You are not free if you don't know your neighbor

Did you know that true freedom begins in your neighborhood? Well it does. Think about it. Back in the day, we all knew our neighbors. We played as kids in large groups. We filled the streets with laughter and delight.

Our parents knew the parents of our friends. In fact we often had block parties and cook outs. Sometimes, if we lived close to one of the coast, we would pile in a car or two and head to the beach.

The winter months were filled with warm gatherings. Holidays were shared with the neighbors as well as family. We knew when one of our friends was in trouble. We talked to each other about what troubled us and we gave the simple advise we had to offer.

We looked out for others property when they went on vacation and they looked out for ours. Crime was pretty low back in those days. When a crime happened to one of us it was like it happened to all of us.

When there was a death in the family, the neighbors rallied and helped where, when and how they could to ease the pain of losing the one we loved. When we were inured it was our neighbors who came to our aid. They cooked for us. They offered small donations of clothing and even money to help us wade through the most difficult of times.

Today, we live behind high fences and over scaled homes. We have alarm systems that watch our property night and day because we don't know our neighbors at all let alone enough to ask them to keep an eye on our place in our absence.

We live in gated communities. We drive for hours to work and back again. Often many of us don't even see our homes in daylight during half the year because we leave before the sun comes up and we don't get back home until the sun has set.

We barely see our own kids let alone have time for the guy who lives next door. Crime has risen because we don't know who lives next door or across the street. We don't know when someone has a run in with a criminal.

When we find out, instead of going to that neighbors aid, we instead add another lock to our doors and barricade ourselves inside. We build our fences higher and higher. In fact we are so into our own security that some of the fastest growing businesses in this country have to do with fences and home security.

Is it any wonder when something happens one of the first things we do is ask a politician for help? Is it any wonder then that the politician offers nothing but a new law? Is it any wonder that when financial disaster happens it is the politician that now offers some kind of hope with another law?

I say that if we go back to the day when we knew our neighbor we would have a lot less need for the politician and their new laws which only serve to strip each and every one of us of liberty and freedom. And when we lose some freedom and liberty we lose a small part of our ability to provide for and take care of our own which in turn begs to add more laws on top of the already repressive ones we already have.

Get out this summer and get to know your neighbors. Know the kids in the area. Know the parents. Know the pets. Know the homes. Know what they do for a living. Watch over their property when they are away and they will watch over yours. When one is in trouble you all should come together to help in some small way.

Liberty and Freedom are not just personal concepts. They are community concepts. Concepts like these can only be practiced in public. You cannot hide in your home large or small and expect to remain free and safe. It does not happen that way. In fact history has proven just the opposite.

Get out and know those who live with you, around you.

When you are in trouble, your friends and neighbors will know and will come to your aid. Even if you trouble is financial and you are in trouble of losing your home, you will be surprised to find out what your friends and neighbors can do for you and with you.

The old saying it is not what you know but who you know that really counts. You never know who your neighbor knows. They may, and probably do, know someone who could help you out or help you through. But if you say barricaded up in your home you will never know.

You will be one of those crying for new laws to protect you which in turn entrap you. Freedom is in the getting out. See the greater picture here. Lock yourself behind your front door and you limit your freedom. Open your door and you gain freedom.

How beautiful and free a neighborhood can be.

Stop. Think. Vote!

Have we lost our way?

We have spent countless hours in America arguing about this and that in the political spectrum. It has been for the most part, a healthy discussion on what each of us believes. Or has it?

What I have noticed is that there are so many people who believe that the government should be taking care of us from the womb to the tomb. They also believe that the government should not be involved in war no matter what happens yet they will not accept the notion that an unborn child is still a child that has the right to at least be born.

They talk about a womans right to chose what to do with her body but want the government to tell us what to do in just about every other aspect of our life.

Don't get me wrong, the right side of the political isle hasn't been too much better than the left. They often demand that (and I am a Christian Reverend so take that into consideration) Christianity be the national religion. This when Christ Himself said He would force no man to come unto Him. The Christian Right often degrades into hateful groups that denigrate others when they know Christ would have had no part in what they are doing. Don't believe me, then read the bible again and tell me where Christ would have said it was OK to people names and spew hate and vile at them.

As a nation I believe we have lost our way. And it is not all the fault of politicians. We, the people are to blame. Many of us have never read the Constitution let alone know what it really says. (Some polls have said as many as 70% of Americans believe the statement "Separation of Church and State" is IN the Constitution...it is NOT)

The Constitution simply put says that you are the master of your own life, not the government. It is governments job to keep order and to protect you from dangers outside our borders so that you may live to create the life you want within our borders. The Founding Fathers were clear on their intent. You, American man and woman, have the God given right to live your life in freedom and peace free from government interference.

Sadly so many of you want government to be in your car, living room, office and bedroom. You want the government to take care of your kids and your health. You want the government to tell you and your neighbor how to get along instead of talking to each other to find a common ground.

This does not mean we cannot find our way back. We still have a chance. We can embrace true freedom again. We can take responsibility for our lives again. We can vote for those people who believe that the American people are the best judge of how to live their own lives.

We have so much opportunity in our land. This is why so many others in the world risk so much to get here. They see and understand the opportunity we have. They know that if they could only get here that their lives would be so much more enriched. They are willing to risk it all. Some die trying to get here because that is how much our nation means to them.

Yet we who are born here tend to dump on it and demand that the government take care of us. It is sad indeed when someone born outside of our borders has a greater chance of becoming a millionaire here than the person who is born here.

The immigrant has not lost their way. They understand what America stands for and means far better than many of us who are native. The immigrant has not lost their way. We can look to their ambitions, their dreams to shine light on our own. We have hope in ourselves not in government. No one man or party can bring you hope. You bring hope into your life by your actions not by what someone else can do for you.

