Is America Giving up on Freedom?
by Darrell Arnold
(This article is found in the Summer 2008 issue of COWBOY MAGAZINE on Page 18.)
For 232 years, America has stood for freedom above all other principles, and, by doing so, it has become the greatest, wealthiest, most powerful, most envied, most influential nation the world has ever known. Freedom is the foundation of our democracy. It is freedom that has made us all that we are.
And it has been in the interest of protecting our freedoms that millions of Americans have enlisted in our armed forces, and hundreds of thousands of them have given up their lives to ensure.
If one looks at America today, however, it is easy to see that freedom is slowly but steadily being eroded away by wave after wave of "nanny-state" rules and regulations.
In today's world, small minorities of special interests are able to limit or destroy the freedoms of other Americans simply by being louder, whinier, and incessantly insistent on promoting their narrow and sometimes perverted agendas.
In agriculture, we see it in recent government proposals that would require livestock producers to place implants in all their cattle so the origins of all animals can be traced. In addition, we see it in the recent government-ordered closings of slaughterhouses that deal in horse meat.
And, of course, in the West, there are the long oppressive regulators of public lands who restrict or even eliminate historically established grazing rights. In addition, ridiculous and excessive protections of desert tortoises, wild horses, wolves, fish, owls, and other critters, along with a variety of plants, have helped diminish the abilities of many family operations to stay in business.
At every turn, in all aspects of American life, citizens are being forced to give up the freedom of choice. In many states, people are not free to choose whether or where they can smoke (even in their own homes), whether or not they can eat delicious food made tasty by cooking them in certain kinds of oils. One town is thinking of banning foul language in bars.
People living in neighborhoods with covenants are not free
to have yard grass over three inches high, or to have an old
car parked on the street in front of their house, or to have
a clothesline in the back yard.
In another year or so all Americans will be required to toss
out the old cathode-ray tube televisions they now enjoy and purchase
high-definition televisions or they'll have to do without television
service all together.
Coming soon will be limits on what kinds of cars we will be allowed to drive. SUVs may be outlawed, and we all may have to drive hybrids. States are mandating what kind of fuels we can power our vehicles with. In California, the legislature is looking into the possibility of requiring new homes and businesses to have radio controlled thermostats that the state and/or utility company can control remotely in case of "energy emergencies." In other words, Californians may lose the freedom to control the temperature in their own homes.
There are also national plans to require that everyone quit using incandescent light bulbs, and that everyone in America be required by law to have health insurance, and the government will garnish your wages to pay for it if you don't do it on your own. Further, some people are now being banned from buying health insurance if they are overweight.
On another level, our nation's businesses are facing a potentially endless stream of government mandates on how they run their businesses. The freedoms of the companies that supply goods, services, jobs, and prosperity are slowly and steadily being chipped away by those who want us to think that trial lawyers are our friends, and businessmen are our enemies.
Also under attack by the "nanny staters" are energy companies, fuel producers, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, health care providers, mortgage companies, Wall Street, farmers, ranchers, transportation companies, manufacturers, and on and on.
The freedoms of parents to raise their children in their own way are being more and more restricted, and their freedom to determine where and how their children are educated is being diminished.
The freedoms of parents to educate their children are being threatened as unionized and liberal teachers' organizations gain strength and influence over state legislators.
Also included in these freedoms that deal with children is the freedom to not be murdered before you are born.
The freedoms to engage in Christian religious practices are being diminished to satisfy the narrow and, one suspects, contrived sensitivities of pagans, atheists, and Islamists. Some want an end to the words "under God" in the "Pledge of Allegiance." Some want to prevent school prayer (except for Muslims of course because they must not be offended), and Christian clubs on college campuses. There are even calls to take the words "In God we trust" off of our coins. And, unbelievably, secularists want to end public references to Christianity during the Christmas holidays (a holiday that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the birth of Christ).
And associated with the loss of these freedoms is the diminution of the freedom to maintain high moral standards in our society standards being eroded by the ACLU and others who protect and defend producers of obscene popular music, music videos, explicit motion pictures, child pornography, sex offenders, aberrant sexual behavior, and the elimination of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Another most important freedom is the freedom of speech. The nanny-staters would love to stifle, or eliminate all together, the freedoms expressed to and enjoyed by more than 20 million Americans every day who listen to and appreciate talk radio.
Another freedom that is seriously in jeopardy is the freedom of American citizens to protect ourselves against the economic and social disaster we will suffer if America doesn't stem the ever-increasing flood of illegal aliens.
What about the freedom to defend one's person, home, livestock, and property by owning and using a firearm? That is one of the major freedoms that built the West and the way of life and traditions we Westerners enjoy. And it is one of the freedoms that the nanny-staters most want to take away from us.
What is happening today in America is not the way things were done when patriotic citizens built the United States of America into the greatest civilization the world has ever known, and it is certainly not "the cowboy way" of doing things. Those who live and love the liberty and freedoms of the cowboy lifestyle should be alarmed and increasingly attentive.
What can we do about it? We can, this coming November, get out in force and elect to public office those strong and intelligent individuals who believe in freedom over big brother-style government.
