DO YOU WANT TO BE FREE? DO YOU KNOW WHAT FREEDOM MEANS? DO YOU HAVE IT? (Issue 231)

By AC | July 3, 2009
As my readers know from other articles I have written and articles written about me, I grew up during the Great Depression of the thirties, on a farm in Northeast Georgia, until I was 17 years old, when I graduated from High School and moved to Atlanta.
 
Intellectually, I knew little about the meaning of Freedon, but a way of life I took for granted.  My parents and grandparents were hard working, self-sustaining, responsible individuals.  During the first 17 years of my life, I never saw a policeman, marshall, sheriff, nor FBI man.  Everyone lived their lives, taking care of their business, minding their business, without the need for any intervention from government armed personnel.
 
Without being formally taught, everyone understood it was the responsibility of individuals to respect the property and boundary lines of others.  As a reminder, posted on the fence of many farm dividing lines were signs which said, “No Trespassing.”  Everyone understood not to cross boundary lines without permission of the owner.
 
Everyone owned guns, everyone had dogs that barked if a stranger approached the property.  No one locked doors as it was understood if one trespassed or broke into property and attempted to steal or rob, they might be shot.  In my experience those first 17 years, I knew of no one who was ever robbed or shot.
 
As I recall, all the farms adjoining ours were owned by family.  Uncles and cousins and those related in some capacity.  As children we were free to roam and go where we chose without any interference. Therefore a feeling of freedom was a way of life.
 
However, we listened to the radio and subscribed to newspapers and read about crimes, robbers and looters in other places.  The stories about Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone and Dillinger.  The infamous bank robber, Dillinger, and the story of his life has just been released in a movie.
 
Outlaws, criminals and moonshiners were always trying to hide from “G-men.”  I do recall Dillinger saying after the G-men caught him, “My day has not gone very well so far.”
 
What I learned about the outside world was from reading and in school.  I learned about other countries, political governments, and different ways of life from history, civics and the current events classes.  I was taught ours was a government of the people, by the people and for the people, and the Revolutionary war was fought for Freedom, from the oppression of British rule.
 
I was taught Freedom was something fought and paid for by many who lost their lives in the Revolutionary war.  And because of this, Freedom was something I was entitled to.
 
It was several years later I discovered, I really did not know much about Freedom and the role of political governments as I have described in other articles.  I set out on a journey to learn about Freedom and political governments.
 
The real meaning of Freedom and the role of political governments is not taught in schools.  Not only did I discover my ignorance about it, I now realize not many have an understanding of  the real meaning.  And one does not actually know the true meaning of Freedom until they are taught it.  I had to experience being held hostage by a foreign government, to motivate me to learn its meaning.
 
It’s my firm belief that one of the main, underlying causes of the current crisis we are in in this country is ignorance about the real meaning of Freedom.  We are now living in an era of several generations who have never been taught the meaning of Freedom.
 
And as Dr. Phil says, we can’t change that which we do not acknowledge.  And I say, how can we acknowledge that which we do not understand?
 
So here we are on the 4th of July, in the twenty-first century, living in a time when the majority of citizens in this country are clamouring for more and more political government to take care of their wants and needs, with some nebulous idea they can have that and freedom to boot.  Political government is the antithesis of individual Freedom and personal property Rights.  They are diametrically opposing forces and philosophies.
 
Knowing about Freedom is a learned way of life.  In this country, over half the budget in the 50 states goes for schools.  Thousands of tax-funded schools. These are government, socialist schools and they definitely do not teach about Freedom.  So where is one going to learn about Freedom?  I maintain it’s a subject which must be taught.  If it’s not taught in the thousands of government schools in this country, where is a person going to learn about it?
 
Freedom is not something one can receive through a purple pill or immunization.  To understand it one must be taught it from some source.  The question is, where does one learn about its meaning?  Where are there any schools that teach it?  After my pursuit to learn about Freedom and the role of political governments, I attended a school that taught it, which is no longer in existence.
 
I know of one school, Freedom Mountain Academy, that teaches the Philosophy of Freedom, but that is the only one I know of.  I think there’s an on-line course one can take to learn about Freedom.  But how many know about it, and how many bother to take it?
 