Yes, we have lost our way, but we are not lost. We can still see the right path if we would only have the guts to put our feet back on that path.

We must become a nation of leaders again. We need to drop this cloak of followers. God did not call on us to be followers of anyone but Him. We must be leaders one and all. Leaders do not depend on another for their very existence.

We have to lead in our homes, in our schools, our churches, public and private organizations, etc, etc. We have to drop this idea that the government owes us everything. The point is, WE are the government so we can only give to ourselves what we give to the government.

Our nation was not founded by weakness. It was founded on strength and principle. We can find that principle and that strength again. In fact we need to demand it.

Government can not give you anything in which you have not given to it. And as history has proven, government cannot do something better for you that you can do for yourself. The Constitution was clear on that. We the people are responsible for our own actions, our own lives. We cannot give government the power to live our lives for us. It will be a total disaster if we give it that kind of power and none of us will ever be happy.

Stop. Think. Vote.

This is not George Washington's America

There was a popular movie not too long ago that actually has some life merit for today. Although it was highly stylized it was based on a true event in human history. I actually liked this movie and I liked it a lot. I liked it for the story, the action and the cinematography and most of all for the life lesson that it entails.

The movie was 300. It doesn't matter who the stars were. It doesn't matter who the director was. It doesn't matter who the producers were. Even the total dramatic license of the real story of Sparta and the 300 that stood between free men and total domination doesn't really matter.

What matters is the truth behind the story. What matters is the life lesson behind the story. What matters is that there is an ideal there that was actually instilled in our Founding Fathers.

The principle that men should be free and live in liberty was a driving principle for the Revolutionary War. Freedom and Liberty were the driving principle behind the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

King Leonidas laid down his life defending his beloved Sparta all those centuries ago. An age old fight to preserve freedom and liberty that is the true birth right of every human being. Leonidas said in the movie, “Never retreat, Never Surrender” He said “remember why we fought and died here.”

Can we not ask the same of ourselves? Have we forgotten what our Founding Fathers did for us? Have we forgotten what every soldier who fought for our flag and land, who bled and died for us? Have we forgotten?

We must have. One cannot say we remember the sacrifice that has been made for our country over the last 230 plus years yes cry to our government to take care of us from the womb to the tomb. One cannot say we remember the epic battles of two great wars and the many who never came home to loved ones if they ask for more and more laws to protect them.

One cannot say they remember the pain and agony of a mother that has grieved for her son, a father who mourns upon receiving the news that his daughter has been lost in battle if we turn around and call those who return from battle baby killers and butcherer's.

One cannot say they remember anything at all if they burn and curse the very flag that stands for the nation that gives them the liberty and freedom to voice their opinion in the open without risk of jail, torture or death.

Today we have politicians on both sides of the political isle that want us all to forget what really matters. Both parties want us to forget that we are free men and women who have the right to live our lives in a manor in which we see fit. Both parties pander to those who would rather control your thoughts and actions instead of give you the breathing room to control your own thoughts and actions.

There is no freedom in numerous laws. There is no liberty in oppressive taxation no matter who is being taxed. There is no law when the very government established to uphold laws constantly breaks them in the name of safety.

The Constitution is not an arbitrary document. It the the law, the very fabric of our civilization. It is not an empty document that can or should be discarded on a whim.

Today we have presidential candidates that wish to continue their assault on the Constitution. None of the three majors can say they actually believe in the document that will give them power to govern for indeed all three of them have voted for laws that strike at the very heart of that document.

I find it amazing that there are Liberals who will shout on a mountain top how President George Bush has thrashed the Constitution and how he lied about getting us into a war. They forget the loss of life back in 2001 that lead to this war.

And at the same time, they clamor to get the vote out for two candidates who will do nothing short of take away more of your rights and tax the hell out of you and me. They praise the lies these two tell and explain them away by saying it is their good intentions that should be measured not what they say or do.

We have a third candidate that assaults free speech every chance he gets. He blisters with anger when he is told that his laws have stifled the freedom of the people. Yet we have those who would call him out on such issues only to be labeled hate mongers for doing so. Only to have people demand that they be silenced or fired from their jobs. Yea, that sounds like freedom of speech to me.

Would King Leonidas fight for our nation today? Would George Washington and Thomas Jefferson risk their life and property and prosperity to help the people of our nation today? Would the grunts who first landed on Normandy on D-Day do so in defense of our nation today?

I think they all would simply because we are a beacon of hope to the world. We are a shining example of how a people can and should live. We have survived 230 plus years by living in freedom. Why should we break such a long history and tradition when it works so well?

I do not say “Remember the Alamo” I say, “Remember the original United States of America.” It was and is and should always be the land of the brave and the land of the FREE. There is no law that can give you freedom. Laws only take freedom away.

We are a nation of laws, so our government tells us. We should not be a nation of laws. We should be a nation of freedom loving people what uphold the laws of liberty no matter where those laws would be challenged.

Cowering within our borders by leaving the Middle East is not a way to our freedom. Getting along with those who have pledged to destroy our very way of life from the far East to the near West is no way to foster our freedom.

The old saying that freedom is not free is not a simple cliché, it is real. It is also real that voting for the right people who will foster that freedom is just as important today as it was back in the day of George Washington.

The next time you decide to defend your candidate of choice, ask yourself, what have they said that fosters more freedom and liberty? Do they offer you laws and government programs or do they truly believe in limited government and allowing you to develop your full potential and allow you to live in peace.

I guess you could say that all three candidates today would not get the vote of King Leonidas, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and they probably would not even get the vote of those who populated the South during the Civil War. It is too bad we are reduced to choosing a person who will assault are liberties the least. We should have candidates that only wish to foster our liberty, not stifle it.

Stop, Think, Vote.