R3volution: Taxation, Property Rights, and Tea Parties

". . . we cannot be happy without being Free, that we

cannot be Free without being secure in our Property,

that we cannot be secure in our Property if without

our consent others may as if by right take it away."

--Abigail Adams, 1774

There are those whom I have heard disparage the American Revolution as being solely about "taxation and money" rather than about "freedom." When I hear this, I always want to ask such people what their definition of freedom is, though I don't always have the opportunity.

I suspect that such a person would answer that freedom is the ability to act without compulsion, to choose one's behavior. Indeed, freedom is the ability to speak, to write, to act without fear of interference from authority or government. If this is the case, then taxation--the act of taking a citizen's property by force in the name of some collective good--is at the heart of the argument for liberty, as Abigail Adams understood when she undertook to write to the English historian Catherine Macauley in 1774 about the just cause of Liberty for America, saying:

". . . Suffice it to say that we are invaded with fleets and Armies, our commerce not only obstructed, but totally ruined, the courts of Justice shut, many driven out from the Metropolis (Boston. EHL), . . . all the Horrours of a civil war threatening us on the one hand, and the chains of Slavery ready forged for us on the other."

Abigail Adams profoundly states the relationship between liberty and property in the opening quote above, from a letter she wrote to the American scholar Mercy Otis Warren in the same year.

There are also those who disparage the modern revolutionary Tea Party movement, saying that it is "only about taxation" or more frequently of late, stating that the 4th of July Tea Parties are "not about taxation", but that they are "about liberty." To them I would answer, as I did last night at the Bernalillo Libertarian Caucus, that the Tea Parties are about unjust and confiscatory taxation, which makes them profoundly "about liberty." A person who can make no choices about the disposition of his property, and who is forced to work to support a government for nigh unto half a year under threat of prison, has no liberty to lose. Further, if a government official wishes to "spread the wealth around" as Obama said, taking by force wealth from individuals who created it in order to "redistribute" it to those whom he deems more deserving of it, then he is enslaving some individuals to those "more deserving" others. As Lord Acton put it: "A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first element of freedom." (Quoted without full citation in The Freeman online).

There are also those who say that the original Boston Tea Party was well and good, because it was taxation without representation that the Sons of Liberty objected to, whereas the taxation that the present Tea Parties object to is taxation imposed by the consent of the governed. However, I do not believe that citizens are being represented by our nonrepresenting representatives. Mine, at least, (and I suspect that the lot of them) are in hock to their parties, their party national platforms, and the special interests that finance their extremely extravagant elections.

We the People get barely a second thought, except at so-called "townhall meetings" like the one that Senator Udall (D, NM) held at Albuquerque the other day, at which any questions and comments in opposition to the Dems national platform were immediately shut down. The Engineering Geek attended and called it 'Udall's Town-joke'. This was in the same vein as with President Obama's elaborately staged and scripted Town Hall meeting on the "credit card crisis" at Rio Rancho High School in May. The nonrepresenting "representatives" must be putting on a show for each other at these staged events, because they certainly did not fool many of the people there.

Thus I was gratified to open the Albuquerque Journal today and read what Christopher E. Spade of Cuba, NM wrote in a Letter to the Editor entitled Tea Parties Renew Our Fight for Independence:

" . . . We are again being taxed without representation.

"When members of Congress vote for legislation without first reading that legislation . . . we are not represented.

"When members of Congress move to stifle exploration and development of domestic energy sources . . . in spite of the fact that a majority of Americans favor domestic energy development, we are not represented!

"When members of Congress vote for bailouts for failed, badly run companies . . .and thus put the taxpayers at risk, we are not represented!

"When members of Congress consider new regulatory power over what may be broadcast over open radio stations . . . in clear violation of free speech guarantees . . . we are not represented!

". . . When members of Congress vote for confiscatory tax rates on the entrepeneurs who create the jobs and wealth of this country . . . we are not represented!

"There is another revolution on the horizon. Only this time, it will be at the ballot box."

(The Albuquerque Journal, Friday, July 3, 2009, Section A, p.11).

Thank you, Mr. Spade for saying it far more eloquently than I could!

We are not being represented.

