This article was originally published on June 18th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
I have this dream. I dream that one day I will live in freedom. I dream that I will be able to choose where to spend the money I earn. I dream that I will be able to open a business without having to worry about paying the extortionists for protection. I dream that I will be able to write out my opinion and post it on the Internet without having to worry that some spy for a malicious organization might be “interested” in my work. I dream of living in a country where I don’t have to worry about coming home and finding my computer equipment gone due to legalized, unwarranted theft. I dream of living in a country where I can take responsibility for myself, where I don’t have to worry about some faceless government bureaucrat getting involved in every aspect of my life, from whether or not I have to buckle my seatbelt to what I can and can’t eat when I go out. I dream of a place where I can live out my life being treated like the adult I am. I dream of a mythical place known as America.
Everyday I wake to reality. Every two weeks Caesar takes his pound of flesh from my paycheck. Every year I have to report the money I have earned on the side to the IRS so they can take their cut of my money and spend it on a war I don’t support. Everyday I see stories that reflect the nation’s ills. I read news reports about the war, torture and death. I hardly watch TV news anymore as they seem to only report insignificant stories. They spend too much time reporting on Paris Hilton and American Idol and other celebrities which only serves to distract from what’s really happening in the world. Their talking heads think they can tell me how to think and feel. I used to listen to them, but no more. The cloak of legitimacy they once had has fallen off and I see them now for the propagandists they are. How is it we have come to such a point? Why is it we no longer seem to care about the rights we once cherished so much? How is it we as a people have allowed the government to become so invasive?
The events that have brought us to this point stretch far back into the past, some so far back that anyone who may have witnessed them is no longer alive. There are too many events to name and too many laws have been passed that have chiseled away at our freedoms, some of these laws many have even applauded. Once the events have taken place they are emblazoned upon out collective psyche and sometimes the truth behind such events can become obfuscated. Once the laws are passed they are very seldom repealed. All this history has brought us to this point. While history is an interesting study, it is of little help when trying to change things. A more pertinent question to ask is how do we get ourselves out of this mess we’ve created? How do we restore the rights we once enjoyed?
There are many answers to these questions. One answer is to work through the system. The problem with this has been that the vast majority of Americans seem to think there are only two political parties in the United States and that we must vote for someone in one party or the other or our vote is wasted, as I explained in an earlier article. If everyone who has grown tired of the shenanigans of these two parties were to vote for a Libertarian or other Independent candidate than changes might start to take place. It seems this will never happen because of an irrational fear that most people seem to have that if they vote for a third party their vote will somehow be wasted. This worry need not be of consequence anymore, for there is a candidate who embodies the dream of freedom and is a member of one of the two major parties, the Republican Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is a believer in smaller constitutional government. As a believer in the constitution, he believes in respecting the Bill of Rights which has been largely ignored and trampled by the current administration. Ron Paul would like to restore the integrity of the Bill of Rights and return the government’s respect for it. He voted against the Iraq war. He would like to abolish the IRS. He wants to return our lives to us. He wants to allow us to decide for ourselves how we should run our lives. He wants to take the government out of our personal affairs. Look into Ron Paul for yourselves, look up his voting record, go to Youtube and look up his videos, listen to what he has to say on a variety of issues, you certainly won’t see much of this reported on in the main stream media. They would prefer to ignore him, to have you believe he is a dark horse, a non-contender. Don’t listen to them. Support for Ron Paul continues to grow as his message continues to spread. It is a powerful message. You might not agree with everything he has to say, but his message of peace, liberty, freedom and individual responsibility is a far cry from the message of war, terror, fear and a heavy burden for the American people that comes from the other candidates.
A friend of mine once told me that he felt ten percent of the people were left, ten percent were right and the other eighty percent of us were somewhere in the middle. Ron Paul is the only candidate that shares the views of that eighty percent. He is showing more and more people that they are indeed Libertarian, even though they might not have known it. He has rekindled the dream of freedom to this country. He might not be able to single handedly change the system, but should he win the primary, and should he be elected president in 2008, it would most certainly be a step in the right direction.
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