Defend and Protect

                    The topic of discussion for this Freedom Friday is the need to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States.  The brilliance of the Framers of our glorious Constitution was once obvious to one and all, and Americans have been blessed with liberty for more than 235 years under this Supreme Law.  It is well past time, however, we admit to ourselves and to each other that the Constitution is slowly but surely being changed - legally and illegally.  The fact is that our nation is undergoing a fundamental change, and we are losing freedoms and liberty.

                    When General George Washington and his army of volunteer soldiers were discouraged about their lack of victory over Great Britain, Thomas Paine appeared in camp one night carrying an article he had written about the war.  His words were read to the troops and greatly encouraged them; they were also printed and distributed.  "These are the times that try men's souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.  Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph" (The Crisis, December 1776).

                    We must not be "summer soldiers" or "sunshine patriots."  The 2012 presidential election is over, and Barack Obama has been declared the winner.  We had the opportunity to fire him, but we were sabotaged by the mainstream media as well as countrymen who desire stuff over liberty.  Our nation is now in deep, deep trouble because our leaders lie to us and seek to cover up their corruption.  We can only hope that we have enough good men and women in Congress to bring this corruption to an end!

Patrick Henry felt very strongly about liberty when he made his famous statement:  "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?  Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

How many Americans alive today consider liberty to be more important than life itself?  Our nation is moving towards the same conditions that caused the colonists to declare war on their mother country, Great Britain.  We are in much the same situation as the colonists were - without the Atlantic Ocean between us and a tyrannical government.  Today we are much better armed, but our government is much more desperate to control us.  There are many patriots in our midst who have sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from threats both within the nation and outside our borders.  There is a movement going on right before our eyes to discredit our greatest military leaders.  General David Petraeus has been forced to resign from his former post of CIA Director because of an extra-marital affair.  General John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, is now under the gun for "inappropriate communications" with a woman.  General Carter Ham, commander of our forces in Africa (AFRICOM), is apparently being forced into early retirement for attempting to rescue Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya.  How many other generals and other flag officers are being discredited in an effort to control our military.

Much has been said about our Constitution being in danger.  The Prophet Joseph Smith indicated that the Constitution would be in so much danger that it would "hang by a thread."  The folks at The Heritage Foundation recently stated that the Constitution is now "on life support."  President Ezra Taft Benson said that "the federal government is trying to destroy [the Constitution] but at last it will be saved but not in Washington."  He said that blood may have to be shed before we save the Constitution.

                    Douglas Mayer wrote the following "last will and testament" for the Constitution as a comment to an article entitled "Obama Win Is Constitution's Loss" by Nat Hentoff.

"Fellow Countrymen,

                    "The following will serve as my last will and testament.  I am dying.  It will not be long now until I am gone.  No doctor or politician has the ability to fix what is wrong with me.  I leave to you nothing that I have not given already.

                    "I have given to you freedom yet you have chosen slavery.  I have given to you liberty yet you have chosen tyranny.  I have given you the ability to choose your own leaders and you have allowed the system to be high jacked leaving you no real choice.  My passing is a direct consequence of your actions.

                    "I have given you freedom, the freedom to choose the things that are best for you and your family.  I have given you the freedom to worship as you please, the freedom to speak what you believe, to write what you see fit, to gather as you'd like and to speak up to any powers that would prohibit the above.  The freedom to defend yourself and those you love against any and all who would seek to cause you harm, regardless of their position.  I have given to you the freedom to peaceably live in your home without it being invaded by government officials either physically or through the means of technology.  I have given you the right to due process of the law, a right dating back to the Magna Carta, and the right to be judged by your peers.  Most importantly I have given you the freedom to self-govern in whichever locality you choose to live.

                    "In spite of these freedoms you have chosen slavery.  Not slavery in the sense of chains and cages but a type much more nefarious.  You have surrendered your ability to think for yourself and speak what you believe for you know not what it is that you believe in.  You believe what you are told to believe and you think what has already been thought for you.  You have surrendered your ability to defend yourselves because you believe that someone else can protect you.  You have surrendered your ability to live peacefully in your own homes.  Fear has caused you to openly welcome your would be protectors whenever they see fit to stop by.  This same fear has led you to believe that you are safe while others simply disappear, taken by a government that has your best interest at heart.  These protectors do not care for your survival.  They demand your loyalty.  That is not freedom; it is slavery and the most dangerous cage is that which you refuse to see.

                    "I have given you liberty yet under the guise of equality you have chosen tyranny.  You have the liberty to succeed or fail based on your own merit.  Liberty is the ability to pursue your own happiness.  If you fail to catch it, you should try harder.  Instead you choose to alter your definition of happiness and believe that those who have worked to catch theirs should supplement yours.  You are not strong enough to succeed on your own so you choose leaders who promise to take from those who have. When the takers have taken too much and the givers have no more to give, there will be bloodshed in the streets.  Then you will know tyranny for you will no longer be useful to the tyrants who actively sought your allegiance.  When you finally meet tyranny you will know misery and it will be too late.

                    I have given you principles yet you choose to ignore them.  I have given you the resources to feed and warm hundreds of millions yet you choose to scoff at them.  These are all choices that you have made, but you have been lied to.  You have been led to believe that there are only two choices when in reality you have been able to choose whatever and whoever you desire all along.  The answer is not red or blue.  The direction is not left or right.  The answer is not forward or backward.  The answer is liberty, and it can still be yours.  I am over 200 years old but I do not have to die.  I am an idea, and ideas can live forever.  They simply must be rediscovered.

Yours truly,

The Constitution of the United States of America

                   

                    Our Constitution has been under attack by communists by more than fifty years.  Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev said in 1959:  "We cannot expect Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have communism."

                    Khrushchev also said, "You Americans are so gullible.  No, you won't accept communism outright.  But we'll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you finally wake up and find you already have communism.  We won't have to fight you; we'll so weaken your economy until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands."

                    Now our Constitution is under attack by those who desire to institute the laws of Sharia in place of constitutional principles.  Our answer to defending the Constitution from both socialism/communism and Islamic laws is to return to constitutional principles.  Our educational system has been moving towards socialism for many years as shown by the fact that a big majority of young adults between ages 18 and 30 supported Barack Obama and his tendency towards socialism. 

                    We brought ourselves to this point.  We elected and sent officials to Washington and then left them without enough supervision.  We sent our children to school and trusted their young intellects to teachers who corrupt their thinking.  We trusted their young hearts and minds to others rather than taking the time and making the effort to teach them ourselves. 

In order to defend and support the Constitution, we must wake up and do our duty.  We must do everything we can to make sure our elected officials keep their oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution.  We must teach the rising generation that America is still the greatest nation on earth because it is built upon a divinely inspired Constitution.  We must teach them that America is the last great hope of the entire world.  We must make sure that they know the true history of the United States, something that they are not getting in many of our schools.  We must teach them that their liberty and happiness depends on their defense of the Constitution.  We must teach patriotism to the rising generation.

                   

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