Go to your local July 4th Tea Party tomorrow.

The Albuquerque Tea Party will hold an Independence Day rally on July 4, 2009 from 4-6 PM on Alameda St NE, right near the Balloon Fiesta park.
ABQ Tea Party RallyJuly 4, 2009 4-6 PM, 4509 Alameda NEAlbuquerque, NM
Come as you are - patriotic!

The theme for this Indepedence Day Rally is "The Spirit of '76!"

It is time for us to take to the streets and let our nonrepresenting representatives know that we see through their sham democracy.

We want the Republic back, and the political power to rest where it rightly belongs, within each of us, at liberty to live our lives without interference from the government.

For if we do not, then soon we will be in the same straits as the people of Boston, circa 1774, with "our commerce obstructed" and the people "reduced to want" and "made dependent", as Abigail Adams observed in her letter to Lady Macauley.

We begin the R3volution in our streets this July 4th, and continue it at the ballot box come November 2010.

Memorial Day: Freedom is Not Free

The sun has returned today, after three days of clouds and rain.

So today, as we go about our picnics and barbeques, shopping and summer fun,

we will pass by Old Glory, flying in breeze outside Ragamuffin house,

and take a moment to remember those

who gave their lives in battles on American soil, and in foreign lands.

Freedom is Not Free

by Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day.

fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,and then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform,

So young, so tall, so proud,

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,

When everything was still

I listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That TAPS had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.

Picture Credits:

Soldier Salutes Flag in Iraq, Baristanet

Bugler at Memorial Service, Vietnam: Army Quartermaster Museum

We Are Not Alone, WE Surround Them

In the summer of 2007 I wrote two posts, Creeping Fascism and Neither Left Nor Right, and in both, while addressing different issues, I expressed my concerns about where the United States was heading.

As I look back at that summer and those posts, I recognize that we are now in the crisis that I thought we might be headed for, and it appears that things are only going to get worse.

Throughout the primaries and the general election, as I listened to the candidates from both major parties, I felt entirely disenfranchised. I believed that they were all lying to us in one way or another, and that all of them were refusing to acknowledge the disastrous storm we were heading toward. I did go vote, but not for any of them.

Towards the end of the campaign, after the credit crisis and the stock-market crash, I listened to Obama's rhetoric, and considered his history, and I thought: "This man is lying to us." The day after the election, I posted the Obama National Anthem, as black humor (I had a different piece to post if McCain had won). But like all black humor, there was a biting truth behind the satire.

Today, only three weeks into the Obama adminstration, as I look at what is in the so-called economic stimulus package, and when I listened to Obama dismiss the concerns of those who have pointed out that much of what is in the spending bill will not put money into the hands of taxpayers anytime soon, and do so with a cavalier sixth-grade defense of the New Deal, I know we have been lied to.

How does the imposition of a health-care czar stimulate the economy? They're sneaking in Socialized Medicine without open discussion and debate!

Last night, when Obama used fear to promote this bill, warning of dire consequences if it is not passed, despite the fact that much in it is really a progressive social program, I knew that we have been had. Despite his promises of hope and change, he is no different than Bush, who used the same argument from fear to impose the Patriot Act. (It also had to be passed in a big hurry with no time for debate).

Throughout the last two years, I have felt powerless about this, and relatively alone.

I wondered if, aside from some good homeschool blogger friends, there was anybody out there that gave a damn about individual liberty.

And throughout the election, I felt that when I truly spoke my mind, I was dissed and dismissed by what I came to refer to as the hive mind:

"We are the Major Parties. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

And the syncophants of the press made it clear by their treatment of Joe the Plumber what would happen to you if you publically questioned their pick for president.

So I thought my little voice made no difference, and that I was powerless to stop the destruction of our rights. I have called and called my Congress Critters, but even when the calls were coming in 10:1 against the Bail-Out, they did what they wanted. I did not know how to let them know that they are supposed to represent me.

But last week, I opened an e-mail to find the following statement:

"Do you watch the direction that America is being taken in and feel powerless to stop it? Do you believe that your voice isn’t loud enough to be heard above the noise anymore? Do you read the headlines everyday and feel an empty pit in your stomach…as if you’re completely alone?