As I have stated many times, Freedom is self-responsibility and self-control. Conversely, there’s much to learn to acquire that, including history, knowledge about the different forms of political governments, and economics.  Some basic understanding of economics must be learned in order to practice Freedom as a way of life.  It is essential that one learns about property Rights and boundary lines.
 
How many people really understand property Rights, when most purchase a house and make payments and think they own it?  When in fact they do not own it, even if it’s completely paid for, they only possess it.  And possession does not constitute ownership.
 
Having to obtain permission from another party to do anything with property they assume they own, is simply a share-cropping situation with conditions.
 
Therefore learning about ownership is essential to understanding Freedom.  And most are under false illusions about ownership.
 
Today, I was reading 467,000 jobs were lost last month.  Also 787 billion in so-called stimulous package.  Plus 9.5 unemployment.  Also in the news, about one of the wealthist states in the union, California, is broke.  Then read where those politicians in Washington had awarded seven million for a monkey exhibit, that had no monkeys. And on and on infinitum, stories of the conditions in this country.  Sad tales of woe and bad news about conditions we face.
 
The crisis we face, can be boiled down to one simple fact: It’s Freedom or bondage.  And Freedom can only be attained and sustained when it’s understood.  Currently only a few understand its true meaning.  And as I see it, few have interest in taking the time and effort to learn its true meaning. It’s just my opinion and observation.  I could be sincerely wrong.
 
From where I sit, we are a nation of ignorance about Freedom and ownership of property Rights.  The irony is, billions of hard earned tax dollars are squandered on schools, and yet we wind up in this crisis, ignorant about Freedom, and how we got to this state of crisis.
 
I’m reminded of a story I heard about a sentry on duty during the Korean war.  He was patrolling a hill when he heard a rustling in the trees below.  He cocked his gun, and yelled out, “Tell me who you is, before I come down and find out who you wuz.”
 
In a nutshell, we need to discover who we is, before we wind up wondering who we wuz!!!  How are we going to do that?  For starters, we can admit our ignorance about exactly what Freedom is, and decide individually to learn its true meaning.  Information is available to anyone who desires it.
 
Henry David Thoreau said, “That government is best which governs the least.”
 
Let Freedom Ring
 
JUST ME AC
 
Posted in Anne's Journey, Current Events, Freedom, Politics, Words of Wisdom, history | Tagged , , | 1 Comment
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LET FREEDOM RING THIS 4TH OF JULY 2009 (Issue 230)

By AC | July 3, 2009

Another 4th of July is here to celebrate. What will you be doing on this 4th? Will you stop and think about how much Freedom you have left?

Like some starving ravaged animal, the centralized government in Washington, both congressional and executive branch, are devouring the small semblance of individual freedom and property Rights we have left.

Many are saying this once great country is bankrupt. Others are saying we are already a Socialist country. Some think we are on a fast track down the road of Marxism. Some think all that is happening with bailouts and belly-ups, the lengthy detailed laws being passed almost daily, is just what this country needs.

Some think, some speak, some act, some pray, while some play. Actually three kinds of people, those who make things happen, those who watch what happens, and those who do not know what the heck is going on.

So what are your plans for this 4th of July? Are you going to the beach? Having a cook-out? Planning a boating trip? Watching fire-works? Staying home watching TV?

Supposedly, it should be all about celebrating The Declaration of Independence. That great document which declares individual Freedom. Actually the greatest document human beings have ever created. A document which declares the greatest asset any human can have and that is Freedom.

Individual Rights of Freedom, spelled out in the “Bill of Rights.” Rights so eloquently spelled out by the great Libertarian, Harry Browne, who stated, “The Bill of Rights is a literal and absolute document. The First Amendment doesn’t say you have a right to speak out unless the government has a compelling interest in censoring the Internet. The Second Amendment doesn’t say you have a Right to keep and bear arms, until some madman plants a bomb. The fourth Amendment doesn’t say you have the right to be secure from search and seizure unless some FBI agent thinks you fit the profile of a terrorist. The government has no right to interfere with any of these freedoms under any circumstances.”

And yet all our declared rights have been violated by a centralized political government in one form or another.

