Are We All Gerbils In A Gilded Cage?

I don’t even know where to begin this blog without inciting widespread fear, or infuriating my reader friends, so I’m just going to spit it. Folks, we just might be screwed.  We are losing our minds and our freedom and our kids!  Every single day there is something in the news that makes smart people go hmmmm.  Today it’s the 7 kids taken from their home because their dad uses some mineral supplement and yesterday it’s the news that tobogganing is being banned all across North America due to it’s dangerous nature. These insane things aren’t supposed to happen here, not in the US the land of the free and the brave.  But, we are giving up our freedom and are seriously lacking in the brave, think Michael Moore and Seth Rogen.  Is this who we aspire to these days?  A bunch of fat sweaty men?  Come on, we are so much better than that!!

But today, because of restrictions on freedom, we are passing nothing of value to our children, no trade, no skills, no religion, no knowledge … nothing. We turn them over to the schools and wash our hands of their education.  We allow ourselves to be shamed into mediocrity and then cry foul when we “feel judged” for our mediocrity.  This must end.  We must take control of our own lives and do the best we can with what we’ve been blessed.  We must be strong and brave and full of fight for that which we hold dear … our families, our faith, and our freedom.

Relinquishing any amount of freedom for any amount of security is foolish.  Freedom is life.  It’s a very slippery slope when you start bartering with your liberty.   Our freedom is God-given, any power over ourselves that another may possess is relinquished by us.  Our constitution is in existence to protect our freedoms, to defend our freedom, not threaten it.

Ben Franklin is credited with the following quote, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  Sadly, I think we are proving we are undeserving.

We are now in a very precarious situation in this country.

We’ve become a nation that distrusts our own ability to think, to do and be right.  We’ve become so distrustful of ourselves and others that we believe we need the government to step into our homes, our schools and even our businesses and “help”.

What’s worse is that we are turning on each other.  We find fault with everything our neighbors do and, if it’s not in line with how we do things,  we demand that they cease and desist. Such an ego trip people are on.  They go through great anonymous lengths to make sure everyone is living the way they want them to … by involving law enforcement, the courts and the government.  It’s sad, if you disagree with someone’s life choices or their religion or their parenting or the way they landscape their yard, it’s become perfectly legit to place an anonymous call into the powers that be and “report” your neighbor.

Our freedom of religion seems to be taking the biggest hit.  A few news stories come to mind to exemplify this point. First, the now repealed Virginia School Board Policy that intended to bring homeschool kids, minors, 14 -18 in to defend their religious beliefs!  The other is the bizarre story of the homeschooling, Christian, prepper family whose 7 children were interrogated, medically evaluated and then removed from their home presumably because dad had some legal mineral supplement.  Bizarre as hell.

I would think ALL people across the country would be revolting at these two obvious over-reaches of power.  But they aren’t.  I mean most people are, but there are some that agree with government intervention in these two instances because they believe teaching your children religion is akin to being a member of a cult (I have a direct quote, and many supporting quotes) to that effect from someone I associate with, so I’m not grasping at straws here)!  Either that or they are so simple minded that they don’t ever think anything like this could happen to them, so they sit idly by as the liberties of other Americans are violated.  Just wait, you slimy cowards, just wait, until you are targeted.

Let’s discuss how the long arm of the law could come to you, you pillars of society.  Did you know, that tobogganing has been deemed illegal in  many cities because of its dangers. What if authorities sweep in and close down skiers’ access to the backcountry?  Or ban the public from using the rivers?  Or ban free climbing or canyoneering? What then? What if your kids are running around outside without shoes and you are reported for neglect?  THAT, would never happen, right?  Guess you are not aware that that’s what brought the cops to the door of the above family.   I’m telling you that you cannot allow your neighbors liberties to be violated simply because you have biases or differing opinions and not expect that some day, very soon, your freedoms will be taken as well.

The types of people who tsk tsk and permit these governmental power plays are an abomination, an affront to everything this country stands for.  They deserve neither freedom, nor security.  My freedom to practice my religion and pass on my beliefs, that I consider vital for the preservation of my children’s soul, is granted to me by God.  It is reiterated in the Bill of Rights.    Despite the desire of others, there is no protection from religion.  Certainly not by God and certainly not in any of our founding documents. But it has been invented in order to circumvent the liberties of the religious.  To justify obliterating parental control,  to limit educational choices, to drag children before a tribunal to defend their beliefs, to make everyone a square peg, but mostly to propel the agenda of a pro-government, anti-freedom coup.

I would think we would expect nothing less from parents than for them to pass on their beliefs, their traditions, their culture, their knowledge, whether it’s environmentalism, organic eating, satanism, tolerance, atheism or Catholicism … it’s none of our business!  If you are waiting for your child to somehow, via osmosis maybe, learn your values, your beliefs, let me tell you, it’ll never happen!  I have a plethora of friends who learned nothing from their parents and have been floundering around in this life trying to figure it all out for themselves.  You must take an active roll in educating your kids, you are their primary teachers, school is secondary.

But our upside down society doesn’t see things that way.  They want to force their way of doing things on all of us. It’s a form of slavery … it is!

“Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.” – William Lloyd Garrison

It’s like we are all gerbils.  We have a safe cage, aesthetic living spaces, good smelling cedar chips, a filled water bottle and some cool tunnels and a spinning wheel.  We are free to sleep, eat, urinate, play and drink whenever we want, but we must stay in this cage because the world outside is a dangerous place and we don’t have what it takes to survive.  That gerbil has the semblance of freedom, but is that real freedom?  Can that gerbil fail?  Can that gerbil excel?  Is that gerbil free?  Of course not, but he’s content because nothing is threatening to eat him and he just doesn’t know any better.

Are you a gerbil?  Or are you a defender of truth and freedom?  You either fight to protect everyone’s freedom or you are no better than the gerbil.  You can’t have it both ways.