If so, then you’ve fallen for the Wizard of Oz lie. While the voices you hear in the distance may sound intimidating, as if they surround us from all sides—the reality is very different. Once you pull the curtain away you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak. The truth is that they don’t surround us at all.

WE Surround Them. "

Glenn Beck, a commentator on Fox News and a libertarian-leaning radio talk-show host, has begun a kind of movement of the disenfranchised.A movement of the ignored taxpayers in fly-over country. A movement of those bitter ones clinging to G-d and guns since 1775; those who have been told to shut up, surrender their rights, and pay for the privilege.

It is a kind of Alice's Restaurant movement. Remember Alice?

"Imagine if three people got up, just three people, got up and sang "you can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant" when it comes around on the guitar. Why then, we'd have ourselves a movement!" (With apologies to Arlo Guthrie).

Well, we have ourselves a movement.

This is the We Surround Them movement.

And all you have to do to join is ask yourself nine questions about principles, and agree with seven or more of them. Seven of the questions are about American values plain and simple, and two are more particular:

Answer yes or no:

1. America is good.

2. I believe in God. I may not go to the same church or synagogue or mosque as the majority of people in America, but I believe in God and he is the center of my life, and God does not tell people to behead others or to persecute others that see God in a different way.

3. It is my responsibility to be a better and more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. I and my spouse are the ultimate authority under God when it comes to our family. If we fail, we answer to God not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but that is not a guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for Americans to disagree with one another, but some opinions may be anti-American. Anti-American rhetoric would be anything that is destructive to the Constitution and our country as our founders understood it.

9. The government works for me. The government answers to me. I do not answer to the government.

(I took this from the transcript in my e-mail. I did clean up the grammar somewhat).

All of the points except numbers 2 and 4 are core American principles that come from the ideas in the founding documents of our country.

Point 2 was difficult for me in that Jews do not talk about G-d as being the center of our lives; rather we think of G-d, Torah, and the people Israel as being central our identity and purpose in life. However, if I think about it that way, I can agree, understanding that individual rights are endowed to us by our Creator, not by governments or the will of the majority.

Point 4 makes complete sense to me as a Jew. We say that the 5th commandment--"honor your father and your mother"--is placed between the duties owed to G-d and those owed to others because parents stand in the place of G-d for their children, and thus bear the responsibility for them, until those children become responsible for their own actions. (This is why the commandment says "honor" and not "obey". Children need to honor their parents for standing responsible until they are able to think for themselves, but they cannot be bound to obey parents indiscriminately, because it is not guarranteed that all parents are moral human beings).

But an atheist could not agree to either point 2 or 4. And yet an atheist can, and may atheists do, agree on the core founding values of the United States, and consider them to be moral values. I believe that this is why joining the We Surround Them movement requires agreement on seven of the nine. We do not have to be in perfect agreement to unite and require accountability to the Constitution from "that man behind the curtain" that is our government pretending to be the Great and Powerful Oz.

This is not about left or right, red or blue, liberal or conservative.

This is not about political parties, it is about principles.

Our founders did not say that we should be ruled by the executive branch; they established our laws upon inalienable rights, and said that "among these are the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Our founders did not say that our government was established by the winning political party;

they said "governments are established among men by the consent of the governed."

The WE Surround Them movement is the beginning of the Governed uniting to hold our Servant Government accountable.

If you are getting frustrated because your public servants are following their own agenda, violating the constitution, and ignoring your voice;

and if you want to be part of a grass-roots movement to make the federal government accountable to the Constitution and to the Consent of the Governed;

and if you can uphold seven of the nine principles above, then please click through to We Surround Them.

The symbol of this movement is a nine-part snake modeled on the old Ben Franklin "Unite or Die" Flag of the American Revolution. Just as the several colonies and regions were unique, and yet could join together to cast off the tyranny of King George, so can ordinary citizens, remaining unique, join together in common cause to hold our government accountable and protect our rights from the tyranny of the political parties.

Voting in Tijeras: Crests, IDs, Ballots and Other Things Totally Un-PC

So call me old-fashioned.

