A Dream of the Past

November 12, 2008
by Kat Kanning

Commentary on the United States Flag Burning in Central Square, Keene, NH

I have to admit that I was somewhat ambivalent about this event. This was not out of some hidden reverence for the symbol of the US, but because I knew I was "gonna get it" from my mom over this one. My mother, she doesn't like the current US government any more than the Freestaters do, but she does love the principles this country was founded on - a country that respects the God-given rights of the people, with its government severely limited by the Constitution.

This country became a great place because, for a period of time, the government mostly left people alone. When the fetters were removed, the little guy was free to produce, to create, to make a good life for himself and his family. And that's just what a lot of little guys did with their freedom, making this the most prosperous nation in history. It was a beautiful thing.

It is gone now.

It was inevitable that freedom should gradually disappear. The people who fought for freedom in the US appreciated it. Their children and grandchildren grew progressively more comfortable. They forgot what a danger government can be. Slowly those freedoms dissolved away, like the wearing away of rock in a riverbed. People relied on government to protect "our freedom", when really, it was something each of us needed to look after for ourselves.

Now we've come to this, the United States of today. The government involves itself in every aspect of our lives. No more is the little guy free to produce. He is fettered with regulations, licenses, red tape a mile long. Now, instead of making a better life for him and his family, he stands on a welfare line.

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The United States of today in no way respects the rights of people - free speech has been replaced by "free speech zones", freedom from outrageous searches have been replaced by TSA lines and no-knock warrants. Rights to a speedy trial are laughed at by officials at Guantanamo Bay, where torturing prisoners is endorsed by the President himself.

Limits on taxation have been replaced by a system that takes nigh upon 50% of all we earn. The government fetters laid down by the Constitution have largely been cut, leaving government free to trample the people.

The idyllic country that my mother holds dear is a dream of the past. It could be created again, but with the same result - the gradual wearing away of freedoms. So is the human race doomed to a perpetual cycle of revolution-freedom-slavery? I believe as long as we hand over the responsibility to protect our freedom to someone else, we will have tyranny.

As long as we pretend that it's OK for government to commit aggression in our name, we will have tyranny. As long as it's OK for one government to initiate violence, we will have tyranny. And since government by its very definition is force and violence, as long as we have government, we will have tyranny.