Has Anyone Seen My Freedom
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 at 10:33AM We claim to be the Land of the Free, our state Motto is Live Free or Die, but I have to ask am I free?
This weekend I cut up some wood and lit a small fire in a contained outdoor fire place. After a short time a fireman pulled up and insisted I put it out since I did not get the government's permission. Inquiring further I found that I even need their permit to burn in my little $20 chiminea that I picked up from the Christmas Tree Shop. It's so small I can hardly fit any sticks longer then 6 inches into it. Yet in order to use it I need to have the fire department come to my house and inspect it then I must pay them a fee so they'll issue me permission to use my own chiminea on my own property burning my own bits of wood.
Someone I was talking to online has a dog which was recently taken to a vet. The private vet was required by law to turn that person in to the government because they did not have permission from the government in the form of a licence to own that dog. Ironically if they refuse to pay the fee to the government to allow them permission to keep their dog the government will take that dog away and put it to death for lack of being able to find it a loving home as they do with countless other animals year after year.
Another person I know saved their money wisely. They worked very hard to manage to come up with enough money to fix up their home a bit. Before being able to even work on their home their first needed to apply for permission from the government. In some cases the government refuses to give permission to people to make changes to their own homes. But in this case they were permitted but once completing the improvements they were penalized by the government for improving their home, while their income never changed and they were still the same people they were before investing in their home they were punished my having to come up with more annually in property taxes.
Recently I flew to another state. Before even entering the waiting area of the airport I was required to show my papers, submit to dehumanizing searches which even required me to remove portions of my clothing. I even had to have my person property searched. And I pay a fee for the privilege of what I was required to go through.
I am required to report back to the government annually on how much I made that year, I must show my papers in which I had been given their permission to operate my own car (which I also must register with the government), I must supply my government issued ID number when I start a job (who are also required to report back on various things). And if we refuse to report, pay or submit to inspection by the government agents we are fined more or in some cases tossed in jail.
30 to 50 percent of my pay is taken from my against my will to in many cases fund programs I object to and that I can find no mention of within the duties of the federal government covered under Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution.
We cheer restrictions placed upon local businesses telling them what legal activities are permitted within their doors. We make it a crime for people to choose what they wish to put in their bodies or what level of safety they choose to subject themselves to. We require permission to do things on or with our own property. We disallow two consenting adults to strike financial agreements for services or in games. We think of it as a victory if government extends permission to couples to determine what they wish to call themselves when instead it should be left up to whatever religious institution they partake in and government should have nothing to do with it.
We subject ourselves to all of this and yet we still think we are free.
Webster's dictionary defines free as:
enjoying political independence or freedom from outside domination
And
enjoying personal freedom : not subject to the control or domination of another
I therefore submit we have long ago stopped being a free country and therefore we should either seek to change this or submit to calling ourselves the Land of the Dominated and perhaps even change our state motto to say Live Dominated or Die because we are NOT free, we are not even free to do what we want on our own property or with our own bodies.
Reader Comments (12)
You are such a victim.
In other words, they love the shackles, they welcome the chains.
I do however, see a very simple solution to this problem, well, two really but only one ideal solution.
Citizen participation in the government. Or revolution, but that of course is a last resort.
Citizens in NH have a unique degree of representation. If the majority of individuals are silent and choose not to utilize their representation where they should be vocal, this is the silent acquiescence of tyranny. If you are witness to a murder and you do not speak out, you are an accomplice to the execution of that crime. Same for the murder of liberty. We are none innocent victims of government.
I believe government is what we allow it to become. We have allowed it to become a type II supernovae, the type that consumes all of it's fuel and then explodes.
The question is, can we slow down the frenzied, voracious consumption of fuel (freedom)in order to salvage enough, to sustain our little galaxy?
As always, good post. I have a question. Has there ever been a time in our country's history where a legislature has NOT passed MORE laws than the previous one. You hear all this talk about "partian politics" and disagreement and how "nothing is getting done". The press is infuriated by this and see it as a problem. They obviously have no clue about the history of our country. Our founding fathers knew that the government would grow and abuse its power, which has happened, and thus they built a system which was supposed to be inherently "conservative" meaning that things would happen very, very slowly. I say long live the log jams and disagreement. The more the politicians argue, the less damage the government does by getting involved in our lives.
The whole dog lisence thing really pisses me off. I know its only $6 but why should i have to pay that? What does the State do for me? If someone's dog gets loose and has to be cuaght or destroyed, send them the bill. Don't ask me to pay beforehand. People with dogs without rabies shots aren't going to the vet anyway, so this mandatory reporting to the state is bogus. It is nothing more than a revenue source.
Nate, that's an interesting question. I would say yes, this happens in times of gridlock when both parties are in equal hold of the government and neither is willing to give into the other side.
I would love to see a chart showing how many new laws were passed each year and how many were repealed each year. I'll do a little homework and see if I can find it. I found a great statistical website that I was going to write about that shows everything from school spending by state, murders per state right down to things like men vs women rations by state and even number of rollacosters by state.
I've also often wondered why gridlock is looked at as a bad thing.
So if I am unwilling to accept the continual loss of freedom in this country and reject the police state taking over my life then I'm a victim? Ok I will accept that. I would much prefer to be an unwilling victim then a sheep willingly lead to slaughter.
Re: Suzanne's comment about lack of citizen participation and ambivalence.
And to top it off the $6 fee goes the the general fund.
I know that you have done a lot more than just complain and I applaud you for it.
But the victimhood thing never ends with some people. It's become an obsession (hobby ?) to identify every little bump in the road and puff it up into some sort of slavery.
I mean, is it so hard to get a burn permit like everybody else does?
A lot of people have come to NH with that me me me me me attitude. It just sounds whiney to me.
Selfish too I'm afraid.
As I asked under my own post Richard which country should we emulate.
Is there any place on Earth that would make you happy?
Ever hear the old saying think globally, act locally? I agree with you guys that there are a number of violations against our rights being done at the federal level and it out right stinks but we have far less control there then we do when acting out against our local governments. And if we can sow the seed of freedom on the local level and begin turning things back in the right direction here, hopefully that seed will grow big enough of a movement that we may be able to get the federal government to stop taking away our freedoms as well.
Unfortunately there are people like you guys who cheer every step of the way if your party is the one doing the taking. When are you going to wake up to the fact it doesn't matter which party you belong to, they both are guilty and both deserve chastising when they go wrong?