This morning, the Engineering Geek and I drove down to the Tijeras Village Hall to vote.

Yes, on election day itself.

What a concept.

I like voting in my precinct in my neighborhood. I see my neighbors. We chat while munching on coffee and cookies provided by the Village of Tijeras.

There are some unspoken rules about what to chat about while waiting in line.

We do talk about the weather, the progress of the I-40 rennovation in the canyon, the village crest--which sports a conquistador helmet with a Zia, a Spanish sword, the charter from Spanish King Phillip II, a yucca plant and a rosary. Rural New Mexico is refreshingly politically incorrect.


Digression: Bernalillo County's crest used to sport a cross above a green hill with sheep grazing and the legend "In hoc signe venices." Then we got an influx of refugees from Lebanon in the 1980s. Some of them were uncomfortable with the cross, which reminded them of being hassled by the Christian police. So, in the name of New Mexico hospitality, the county took the cross off. For a while, the legend remained--In this sign we conquer-- proudly emblazoned over the grazing sheep. (!) Eventually, someone down at the county building in Albuquerque must have noticed the irony, because now there's just the sheep grazing on the hill and a Zia. No cross and no legend.

But back to what is and is not talked about in the voting line:
We do not talk about candidates by name, nor do we wear any T-shirts or campaign buttons.
In small towns, we have to get along long after the election is over. So the joking is mostly on the level of saying that we think we'll write in the totally politically incorrrect Coronado himself, or a neighbor, or the Rancho Verde cat that everybody feeds but nobody owns.


When they officially opened the doors to our precinct station, we filed past the poll watchers, who helped us find our numbers, and then we gave our name and address to the poll-worker. Sometimes they ask for an ID, although the Dems that run the state have made that illegal. You can just state your name and address. When a poll-worker asked for my ID--probably because I am registered third-party--I smiled and stated my name and address again. They gave me the ballot. I wrote down my ballot number as well as my registration number and page, before proceeding to vote.


New Mexico has gone to paper ballots. This is actually more efficient because we sit at study carrels and darken in the ovals with the pens provided. There is room for about 50 people to vote at once this way. So I sat down at the carrel indicated by the poll worker, and began to darken in ovals. It was a lengthy ballot, but I had looked up the ballot on line to plan my vote.


Aside from the presidential race, I mostly voted major-party for the Republicans, because I figure that if the projected coronation takes place, we'll need opposition in Congress. And there were no third party candidates anywhere else on the ticket anyway.


There was a long list of judges up for retention. There were a few I did not know about, so I left those blank. (I believe it is immoral to vote for or against someone I know nothing about). Most of the others are worthy of retention, with one noteable exception--the judge who sentenced a marine who defended his home and family from a crystal meth-crazed car thief at 2 AM to a felony because he shot the guy. I guess this judge thought the guy should have let the gang banger live to come back for revenge--maybe when the wife was home alone with the baby.


While I was mulling over this decision, I was also listening to the busy sounds of neighbors voting. In the old days of machines, the voting rooms were remarkably quiet. Not so, now that we are at carrals. An elderly man and his wife were loudly talking about this same judge. "Vote no for ______!" the wife said authoritatively. "He lets criminals out of jail."
"Too bad we can't vote out the mayor of Albuquerque," he responded. "That one is more interested in telling city workers that they can't have a candy-bar on break (not healthy enough, EHL) than in the fact that the armed burgulary rate is five per day, and the police are busy hassling elders for leaving the dog in the car for five minutes!"
"Vote against the incumbent for District Attorney,then." Said another voice. "She's the one who decided to prosecute (the marine)."


Well, I guess this couple did not wish to keep their entire ballot secret.


I continued down the list. On to the county bond issues, the mill-levy, the constitutional amendments, and the state bond issues.
The county bonds were mostly for things the county should do, not very expensive, and in one case, overdue. A few were not so good. The mill-levy was a continuance of support for UNM hospital that had been first voted on in 1957. The state bonds took even more consideration. Some would support services I use--but not everybody does. And on the other hand, all of them were expensive and the taxpayers are already in hock to the maximum. And we don't know what is going to happen with the economy. If Obama is elected, and keeps even a third of his promises to spend money the Federal government does not have, we'll be in so deep that people won't be able to pay.
So I voted against all of them.
The State's got to learn to live on what it has.


