We are a fortunate peoples. Through no act of our own but solely by virtue of being born to parents who happen to live in a country founded by men who believed that God has granted mankind certain inalienable rights (the declaration of Independence) and built a government based upon a constitution that guarantees those rights be protected. Add to that these inalienable rights are granted to all men by virtue of God who from a Christian perspective grants us authority through faith, we are indeed fortunate that through a confluence of events that none of us living today played a part in, a country that would "fly" under the banner of "freedom and "Liberty" was established.However even our fore fathers had the vision to see that nothing, even that carved in stone, will last forever just as the ten commandments were thrown to the ground and shattered and as the sands of the middle east to this day, very likely contain more evidence of that which was, but has since been forgotten or lost. So they built into the documents of our foundation means by which the "governed" might (notice the "might") insure a lasting "freedom".
Our forefathers stated the following in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government"
The "Constitution" even went so far as to include and amendment IX which asserts: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." which I suppose constitutional scholars could argue, but I read as to mean that our founder recognized that we had/have rights that were no necessarily covered by the document which the document still protects. Many other of the amendments were designed with no other purpose but to provide us means by which to protect our rights under these documents.
From the Christian perspective (and here I tread with trepidation considering all the different permutation of one faith) some would argue that the "Church" (body of believers) has been given Authority by the Head of the Church (Jesus) to vanquish all sorts of enemies through faith. (see here as an example of this perspective).
Now there are those who would call any who would speak out against injustices perpetrated by our country traitorous. Just as there are those christians who would preach "christians" not concern themselves with "worldly things". To which I respond, what the heck was Jesus doin when he took up the whip and began over turning the tables of the money changers as he cleared out the temple. When I hear someone ask the question "what would Jesus do" I have often found myself responding with "what did Jesus do'?
My contention would be that those who attempt to stifle certain types of speech and/or actions are attempting to maintain the "status quo" which is not a status quo at all but an insidious creeping erosion of all that this country was founded upon. That in fact, such attempts are nothing more than attempts to castrate those who would speak out for not only what our forefathers stood for, but for more than they stood for, as even they were afraid to address the evils of slavery for economic reasons. And how many of us fail to take any action for fear of jeopardizing our own economic securities/insecurities.
Many of us already have and many of us are quickly becoming "enslaved" by our own fears of jeopardizing our own "comforts". So the only action we take is that, that will defend our "comforts" even if such action is to adjust our "comfort level downward" so as not to make waves enough to disrupt that.
We have enslaved ourselves to the jobs that will pay enough to afford the gas to go into our SUV's that have enslaved us insuring that they will transport us back and forth to the jobs we are enslaved too which have given us the freedom to purchase so much more than we can afford so that now we also become enslaved to the credit card companies and pay them for the right to be enslaved to them.
We have it backwards folks. We ourselves have put ourselves in a position to where we can no longer step out in faith or principle and have to make excuses for not doing so. We ourselves have willingly locked the chains that bind us.
So what the hell does all of the above have to do with motorcycles? We state plainly in the heading of this blog that we are about freedom and rights. I would submit to you that historically the "true" biker is and should be among the front line of the defenders of freedoms.
The problem is, we (bikers) have become them (the enslavers). We have forgotten our own history in order to sell out to political correctness and be corrupted by sleeping and bargaining with that who is the enemy. We have become a people of "forced" sacrifice as opposed to that of "voluntary" sacrifice.
Fortunately/hopefully there will come a time when our cowardice will be forgiven...........rc
