Editorial: American Patriots are everywhere

Michael Gold, Editor
HISTORIC CITY NEWS

There’s a price to pay for living in the United States. I’m not talking about the obvious; property, business, sales, and income taxes. What I am talking about is the price of liberty. The price of freedom. The price we pay to insure that we suffer NO taxation, without representation.

The price paid when the American colonies declared independence from Great Britain and its king, was the down payment; however, as we all know, freedom isn’t free.

I’ve mentioned the “hard cost”, but what about the “soft cost” of protecting our daily liberties? What about those liberties and freedoms we must sacrifice in order to protect our American way-of-life?

I don’t like having to take my shoes off to board an airplane. I think it’s silly, an unnecessary waste of time since you have to replace them almost immediately, and I’m not sure, given all of the additional screening taking place simultaneously, that we’ve prevented any terrorist from taking over a commercial aircraft because of it.

It’s slightly more annoying than having to press “1” for English, and no more time than I spend on an airplane each month, I’m not willing to put up a fight over it. Americans are keeping mental notes on the sacrifices, though. And, there is some point where it’s no longer “Okay”.

The fact is that the world does not universally approve of the United States and in many parts of the globe, we are despised because of how we chose to live our lives.

On the front line to protect our representative form of government, the federalist flavor of democracy we properly call a “constitutional republic”, is us — you and me. The American citizen is at the top of every organizational chart of the United States government. We, the people, are to be served by every bureau, agency, commission and board of government in this nation.

Sometimes, both politicians and bureaucrats seem to forget who the boss is. It is imperative that we never allow that to happen without rising to the occasion and reminding them that they are merely the hired help. Government exists to provide the services for our citizens that we cannot otherwise provide for ourselves — not to rule our lives.

Almost 250-years-ago we had to fight a war to establish our independence from Great Britain and its king. A little revolution is inevitable and even healthy every couple of centuries, if that is what it takes to remind everyone of how “Americanism” is supposed to work.