As I was checking my cheat-sheet about the constitutional amendments--some were good and some were not so good--I heard a woman behind me ask for a new ballot.
She had spoiled her ballot. She sounded frazzled, but the poll-workers reassured her and issued her a new ballot and a magnifying glass (cool, huh?); there was a little hub-bub about how to record the problem. It sounded exactly like a busy classroom.


As I continued to accept and reject specific constitutional amendments, someone came in and could not find his name on the list. I listened with interest as the poll-workers used a cell phone to call the county clerk, and then proceeded to check on how to issue a provisional ballot.
All in a day's work.


In New Mexico, the poll workers cannot turn you away ballotless. They must have you sign an affidavit that you have not voted yet, and then you can cast a provisional ballot. It will not be counted, however, until after it is confirmed that you have not voted elsewhere, and that you are a legitimately registered voter in the same county.
This is what delayed our returns during election 2004, when we were still voting with machines. But I'd rather have late returns so long as no one is disenfranchised and yet every vote is legitimate.
Given the state of patronage politics in New Mexico, however, I have serious questions about both.


Everyone at the precinct sounded awake and cheerful, not yet tired from the long day ahead at the precinct polling place. At 7:17 AM, I fed my ballot into the combination ballot-reader and locked ballot box. It read with no problem.
I had cast the 17th ballot in precinct 553. I wrote that down, too. In case of irregularities, I will go down to the county clerk's offices, as I did in 2000--when Gore won the state by just 400 votes--and be an unofficial watcher--to try to make sure the process is fair.


Now we just await the results.
Along with Rational Jenn, I Can't Look.
In New Mexico, this election will be close. And there is much at stake.


I hope there are no Ohios or Floridas this 'lection.
No hanging chads and pregnant bubbles.
It's going to be close nationwide. And the country is so divided . . .
And I worry about what ACORN may have done to fan the flames of division into a full-scale wildfire.

But I did my civic duty. Even though I have very little faith in the whole electoral process. Such as it is.

Here at Ragamuffin House, we have begun to prepare for the economic devastation of an Obama victory. But that's a different post.


Now. We. Wait.

9-11: Subdued Remembrance

Nine Eleven.

We all remember where we were and what we were doing seven years ago today.
The day that, as Rational Jenn has pointed out, was the End of Normal.
As I drove the Boychick to school this morning, we passed the Cedar Crest Fire Station.
The flag was at half-mast and the the trucks were out on the driveway apron, their lights flashing. It was exactly the time that the first tower fell on that day.

So much has changed, but much of it not in the ways that we had hoped.
Americans who can remember 9-11, particularly the Millennialgeneration, lost innocence that day. Older generations remembered other times of lost innocence experienced across the bloody twentieth century. I remember looking into the young eyes of the Homelanders--those who will not directly remember 9-11--hoping that out of this terrible attack we could bring to them a world of greater prudence and liberty.

Prudence. I hoped that with this wake-up call we would come to understand that we have real enemies, people who would like nothing better than to see the United States stumble and fall.
That we could not keep up a way of life built on massive foreign debt, and even worse, a growing burden placed on future generations.
That we had to end our dependence on foreign oil and become self-reliant on our own, abundant resources.

Liberty. I hoped that we would understand that our greatest value and our greatest asset is the idea that all of us have been endowed with the liberty to forge our own destinies in life.
That people living in freely-chosen associations with one another, and who protect their rights and are engaged in the pursuit of their own happiness , are the most unlikely to murder innocent human beings in the name of some great ideological cause.

But seven years later, it seems that we heard the alarm to wake up and smell the coffee, only to hit the snooze button and roll over. No sleeping giant was awakened on 9-11.
We continue to pile up debt to cloud the future. We have stifled the engines of creativity and commerce. We have allowed our government to ride roughshod over our liberties in the name of security. And we have spent blood and treasure on ill-considered foreign adventures that leave us no more secure and a good deal poorer than we were seven years ago.

There is greatness sleeping in the American soul.

