freedom

{you may want to get a drink and a snack....this is long}

We finally got around to watching Valkyrie {movie about the plot to overthrow Hitler} the other night. We'd been wanting to see it for awhile, especially Taylor who is really into war history. I thought it was really good, and found myself hoping they would take Hitler out, even though I knew that wasn't going to happen. And Tom Cruise is so much more likable when he's acting than he is in real life. But I digress...

During the movie, and afterwards, I kept thinking wow, the ideas that Hitler was promoting are a lot like what this government is trying to promote. The similarities are scary. And then I thought to myself, am I really comparing Obama to Hitler? It can't really be that bad, can it?

And then I received this in an email again yesterday, that really just justified my comparisons between the two:

{written by Pamela Geller}-

"I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission.

And then he was duly elected to office, with a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name, where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages,better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country,
across Europe, and across the world.

He did it with a compliant media -- Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and ..... change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.

Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years - a shorter time span than just two terms of the U.S. presidency - it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them."

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I'll be honest. I have never been one to pay much attention to politics or really care what was going on until these past 12 months. None of the issues really bothered me much. Some things I'd hear about would concern me, but I felt for the most part they really wouldn't affect me and I was happy to live my sheltered little life.

But not anymore. The things happening in this country are crazy. And too many people are just sitting by either thinking things are out of their hands, or they're waiting for everything to be taken care of for them. I heard someone say they've stopped paying attention to politics, because they're tired of living in fear for the future. Well the days of ignoring are over. The changes being made and being proposed will change our country so much, that we won't even recognize it anymore. We can't just sit by and think that it will all be taken care of by somebody else. We have an obligation to stand up for what we believe in.

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." ~Thomas Paine

That doesn't mean we have to freak out and be scared over everything. But we do need to be concerned. To get involved. To spread the word so more people know really what's going on. To email or call your Senators over issues you disagree with. They are supposed to work for us, even though a lot of them have forgotten that.

"Men fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves." ~Author Unknown.

We need to make sure we keep the freedoms we have. Because this government tends to think they are "saviors" and that it is their job to "save us" from making our own decisions. We can't possibly be allowed to decide how much fat to eat, or what kind of car to drive, or even how many Tylenol to take.

"Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance." ~Woodrow Wilson

So on this 4th of July weekend, remember that freedom and liberty are prized possessions. They're worth fighting for over and over again.