Many flock to the polls to elect representatives from their respective States, who move to Washington and pass laws restricting individual Freedom and property Rights, without even reading the laws they pass. They have assumed a la carte authority to pass laws so profoundly affecting the citizens who pay for whatever their laws pass, without even reading them. Carelessly, and irresponsibly, without remorse or compunction, elected officials are passing laws they do not bother to read. This is reported in the news regularly.

How can we in all good conscience celebrate Freedom and the Declaration of Independence, while tolerating and ignoring what is happening, and advertised on the news while it takes place?

Aside from that, much is the news about the next election. Searching for a new batch of candidates to run for the same offices, to replace the current batch with a new batch. Who will say anything, but do the same thing as the current office holders. When the average person knows insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

All politicians are dedicated to the same two things, i.e., getting into office and staying in office.

Many are asking, “What are we to do?” In my opinion, it’s the wrong question. Instead it should be, “What are we to stop doing?” to change things. To quote Dr. Phil with reference to what one is doing, “How’s that working for you?”

This Country is filled with so many different organizations, a center for this, an institute for that, hundreds of groups and organizations representing all kinds of notions of what to do and how to do. Most are pitching the line: write, call or e-mail your congressman. It’s the weirdest thing to me, this has been going on for so long, while conditions go from bad to worse. This notion of  joining some organization, contacting your congressman and send a contribution to the organization, is so old-hat stuff, with the same results of things going from bad to worse in this country.  More and more loss of individual freedom and Property Rights.

Is it so unreasonable and far-fetched to suggest that we could change things by simply stopping the doing of what we’ve been doing?  Have we not become enablers of the downward spiral, contributing to the conditions of crisis we face?  Are we on a merry-go-round of denial?

Suppose we stopped doing anything, got off the merry-go round of denial, got off each others’ backs, stopped feeding the hand that is destroying individual Freedom and personal Property Rights and just “shrugged it,” what then?

In actuality, what is now taking place is working. It is working to destroy life in this United States as we once knew it. It is working to destroy individual Freedom and property Rights. It is working to establish a socialist, marxist State or a socialist fascist State. It is working to place all of us and our children and grandchildren in bondage.

What would happen if the decision was made for everyone to get off the backs of others and do nothing? Except one thing, and that is to learn the true meaning of Freedom.

My next article will be about learning the real meaning of Freedom.

Let Freedom Ring

Just Me, AC

Email: annecleveland@bellsouth.net

Posted in Current Events, Freedom | Tagged | 1 Comment

“IF YOU WANT TO GATHER HONEY DONT KNOCK OVER THE BEEHIVE” - HOW WE TREAT AND MISTREAT CHILDREN (Issue 229)

By AC | July 3, 2009

Every individual act we perform is for a profit or a gain. Plus the fact we always without exception act according to our “highest value” at the moment. And because our values by their very nature are constantly changing, we frequently act or react to a variety of situations in different ways at different times.

It’s part of the natural order of things in this Universe, for each species to reproduce itself. For the homosapian species, we give birth to children. I really don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate, none arrive with a book of instructions. But the fact of the matter is, few if any really know how to successfully parent our offspring.

The major yardstick we have is reference to how we were raised. In this connection, our parents began as we have, by trial and error. There are psychologists and psychiatrists and lots of books to read on childrearing. However mostly, rearing children on a day by day basis, is pretty much by trial and error, based upon our individual experiences of our own childhood, and what our parents taught us, plus how they treated us.

It would help us in childrearing, if we stopped to realize, every human being acts to achieve what they want. Children are no different, their actions are based upon what they want.

If our actions are always based upon our highest value at the moment to obtain what we individually want, then we cannot be self-sacrificing. Because whatever we do to or for our children, or anyone else, is according to what we want at the moment.

Personally, I had teenaged children when I had another child. One I raised a bit differently, because I could recognize some of the mistakes I had made with the first ones. I was never into the “forced sharing” syndrome, so pervasive in school and church teachings, but more aware of just how territorial children are over things which belong to them. Therefore with my last son, I could articulate and be more specific, by telling him that which belonged to him was his to do with as he chose. If he wanted to share, it was ok and if he chose not to, that also was ok. If he decided to destroy that which belonged to him, he could do that also, but pointed out it might not be replaced. I specifically taught about property ownership.