But it does not slumber in the empty promises of politicians, who are engaged in a heated discussion of lipstick on pigs while they continue to loot the dreams of citizens.

There is greatness sleeping in these United States.

But we will not awaken it until we recognize that it lies within the strength, goodness, and sense of people living their lives, using good old Yankee ingenuity to solve problems.

I want to see the Freedom towers rise from Ground Zero.
I want to see them built in liberty and as a physical representation of that good old Yankee ingenuity, unfettered, to have a go at solving problems in ways that we cannot yet imagine.

I am thinking of this:

"Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet whose stern, impassioned stress,
a thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness.."

And:

"...whose alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears."

May it be so, for ourselves and our children, in our own day and own time.

"...Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor

In the summer of 2001, I spent the Glorious Fourth at the Aleph Summer Kallah. A Kallah is a period of Jewish study undertaken traditionally in the summer, after Shavuot.

The 4th of July was on a Thursday that year, and Thursday is a Torah reading day in the synagogue. We had morning services with Rabbi Arthur Waskow in the big tent that is part of Kallah.

I don't remember what Torah portion was read that day, but I will never forget the Haftarah (prophetic reading). Rabbi Waskow stood at the Bimah and chanted to the tune of Haftarah Trop:

"In Congress, July 4, 1776: When in the course of human events..."

He chanted the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. When I was growing up, it was the custom the read the Declaration out loud on the 4th at the park before the fireworks. But to place the Declaration in the canon of prophetic writings was not something that I had ever considered. And yet, Rabbi Waskow was right--it is a prophetic document in a very real sense. The reading sent shivers up my spine.

We discussed the Declaration rather than having a D'var Torah (sermon). I do not remember the particulars of the discussion, but the import was the idea that the Eternal Creator of the Universe delights in human freedom and self-determiniation. There were many important rabbis in the Jewish Renewal movement there that day, so I did not contribute until the end of the discussion.

I suggested that Rabbi Waskow chant also the end of the Declaration for it is a very powerful statement of commitment by the signers of the document. And Rabbi Waskow stood aside and called me for the honor of chanting these words:

"... And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

I have always thought these words are the most powerful in the Declaration. To understand how powerful, we must remember that to sign this document was an act of treason in the eyes of King George. And this was no hollow statement. The penalty for treason is death.

It is easy for us today to forget, as we have our barbeques, and watch the fireworks, that the founders of our Republic did not know the outcome of the revolution that they began. When they got together to "hatch much treason," as Samuel Adams put it, they were taking a very real risk that it might not work out. When George Washington and the Continental Army were starving at Valley Forge, they faced the real possiblity that all could be lost in this desperate gamble, and that tyranny would prevail.

And yet they persisted in their revolution in support of an idea--the idea and ideal that all human beings are created equal and that a nation can be build on the foundation of liberty and self-determination.

Many of those who signed the Declaration did in fact gamble and lose their property; and some their very lives. And even more so, did the ordinary "Americans," who responded to the call of freedom and gave their lives in the monumental struggle to give birth to a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all...are created equal," as Abe Lincoln so simply and eloquently put it 87 years later.

And I wonder, do we, their spiritual descendents, have that kind of dedication? Do we understand the meaning of staking "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" for the ideal of liberty?

I believe that our nation, out of all the nations, has a unique heritage of liberty. We are a people founded not on blood, nor on soil, but on the strength of an idea. Anyone who is willing to pledge life, fortune and honor in the service of this idea is one of us--regardless of birth. Of all of the nations, we have a unique capacity for greatness. But it is up to us to reach for that greatness and pledge everything we are and everything we have, to make it happen. Regardless of the costs.

Our lives. Our fortunes. Our sacred honor.

When we pledge the first two, we create the third.

I am reminded of the poem that is on the Minuteman statue in Concord:

"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

His flag to April's breeze unfurled.

Here once the embattled farmer stood,

And fired the shot heard 'round the world."

Will the echo if that shot continue to be heard? Do we understand what "sacred honor" means? Would we be willing to give our lives and our fortunes up to the cause of liberty?

Are we willing to demand this of our leaders?

These questions should be foremost on our minds and hearts this Glorious Fourth.