A few words about our job as citizens...

[Ruiner]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]"The Virginia Tech tragedy may not lead directly to more gun control, but I fear it will lead to more people control. Thanks to our media and many government officials, Americans have become conditioned to view the state as our protector and the solution to every problem. Whenever something terrible happens, especially when it becomes a national news story, people reflexively demand that government do something. This impulse almost always leads to bad laws and the loss of liberty. It is completely at odds with the best American traditions of self-reliance and rugged individualism.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Do we really want to live in a world of police checkpoints, surveillance cameras, and metal detectors? Do we really believe government can provide total security? Do we want to involuntarily commit every disaffected, disturbed, or alienated person who fantasizes about violence? Or can we accept that liberty is more important than the illusion of state-provided security? [/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]I fear that Congress will use this terrible event to push for more government-mandated mental health programs. The therapeutic nanny state only encourages individuals to view themselves as victims, and reject personal responsibility for their actions. Certainly there are legitimate organic mental illnesses, but it is the role of doctors and families, not the government, to diagnose and treat such illnesses.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons."


It's disturbing what "Americans" have become... I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm actually quite frustrated with the "sheeple" of America ruling the majority. I never thought basic Common Sense and Logic would be so absent in this nation. I was wrong.
[/FONT]

 

[Fenway]

Are those your words?

 

[Ruiner]

Are those your words?

No, but I fully support them, and would rather people talk about what it says, than who wrote it.

 

[SilentWarrior1]

Amen...

 

[hunter480]

You see it all around you, if only you pay attention. When we first went to war in Iraq, all of the country supported the move. The President was cheered as he told the world, and the United Nations, that we don`t need their approval, nor permission, to defend American interests, or America, herself. And Bush told us all, it was going to be a long fight, not somethign quick and easy to accomplish.

Fast forward to today-the American public simply does not have the stomach to endure the reality of a campaign against an enemy the likes of Muslims intent on destroying our way of life. It just wasn`t fast and easy enough, so we`ve had enough. Time to pull the troops out and move on to the next thing.

We have become sad as a nation, and it only gets worse every day, as our people cower in cities, not having the first idea how to fend for themselves. Depending entirely on the police for protection, the government for direction, and having no plan for any future that doesn`t center around some sort of government intervention, at SOME point in their lives.

Very, very sad indeed.

 

[Fenway]

I'd like to know who wrote that if you care to cite the author

No, but I fully support them, and would rather people talk about what it says, than who wrote it.

 

[RogerB]

seems pretty close to this ....

Security and Liberty by Ron Paul

 

[Dave]

Ron Paul wrote that.

I'd like to know who wrote that if you care to cite the author

 

[Ruiner]

Yup, it's Ron Paul. Like I said, I figured it would probably go to political talk, but wanted to keep it on the track that this country needs to turn around and it's citizens need to start being Americans again.

Where's a Zombie Apocalypse when you need one?

 

[SavageEagle]

Finally some people who really get it. America as a whole is breaking down. And you know what the sad, but true, part of it really is? TOO MANY PEOPLE DONT CARE. You can walk into any gas station and talk about this and people will listen, but if you try to get them to do something, anything, even sign a petition, they shy away or run scared. Before I met my fiance and even after we had got together, she was one of those who, if it didn't directly affect her and her kids, she just didn't care. Slowly I'm changing that but she still doesn't care about alot of things she should. I write my elected officials anytime I see something I don't like and when I see something that makes me proud. I write them but very few do.

People need to wake up and realize that if they don't like something, or see something that needs a change, you can't just go to a poll, vote, and pray you made the right choice. WE THE PEOPLE have to stand up. WE THE PEOPLE must speak out. And WE THE PEOPLE have the POWER TO MAKE CHANGE. This is what our Country was founded on and we all have lost sight of that. Our voice counts. But no one speaks. If they do, "mainstream" media shoots it down as conspiracy or some nut job. And nobody cares because no one thinks for themselves anymore. "If eveyone is thinking alike, nobody is thinking for themselves.." (Author unknown to me)

Too many people are looking for a hand-out and no one is looking back or showing them an opportunity. Our laws aren't perfect. Our election process is very fouled. And more and more no one seems to care. That is not until tragedy strikes. And as Ron Paul said, only then does the people scream foul at the government. Only does tragedy make the people stand up and scream in anger, make them demand change, make them ask why. Sad thing is the responsibility falls on the PEOPLE just as much as it does the government.

KATRINA was a big whopper. But, even though I may be damned for saying so, it was just as much "the people's" fault as it was governments that the levees failed. They knew years ago the Levees' were faulty and outdated. The people and the USACE both had been warned they were inadequate, yet they did nothing. Sure some people spoke up, but always turned away with the excuse that there was no money for such an endeavor. But how much did the aftermath cost us?

Virgina Tech: A campus where guns are FORBIDDEN with such hatred. What if the second victim or other innocent bystander had a pistol? Even a .22 may have stopped that massacre. The vast majority of people agree with this, but yet they allow the government to dictate the fate of our future by not standing up and saying "Hey! This isn't right! WE MUST CHANGE THIS!"

When will enuff be enuff? What sort of failed government action, or horrible, unspeakable tragedy have to happen before the American people stand up and say "That's enough, we've had it!"? I challenge everyone to make a difference by changing someone's mind about these things, or at the very least informing at least one person about the change that THEY can make and not their elected official.

Wow that was a long one... Did I even make any sense?!?!?! LOL