Their Power Depends On Our Compliance
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
Ronald Reagan
Freedom. No other word in the English language more accurately summarizes the founding principles of our country. The Unite States of America was established on a bedrock of liberty and freedoms. The most important of these rights are not granted by our Constitution, but rather affirmed by it. These unalienable rights—including Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—were granted to us by our Creator. These are rights that all American citizens were born with. These rights can never be taken away, nor can they be given away.
However, we as Americans often forget just how precious our rights truly are. Nowhere else in the world are people as free as we are in America. Under the protection of the Constitution, American citizens are guaranteed the liberty, freedom, and security to live our lives as we see fit. Under our Constitution, we are not ruled by a government. Instead, we—as citizens—rule our government. At least, that is how it's supposed to work, in theory.
The Founding Fathers understood that liberty was difficult to obtain, even more difficult to maintain, and very easily lost if not safeguarded. The Founders knew that true liberty would require eternal vigilance. As time passed we lost sight of this responsibility. We traded vigilance for convenience. We allowed our government to seize more and more control over our daily lives. As a result, our government has become everything the Founders feared it would become.
Their Power Depends On Our Compliance
John Adams said, "But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty once lost is lost forever." He understood that once our freedom was gone we'd never get it back. If Americans became complacent in their eternal vigilance our liberty would be slowly replaced by authoritarian rule. And our government—once in control—will never return that control to the American people. This was Adams' fear, and this is our reality today.
As a country, we've lost many of the freedoms we once took for granted. And regardless of race, gender, political affiliation, or ideology, we—individually and collectively as a people—are all harmed by the loss. But this curtailing of our civil liberties didn't happen on it's own. It didn't come about by force. It happened because we, the people, allowed it to happen. We complied.
When WWII broke out, we were told that our neighbors of Japanese descent needed to be confined to internment camps for the safety of our country. We complied. When 9/11 occurred, we were told the Patriot Act was necessary to keep us safe. We complied. When the COVID outbreak occurred, we were told we were required to wear masks, subject ourselves to experimental vaccines, stay indoors, and shut down our businesses. Many of us complied.
In each of these instances, we complied with a measure that our government told us was necessary for our security. In each of these instances we surrendered a portion of our liberty for security. Each time, our government gained power that it was never intended to have. They gained this power not by force or coercion, but by simple compliance. Their power depends on our compliance.
"... moral courage of free men and women."
Each of us—each man, each woman—owe a debt. Not a monetary debt, but one of moral responsibility. This is a debt to free men and women of previous generations that had the courage to say "no." These men and women took a stand in the name of liberty and freedom for all Americans. In many cases, their actions came with a cost. For many, taking a stand cost them their lives.
The debt we owe to these individuals is a simple one: the liberty and freedom they helped to secure for us must, in turn, be secured and preserved by us for the next generation. As President Ronald Reagan said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."
As American citizens our rights are not conditional. They belong to each of us as individuals, and with limited exception, they can not be taken away. They can, however, be surrendered. If we make the conscious choice to allow our freedoms to be taken—to surrender them through compliance—we've surrendered not just our freedom, but the freedoms we are morally bound to protect for our children and grandchildren.
Today, the liberty and freedom of Americans is under assault like never before.