Freedom Isn't Free...

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it along to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed down for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

                                    -  President Ronald Reagan

I've heard the above quotation many times.  And each time I sort of scoffed inwardly at the notion that America, our Great Country, could somehow find itself in a position where our innate and guaranteed freedoms were at risk.  

After all, we've fought the wars we needed to fight to win our freedoms, I thought, and I could not foresee any situation where those freedoms might be lost.  Or to some degree compromised, even.  That an enemy, foreign or domestic, could somehow put its boot on our neck and subject us to authoritarianism and tyranny.  That we might find ourselves in danger of losing our hard-won birthright.  Of finding ourselves under the thumb of fascism.  

I was wrong. 

It seems all it took was a pandemic to be unleashed on the very day after our Mr. Trump was found Not Guilty in his bogus impeachment trial.  The very day after.  Take from that what you will...

As one among many who's fought for freedom while wearing the uniform of the United States, I now sit, sequestered, "sheltered in place," while San Fran Nan Pelosi's nephew decides whether or not I can leave my home.  And return to work.  Or go to church.  Or get a haircut (which I desperately need...notice, he doesn't!).  Or grant me a relative degree of ever-changing "freedom" depending upon the state in which I reside. 

Freedom isn't free.  We bought and paid for it with our blood.  And I can tell you I won't stand by and watch it taken from me, and from my family, without putting up a fight.  And I'm betting I'm just one of many millions who agree with me.  Millions and millions.  That just sitting by and watching while some commie pinko dumbass liberal weenie governor somewhere or other issues an "executive order" taking my Rights from me...and keeping my Rights from me...for no good reason, is just not going to happen.  Rights he does not have the authority to erase.  And his trying to do so is unconstitutional.  A little tour through the 1st Amendment to the Bill of Rights should provide all the proof anyone needs.  

So I sit back and watch.  I watch whether our current crop of Americans are made of that "special stuff" needed to adequately represent our Country while they're carrying the load.  And what I see leaves me concerned.  I watch people driving their cars while wearing a mask.  Huh?  Don't they know...or care...that wearing a mask is purported to protect everyone but the wearer?  Or are they just too damn dumb to even be permitted to drive their cars?  Maybe, just maybe, they're Darwin Award candidates making their cases early...

So I watch the so-called "Mainstream Media" work overtime to try and blame Trump for his manufactured failings on the Chinese Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic.  All the while shielding Biden and Obama and everyone else for their culpability over pandemic preparedness.

It's worth recalling that Trump was a Democrat working and living in New York City while the Obama Administration was refusing to "deal" with the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic that killed nearly 20,000 Americans a decade ago.  It hospitalized 250,000 Americans.  And sickened more than 60 Million worldwide.  And in the aftermath, the Obama and Biden Administration's requirement to also adhere with a House panel's recommendation to purchase millions of masks and tens of thousands of ventilators to promptly resupply a depleted inventory.  

Which they didn't.  As Trump said, "The cupboards were bare..."  

Remember hearing anything about this pandemic back then from your friendly Dinosaur Media?  Anything?  No?  Me neither.  Could it be that the primary difference between then and now...is the Party occupying the White House?

It seems to me that many of the governors of the 22 Democrat-controlled states have forgotten something that all of us should remember; our citizens deserve, and must receive, the trust of those they choose to elect. Our citizens must be trusted to "do the right thing," lest we're left with authoritarian despots who've decided that they are the arbiters of acceptable behavior.  When Michigan's Democrat Governor Whitmer can decide, unilaterally, that it's okay to row a canoe, but not okay to use a motorboat; and that it's okay to buy pot and booze and lotto tickets, but not paint or seeds or a shovel; and that it's okay to cancel a 77 year-old barber's cosmetology license without a hearing because he decided to open without her exalted permission, then we have sown the "seeds" for civil disobedience.  And when she's joined by other governors arresting barbers for cutting hair, and anglers for fishing, and surfers for surfing, then we have the makings of a revolt.  

And perhaps much worse...    

I've often wondered why the Leftists among us are so dead set on removing from us our 2nd Amendment Rights to "keep and bear" arms.  Now, it appears, we have an inkling.  Just imagine how much more compliant we, The People, would be if one-third of us, more than 100+ million of us, were not armed and considered (by them) dangerous...