AN UNCANNY VOICE FROM THE PAST
Jim Beers
An Uncanny Voice from The Past
While reading and doing some research recently for an article I am writing that compares (Supporters, Costs, Hidden Agendas, Intended Consequences, Alternative Futures, etc.) the Endangered Species Act and the Affordable Care Act (i.e. “Obamacare”), I came across a very disturbing document.
The Declaration of Independence was written and adopted by the Continental Congress in 1776 in the thick of the Revolutionary War between The Thirteen Original Colonies and the British Empire. This was five years before the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia. The document was intended to explain to all the Colonists that were fighting for freedom from the English King, why they should continue fighting and why they must prevail. The document was adopted on the 4th of July and was eventually signed by 56 Delegates that came to be known as “Our Founding Fathers”. Their signatures appeared right after the words, “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Printed copies (“broadsides”) were distributed far and wide.
The Declaration of Independence is arguably the most famous statement of the source of the rights of all men who would be free and the duty of their government to, first and foremost, protect those rights or be replaced. Those timeless words; “truths to be self-evident”, “endowed by their Creator”, and “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” have burned themselves into the minds and thoughts of free men and those that would be free for over 235 years.
The document appears on one page of lambskin parchment that is perhaps 30% Title and Signatures. Of the 70% that is the actual Declaration, the first 25% is explanation and the final +/- 25 % is how we were resisting the King after all else has failed. It is the middle 50% of the Declaration of Independence that I found most disturbing. After describing the English rule under King George III as “absolute Despotism” and “Tyranny”; the document details what it calls, “a long train of abuses and usurpations” that describe what the Colonists would endure no more. Of these 27 “abuses and usurpations”, about a dozen are remote from our day (i.e. “ravaged our coasts”, “Citizens taken captive on the high seas”, “quartering large bodies of armed troops”, etc. What I found so disturbing was that of the remaining “abuses and usurpations” that justified our War of Independence; a majority described conditions that exist in the USA as I write.
1776: “He (sic, King George) has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
Today: Federal refusal to enforce federal drug (marijuana) laws, federal release of arrested illegal aliens accused or suspected of crimes, federal welcome, rescue and placement of illegal alien children at the border, federal failure to enforce the national Defense of Marriage Act.
1776: “He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance , unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.”
Today: Recall Arizona Governor Brewer wagging he finger at the President on the Phoenix runway to no avail and remember Texas Governor Perry imploring the President to no avail to visit the border in order to have a conversation of federal “Policies’ regarding illegal immigration and its effect on Texas. Consider the federal lawsuits to prevent elected Sheriffs or State Legislatures or Governors from deviating in any way from federal Policies to actually enforce federal LAW. Federal force to make states issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Federal prohibitions about states requiring ID for voters.
1776: “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.”
Today: Consider Presidential and Attorney General dismissiveness of the Grand Jury process, Local prosecutors, and Local police behavior nationwide as race/anti-police riots were stewing and as they began nationwide. Note their silence as riot organizers began screaming for the abolition of the Grand Jury process. Grand Jury responsibilities go back to 1215 AD when English nobles forced King Henry III to sign the Magna Carta beneath the Great Oak at Runnymeade, effectively limiting the King’s power much like the US Constitution intended for the new US federal government 800 years later.
1776: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”
Today: Consider the EPA and its’ control of American life. Consider the attempted seizure of the Bundy ranch by BLM. Consider wolves, grizzly bears, owls, smelt, grouse, suckers, darters, warblers, etc., etc. under USFWS. Consider National Parks and Forests with the elimination of natural resource management and use, “Viewsheds”. Consider federal Scenic/Historic/etcetera Declarations; Wilderness Declarations; and ‘taking’ property without compensation. Consider federal ownership of 40% of America and effective easement/”cooperator” control of atleast another 20 %. New federal offices to process newly proclaimed (in Presidential Memos) “paths to citizenship” for certain designated illegal aliens. Federal purchase of mountains of ammunition for civilian gun uses, closure of the last lead smelter in the US, closure of coal-powered energy plants, blockage of offshore oil development and oil pipelines. All of the foregoing done for big ticket political donors with their own profits in mind and for votes from voters that are not directly affected or at least do not understand how they are affected by these things that shred our Constitution.
1776: “He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.”
Today: US State Department clandestine work with United Nations bureaucrats to draft and then ratify a “Small Arms Treaty” to undercut and eliminate the 2nd Amendment. UN Agenda 21 to place the US under total federal ownership and control. Kyoto Protocols to eliminate efficient power sources like nuclear and coal in order to increase energy costs and government control of our daily existence. UN Conventions on all manner of business as precedent and justification for increased federal power and size. Remember that all of these US politicians and bureaucrats doing these things take an OATH to uphold the Constitution that they increasingly work to destroy,
1776: “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.”
Today: Medical Devices tax in Obamacare. Employer mandates in Obamacare. Forced health insurance enrollment under penalty of law in Obamacare. Abortion and birth control mandates in Obamacare. Federal permit costs for public land uses. Taxes for “Stimulus” handouts, UN dues and foreign aid. Taxes for the IRS to favor political groups favored by the President and to discriminate against political groups opposed to the President. Taxes for the Department of Justice to smuggle guns into Mexico while the State Department worked on a UN Small Arms Treaty and then to stonewall and lie to Congress about who did it and why it was done. Taxes to establish a universal racial classification system for all citizens to be used as the basis for discriminating against the un-favored and favoring the favored for hiring, promotion, grants, admissions, and now “justice” while re-distributing wealth ultimately to obtain votes and retain power. When Congress considers any restriction of increase or reduction in funding for bureaucracies, the IRS threatens to delay Refunds to taxpayers and the Park Service prevents people from taking pictures of parks and even ropes off open-air war memorials to veteran groups visiting Washington, DC.