It was interesting to observe voluntary sharing, when a child knows they are in control of that which they own. Currently I have a 4-year old grandson, who has his own room, filled with toys and books when he visits. Recently a 3-year old visited to play with him and he did not want her to touch anything. I reminded him that was quite allright to feel and act that way, but reminded him, when he visited her, she could refuse to allow him to play with her things. He apparently thought it over because about an hour later, without any further mention of it, he decided on his own to selectively share a few things.

Obviously changing his values based upon his best interest, considering his desires to play with her toys when he visited her.
Decided to share not for her benefit, but consideration for what he wanted when he visited her.

I have a daughter who is a foster parent, and very disturbing to observe the number of abused and mistreated children taken to DFACS, taken away from abusive parents.

In the hierarchy of needs for all of us, children included, is recognition, praise and acts from others which make us feel important. Everyone wants to feel important, and acts of yelling, screaming, criticism and abuse towards children changes who they are. Accordingly it is outpictured in their behavior sooner or later.

Everyone wants to be famous. Never so clearly presented as the new movie on the life of Dillinger, the famous bank robber during the thirties. Some acquire recognition and become famous via different thinking and actions. Some become famous via positive creativity, i.e., inventions, artistry,writing and etc. The same thing drives the bank robber and the inventor. To be famous and to be recognized. The manner in which they achieve their feeling of importance is different, but the desire is the same. Freud called it the desire to be “great.”

The desire for importance seems to be inbred in us from a small child. When we recognize this in our role of childrearing, it makes a difference in how we treat children. Instead of condemning and criticizing them, we can help lift them up to their potential of being important. By recognizing they want appreciation, recognition to enhance their desire to feel important.

One of the most moving and profound things I have ever read when it comes to childrearing is this little piece by W. Livingston Larned, entitled “Father Forgets.” I hope you copy and reread when you have the urge to yell at and criticize children:

FATHER FORGETS:

“Listen son, I am saying this as you lie asleep, one little paw crumpled under your cheek, and the brown curls stickily wet on your damp forehead. I have stolen in your room alone. Just a few minutes ago, as I sat reading my paper in the library, a stifling wave of remorse swept over me. Guiltily I came to your bedside.

There are the things I was thinking, son. I had been cross to you. I scolded you as you were dressing for school because you gave your face merely a dab with a towel. I took you to task for not cleaning your shoes. I called out angrily when you threw some of your things on the floor.

At breakfast I found fault too. You spilled things. You gulped down your food. You put your elbows on the table. You spread butter too thick on your bread. And as you started of to play, and I made for my train, you turned and waved your hand and called, “Goodbye Daddy,” and I frowned and said in reply, “hold your shoulders back.”

Then it began all over again in the late afternoon. As I came up the road, I spied you, down on your knees playing marbles. There were holes in your stockings. I humiliated you before your boyfriends by marching you ahead of me to the house. Stockings were expensive–and if you had to buy them, you would be more careful!! Imagine that, son from a father!!

Do you remember later, when I was reading in the library, how you came in timidly, with a sort of hurt look in your eyes? When I glanced up over my paper, impatient at the interruption, you hesitated at the door. “What is it you want,” I snapped.

You said nothing, but ran across in one tempestous plunge, and threw your arms around my neck and kissed me, and your small arms tightened with an affection that God had set blooming in your heart and which even neglect could not wither. And then you were gone, pattering up the stairs.

Well, son, it was shortly afterwards, that my paper slipped from my hands and a terrible sickening fear came over me. What has habit been doing to me? The habit of finding fault, of reprimanding - this was my reward for your being a boy. It was not that I did not love you; it was that I expected too much from youth. I was measuring you by the yardstick of my own years.

And there was so much that was good and fine and true in your charactor. The little heart of you was as big as the dawn itself over the wide hills. This was shown by your spontaneous impulse to rush in and kiss me goodnight. Nothing else matters tonight, son. I have come to your bedside and knelt in the darkness, and I have knelt there ashamed.

It is feeble atonement: I know you would not understand these things, if I told them to you during your waking hours. But tomorrow I will be a real daddy!! I will chum with you, and suffer when you suffer, and laugh when you laugh. I will bite my tongue when impatient words come. I will keep saying as if it were a ritual: “He is nothing but a boy–a little boy.”

I am afraid I have visualized you as a man. Yet as I see you now, son, crumpled and weary in your cot, I see that you are still a baby. Yesterday, you were in your mother’s arms, your head on her shoulder. I have asked too much–too much.”

I was prompted to write this article, because just about a week ago, I raised my voice to my four-year old grandson, Prince William. He had spread his toys out on the floor in the TV room and I tripped over one of his toy cars. Telling him he had to be more careful in my raised tone.

After he left, I felt badly raising my voice at him, after all he was just happily playing with his toys. Then I recalled reading “Father Forgets,” reminding myself, Grand Mama forgets. The next day when he came, I gave him a hug and apologized to him for raising my voice, and assured him I would not do it again.

The following day when he came, he pulled out a box of toys and began playing on the floor, and said,”I remember what you said about yelling, and I will be careful.”

I could just sense his feeling of importance at being recognized for his consideration not to strew toys again in the middle of the floor, but to carefully play with them in one corner area of the room.

I think it was Burns who said: “Oh what good ere ‘twould do us to see ourselves as others see us.” To that I might add, especially children.

LET FREEDOM RING

JUST ME

Ac-EMAIL; annecleveland@bellsouth.net

Posted in Anne's Journey, Grandparenting, Words of Wisdom | Tagged | 1 Comment

MAKING JELLY FOR THE JAM WE’RE IN - CANNING -FREEZING - GARDENING, Plus One Ripe TOMATO (Issue 228)

By AC | June 25, 2009
 
Today, I made six jars of Plum Jelly Sauce from a batch of plums my grandchildren picked from their tree.
 
Yesterday, my four year old Prince William came and picked his first ripe tomato.  Then two small yellow squash, he bagged and took home for dinner.  His mom called last night and said he ate both for his dinner.  He got on the phone so excited about eating something for dinner that he had planted, watered and nutured from a seed.
 
I absolutely love canning, freezing and preserving food.  Theres a knack to doing it, and a lot of work involved.  When canning anything, one must be so careful to have everything sterilized.  Jars, lids, rings, and all utensils.  But making your own pickles, relish, jams and jellies is so rewarding and tasty.   I make watermelon rind pickles and green tomato pickles.  I have a neighbor who grows figs, and I buy them from her to make fig preserves.
 
Now that summer is here and many have gardens or access to a farmers market, it’s a good time to consider canning.  One can can most vegetables, but actually need a pressure cooker, to reach the degree of heat necessary to prevent botulism.  The one vegetable not necessary to cook in pressure canner is tomatoes. So long as everything is completely sterilized.
 
Aside from canning, one can prepare food for their freezer.  But keep in mind most everything must be precooked  and cooled before bagging for the freezer.  Just make sure you squeeze out all the air from your freezer bags.
 
The one drawback with freezing is, if the eletricity goes off for any length of time, you might lose your harvest.  I recall one year having my freezer on a screened-in porch, and there was an electrical shortage. I was unaware until everything had defrosted and ruined.
 
As most of my readers know, I grew up in the Great Depression, watching my mother can and preserve food.  Back then, she would use large sheets of tin, to place the slices of peaches and apples on to dry in the sun.  Once dried they were placed in cotton bags for storage.  No zip-lock bags back then.
 
I thought my mother could do any and everything.  She knew how to make some use from just about everything.  She took newspapers and cut out her own patterns for making clothes.  Then took old clothes and cut up to sew together for quilts.  The lining of the quilts were made from unbleached muslin, obtained from local cotton mills, and dyed with red clay or black walnut hulls.
 
Years later when I visited her she was as frugal and creative as ever.  She and my father had moved to a little town called Flowery Branch.  There was an old abandoned well in the rear of the property, she dumped garbage in along with lime on top.  Some things she burned in the rear property.  Never paid for garbage pick-up.
She was into her seventies working at a local hospital.  One day I visited her and saw this contraption rigged up in a shade tree in the back of the house. The tree was filled with hanging baskets of beautiful flowers.  I examined more closely and realized she had taken the disposable intravenous bags from the hospital, washed them and hung them in the shade tree, with the plastic tube inserted into the hanging baskets, so the water slowly dripped into the plants, keeping them moist and healthy.
 
I told her the University of Georgia should send their enviromental students to visit her to learn ways to preserve the enviroment, re-cycle, with little or no cost.
 
Many stories have been written about the ways and means of frugality, used by those living in the Great Depression.  Every nail, piece of string, newspaper, scrap metal, and wood was used for something.  Much I learned from those days was by observation and listening.  I was not allowed to cook, for fear I might waste something.  Not allowed to wash dishes for fear I might break something.  But I did have chores, like drawing water and bringing wood in for the fireplace, or gathering clothes from the clothes line.  I learned how to cook and can food simply from watching my mother.
 
I wanted to learn how to milk a cow and tried it once.  The cow swished her tail across my face and I ran to the house screaming and never tried it again.  It was later on during the sixties, after moving to the country, with a determination to learn how to be self-sufficient to survive, I learned how to garden, cook, can, freeze food, gather wood, make a living and survive.  It’s a trusim, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  In retrospect, I’m very grateful for the life and experiences growing up on a farm in the Great Depression.
 
Not to mention the added joy I experience today, showing these things to my grandchildren.  When Prince William called last night, so happy eating the squash and tomato he helped grow, I thought to myself,–It doesn’t get any better than this!
 
Living during a time when almost daily we hear stories on the news about young children beating each other up, on drugs, exposing their bodies on the internet, and stealing, one must ask how does this happen?  Obviously, much blame can be placed on latch-key lifestyles, where there’s little adult supervision.  Parents not providing things of interest to do, nor providing directional ideas of creativity to occupy young minds. Therefore many wind up in institutions for rehabilitation. To be taught self-responsibility and self-control.  I personally feel a great deal of empathy for this generation of children. Things can and should be so different for them.
 
Confucious says,  “If your plans are for one year, plant rice.  If your plans are for ten years, plant trees.  If your plans are for 100 years, educate.”  And what is education? Simply an acquisition of knowledge, no matter where you receive it.
 
LET FREEDOM RING
 
Just ME
AC
 
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POLITICIANS - A MERRY-GO-ROUND OF DENIAL IN A THREE-ACT PLAY (Issue 227)

By AC | June 20, 2009

We are seeing on the news, a resurgence of protestors in Iran. The Citizenry there want a change in their centralized government. No one knows what the outcome will be, however, if there is any truth in news reports, the new leader they want in power, over their lives, is not so different from Ahmadinejad, their current leader.

Here in this country, there is increasing unrest relative to the forces that be in the centralized government we have. There are so many varying degrees of what it is individuals really want. Most label themselves Liberals, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, Right Wingers, Left Wingers, Libertarians, Independents, Anarchists, and on and on with labeling. Nothing is set in concrete with reference to any standardized meaning of any of these political labels, resulting in confusion.

Someone could start a new political party named “Confusion.” As a result of all this confusion, things go from bad to worse, daily, in this country, people flailing around like a chicken with its head cut off. On the other hand, there are many pundits with lists of college degees, and longer lists of impressive organizations they belong to, writing about the problems and how to fix them. Most, like the Iranians, pitch the idea of regime change, which is more of the same under a different name. With an unrealistic claim that they have the answers.

To me it’s the weirdest notion, that all we need to do is vote a different party into power, and elect a different person to fill the seat of power and, when that’s accomplished, everyone has what they want.

Why is it, I ask, history has not taught us what we need to know and do? The American Revolution was not fought with the main purpose in mind to set up another government; its purpose was not looking for a new leader. Its purpose was to be rid of an oppressive central government, located in another country. And the purpose of getting rid of the centralized government was so individuals would be unhampered to express their individual Freedom and live their lives as they chose, without forced payment and subservience to British rule.

Having accomplished that, they decided to form a kind of government, to retain, sustain and protect their individual Freedom. Theirs was a great idea, never before attempted. They successfully broke the chains of bondage, declared themselves to be free and for a few years, the citizens in this country lived a life of Freedom. What happened to change that? Within the framework of the history of how Freedom was achieved, why it was acquired, and how it has been lost, lies the answer.

There are 300 million people in the United States. Here’s what happens: Some individuals decide they can manage your life better than you can. They decide they can do this by being elected to some political office of power. Thousands upon thousands of political offices have been set up in this United States. From Dogcatcher, Marshall’s office, school board, Congressmen, Governors to President.

Something in the makeup of these individuals causes them to gravitate towards the seduction of power they feel they are entitled to have over your life and property. Once they experience the seduction of power, the next step is to seduce you into stamping your approval on their game plan, by going to the voting booth.

To entice you into submitting your stamp of approval, they campaign, with speeches of all kinds of promises, of what they plan on doing for you, with your money. The politician is in a state of denial. He is not planning on taking your money for the betterment of your life, but for his and those he chooses to redistribute it to.

Not only is the politician in denial, the American Citizen voter is also in denial. A child knows right from wrong, and so does the voter know, that placing someone in power over his life to take his money and property, on a promise the act will improve his life, is simply denial of the truth. It has not happened in the past nor will it happen in the future.

Power begets power, and year by year and day by day, as these politicians take their seats of power, they take more and more, pass more and more laws, set forth policies and pass edicts which have so eroded individual Freedom, they seem ashamed to speak the word.

Once entrenched in their seat of power, they no longer speak of what they can and will do for you, but set about ways and means of doing TO you, by taking more and more of your freedom and property. It’s a circular saw mentality, founded upon the merry-go-round of denial. By the perpetrator and the victim.

It’s a three-act play. In the first act, the politician registers as a candidate for office, gets all dressed up, starts making speeches of promises he cannot deliver, has rallies, raises money, advertises his false promises, and draws a crowd.

In the second act, the people gather to listen, believe the politician is going to represent their best interests, by taking from someone else to improve his life, and opens up his wallet and starts handing over his money, voluntarily at this point, and submits to the “hook.” On some level of consciousness, defying reason and rationale, blackmails himself into believing this particular candidate is going to be in power to act in his best interests and improve his life in some shape, form or fashion. Seals his fate at the ballot box, by the erroneous notion that this candidate is going to assume the responsibility for his life that he abandons - i.e., the abandonment of self-responsibility and self-control.

The curtain closes on act two with the candidate’s election and opens with act three. The 535 Congressmen and 100 Senators, elected, move to Washington. Now they are all members of this exclusive club, and all have offices, with millions in allowances to operate. Live an elaborate lifestyle, flying around first class on trips, the finest accomodations, with a staff to kowtow to their whims. Dress in their expensive outfits, smile for the camera, cater to news media. Then vote for more and more laws, designed to take more and more property from their “constituents” to sustain their power and lifestyles. A squirrel cage syndrome playing out over and over.

At the end of this third act, the curtain closes, the politicians take a bow, return to their home base to prepare for the next election, and the process starts all over again. And in the process, political power is ever expanding itself. It is not in its nature to reduce itself. It only changes from power to more power over the lives of the American people.

Many are wondering what can be done. Conversely, others have become so apathethic they’ve stopped wondering. Those still wondering what can be done, place their attention on finding some political group, headed by some particular politician that they think will do things differently and change the course of direction. This will not happen. Not because I think so, but it’s what history teaches us, for those who care to review it.

In the drama of the three-act play, changes can only be made in act two. In act one we think everything can be done for us, and in act three there’s the acceptance that everything is being done to us and not by us.

There is a great lesson to be learned, sitting in our living rooms, watching the Tehran Revolution Square protesters fighting and dying, to get rid of one in charge of the centralized power and replace with another. One who is an illusion, they think will provide Freedom for them. From all news reports, he is really not so different from the one they now have.

I’m reminded of the Cuban Revolution. I recall so vividly those in Washington calling Castro the “George Washington” of Cuba. A number of Americans flocked to Cuba to help Castro fight in the hills. When it was all over, it quickly became common knowledge he had been a dyed in the wool, card-carrying Communist since he was 17 years old.

The downward spiral of life in this country as we once knew it, came about because of very specific events. It’s not rocket science to figure out how and why it happened. And the answers to change are not that elusive and difficult.

LET FREEDOM RING

JUST ME

AC

Email: annecleveland@bellsouth.net

Posted in Current Events, Freedom, Politics, history | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment