness and strong will to not just survive, but to thrive, which made them a bit different from their family members and friends who remained in the more established and comfortable world of Britain. They surmounted illnesses and bitterly cold winters without any of what we take for granted today. There were no government programs like welfare or food stamps or Medicare. There were no Wal-Marts or Costcos. Many people were farmers so they grew their own fruits and vegetables and raised cattle, dairy cows, and pigs to eat. They kept what they needed for themselves and then sold the rest to others in their communities. Many were skilled tradesman like carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors, gunsmiths, and wheelwrights. Rugged individualism and an independent spirit ran strong through the early Americans. Government interference was minimal so independence and freedom flourished.
It is a bit unnerving that 233 years later Americans will celebrate Independence Day with many of its citizens dependent on the government for their income or some kind of significant assistance. Sadly, much of the rugged individualism and independent spirit that were the foundation of our Republic have been slowly dying. According to a study by Gary Shilling and reported in the Christian Science Monitor, in 2007, only two years ago, 52.6 percent of the American people were receiving significant income from government spending. It breaks down this way:
Mr. Shilling's analysis found that about 1 in 5 Americans hold a government job or a job reliant on federal spending. A similar number receive Social Security or a government pension. About 19 million others get food stamps, 2 million get subsidized housing, and 5 million get education grants. For all these categories, Mr. Shilling counted dependents as well as the direct recipients of government income.
With the passage of President Obama's stimulus bill that funds Democrats' dream projects, the mortgage relief plan that bails out homeowners who were irresponsible and bought too much house, the president's budget that expands welfare spending, grows government, and included over 9000 earmarks, the government takeovers of Chrysler and General Motors, Obama's proposed health care reform plan that will make millions dependent on government-run health care, and a potential cap and trade plan that will create a monstrous new government bureaucracy, this statistic will only continue to sky rocket. Unfortunately, when government grows, freedom, self-reliance, and independence shrink more and more as new regulations and laws are enacted to limit and control the behavior of the individual.
Tomorrow, when we're celebrating Independence Day with friends and family, enjoying hot dogs and hamburgers, lighting sparklers, and oohing and aahing at fireworks, we should take the time to ask ourselves a question: what independence are we celebrating? Our Founding Fathers gave us gifts of freedom and liberty when they navigated a new and different course from Britain and signed the Declaration of Independence and ratified the Constitution. What are we doing with these gifts now? Some Americans have begun to wake up and realize that their freedoms are being whittled away so slowly that they never realized it and are attending Tea Parties all over the country to push back against the big government takeover of America. Unfortunately, many Americans remain in the denial of the co-dependent; even the Russian newspaper Pravda sees the frightening transformation that is taking place in what should be the land of the free:
The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.
Kim Priestap's Bio
Kim Priestap is a business owner, freelance writer, and contributing editor at Wizbangblog.com. Kim has been published in the Washington Examiner and Pajamas Media. She lives in northern Michigan with her husband, Steve, their three kids, and two dogs.
Posted
07-03-2009 12:05 AM
Link to this post: