The tough get going.
That phrase was never intended to mean ‘going to run away’ but to stand and fight. Fight for the freedoms they cherish. Fight for the principles they believe in. Fight for the country they love. Fight the good fight.
Does that mean grab your musket and head for the hills? Not hardly. There’s a lot to do – many fights to fight – before we raise a hand in anger. That’s the beauty of the the imperfect system our Founding Fathers set up – there are a LOT of ways to redress grievances (take care of serious issues) that allow the people to control their government minus having to grab a pitchfork.
The Constitution was designed with unalienable rights (rights you can’t sell or give away), civic duties (like voting and paying taxes – yeah, there’s always a downside) and an intricate balance of powers. That last one includes the power of the people to affect their government (this is the short version of why originally the states legislatures selected senators) at every level.
Voting is the most obvious – politicians are like all other human beings in that they don’t want to get fired and they do want to get hired. Which is why they promise a chicken in every pot when they don’t even own a chicken farm – they need those votes. The second part of that is that those politicians are counting on voters to not be well informed about their chicken farm ownership.
This makes censorship extremely dangerous to the American experiment in governance – an ill informed electorate (voters) is easily fooled into voting for whatever sounds good – even when it isn’t. This is why allowing social media platforms the legal protection of a utility (like the phone company which can’t be sued because you planned a crime on their phones) should and MUST come at the same price of being subject to the First Amendment protections for those using their platforms.
Frankly, it’s a danged scary fight. People have lost their jobs, livelihoods, and even their freedom from the forces behind the cancel culture and the now blatant censorship that pervades the free internet. It’s a lot easier to pretend not to notice and hope they never come for you.
Which never worked in high school when you didn’t do your homework. Didn’t work at your job when you didn’t complete a project. And doesn’t work at all with insane people trying to police the planet. Hiding just delays the inevitable and usually makes it much worse when they do come for you.
A bunch of guys in tights and stupid looking three cornered hats signed a piece of paper telling a king that they weren’t his subjects anymore. Fifty-nine men would not know for another eight years whether or not that piece of paper was their ticket to freedom – or the gallows.
Less than a century later the country they founded would tear itself apart over issues that the Founders had left unresolved. It would take another eighty years to straighten out the mess that resulted from the wound.
In the meantime, this nation would lend its might in two of the fiercest wars in human history – both times in the name of freedom. The second in the name of humanity itself.
It would grow to unparalleled levels of prosperity – few of history’s kings lived as comfortably and well fed as the majority of her poor. And it would make its share of tragic – and sometimes just stupid – mistakes along the way. Countries, like people, don’t come in size perfect.
But without her, without America, the world would have lost to tyranny. Without America, modern developing countries wouldn’t have gotten the chance. Without America, countless millions would literally have starved – more than the countless millions who did under the sovereignty of those who should never have been sovereign. Without America, there is no incredible recovery after the Second World War – not just here but worldwide. Without America – without the city on the hill – most of the world would be a much different, much worse place to try and live.
So we are at a crossroads. The going has gotten tough – and we must decide if this American experiment, this American dream, and these American freedoms are worth fighting for.
We’re only asked to post memes and email congressmen at this point – the Founding Fathers were asked to sign the Declaration of Independence which was tantamount to signing their own death warrants.
Speak – or forever hold your peace.