1776: “For depriving us in many cases of the benefit of Trial by Jury.”
Today: Remember the President condemning Boston police for questioning a professor trying to break into what was eventually shown to be his own home? Was any trial for any purported police abuse possible after that? How demeaning to police everywhere (and eventually encouraging to Ferguson/New York City rioters) was not only the President’s words but think back to the little picnic table at the White House with shirt sleeves all rolled up as the politicians and the “wronged” professor drank beer (everybody knows all policemen are blue-collar beer drinkers) to try and “educate” him to the new realities of the 21st century. Could the Ferguson Officer ever get a fair trial after the President and Attorney General made clear their beliefs about guilt? Does “Major” Hassan get a fair trial by select Military Officers after his heinous terrorism is labelled “workplace violence” by the President? Does Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl get any fair trial after the President releases notorious murdering terrorists on his behalf and even secretly tries to ransom said Sgt.?
1776: “For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally our Forms of Governments.”
Today: The President threatens to grant Amnesty and citizenship to illegal immigrants by Executive Order and then does it by mere memorandums to the bureaucrats that work for him. The President threatens to veto as yet non-existent legislation by the not-yet-convened new Congress unless it is exactly what he wants and demands. Forcing deadly and destructive wild animals like wolves and grizzlies into settled communities where they kill people; destroy livestock, game herds and pets; spread disease and generally demolish rural American life, Constitutional property rights, Local governments, and rural American economies. Absorbing and replacing State bureaucracies with State employees and agencies that do federal bidding and help to control state and local reactions to federal over-reaching all while being paid by state residents and wearing state uniforms.
1776: “For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves (sic, the King and Parliament) invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”
Today: Why can’t state Legislatures refuse to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens? Why can’t states require Identification from those that would vote? Why can’t duly elected Sheriffs arrest and prosecute illegal aliens? Or incarcerate them? Why can’t Governors or State Legislatures or Local governments for that matter say NO WOLVES or NO GRIZZLY BEARS in our backyards? Why can’t they say that this smelt or that owl or warbler cannot be used as justification where we live for the federal government to take property without compensation or destroy local economies or endanger children WHERE WE LIVE? The answer to all these is because the President and the Congress in far-off Washington, exactly like the King and the Parliament in far-off London over 2 centuries ago, SAY SO!
1776: “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
Today: St Louis area/NYC/most large city “domestic insurrections” as I write. Police executed eating lunch in New York City. Police shot at in Los Angeles, Tampa Bay area and elsewhere, all recently. A Muslim (known to be) terrorist Army Major screaming a Muslim war call kills and wounds over a score of soldiers, employees and dependents on a military base and it is titled “Workplace Violence” just like the Muslim that beheads a lady co-worker. Overseas, what the President recently called a “JV Team” (i.e. ISIS) is now eradicating Christians in the Middle East and carving out their own Caliphate out of Syria and Iraq. The Muslim Brotherhood guy we backed in Egypt is (thankfully) overthrown while we seem to ignore the more Democratic General seeking to protect all Egyptians. A foreign Muslim airline passenger tries to explode his underwear over Detroit while a Muslim street vendor tries to explode a bomb near Times Square. Nigeria, Sudan, Yemen and Libya are alive with growing Muslim terrorist forces threatening to topple the US. We fiddle while Iran tests missiles and builds nuclear bomb capability and says it will annihilate both us and Israel. The President tries to close the Guantanamo Detention Facility and abandon Iraq and Afghanistan while the Taliban, ISIS, Iran, and the feared need for future detentions as the Muslim threat to our Homeland grows make him look like Ol’ Brer Rabbit trying to disengage from the tar baby left by Ol’ Brer Fox. Simultaneously we have a CIA Chief that tells Mideast audiences how he loves the Muslim call to prayer and top appointees in the federal Department of Homeland Security and State Department that are not only Muslims but also born in the foreign lands spawning all the Jihad that grows from US recruits, kidnapping ransoms and oil money. They are all proven capable of, at least, tolerating
“undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions” under certain circumstances in their holy book or under Sharia decrees from certain clerics.
When I said the Declaration “disturbed” me it was because I suddenly saw in terrifying detail this fact: If the Founding Fathers were to suddenly return to this America of 2014 they would recognize it immediately. NOT as the country they founded but as that English Colonial tyranny they fought so hard to eliminate and replace with the greatest nation this world has known.
To our disgrace, we have let it happen by coveting what our neighbor had and thinking we could get something for nothing by growing a government that we once believed we controlled and still refuse to believe is doing to us what every other “Absolute Despot” and “Tyrant” always does when they seize unfettered power. We abandoned not only a common religious belief and understood morality, we traded our reliance on ourselves and our families for a glittering Carnival bauble called a government that will give you whatever you want.
Jim Beers
30 December 2014
PS I apologize that it has taken me 2300 words to discuss what Our Founding Fathers said in 1300 words. It says something for a classical education.
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Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.
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"We didn't start the fire - No we didn't light it but we tried to fight it" - Billy Joel - 1989a