Just in time for Halloween: a civil liberties graveyard

The Young Americans for Liberty have been quite active at the University of Toledo this semester and their latest is rather creative. Just in time for Halloween, they've decided to host a civil liberties graveyard, mourning the loss of liberties and freedoms. Oh - they're handing out candy, too.

Here's the press release:

TOLEDO, OH—This Tuesday come see The Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Toledo in one of their spookiest activism projects yet, THE CIVIL LIBERTIES GRAVEYARD!!!!

The civil liberties graveyard will be filled with the tombstones of our beloved civil liberties and freedoms. Some liberties featured will include our health freedoms, religious liberty, right to privacy and right to bear arms. Along side those freedoms we will have tombstones mourning our losses of sound money and peace with two mystery tombstones. But be careful viewing the stones because the commander-in-chief and chief grim reaper of our civil liberties will be walking around with his scythe looking for more liberties he can take away. To put it more bluntly, we are going to have someone walking around in a Grim Reaper costume with a Barack Obama mask because in legend the grim reaper kills people and in real life our current president, Barack Obama kills our freedoms.

Please come take some pictures and take some candy... if you dare!

When:
Tuesday, October 29th
Noon-5 pm

Where:
The University of Toledo
Centennial Mall
2801 W Bancroft St, Toledo, OH 43606

Who:
The Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Toledo

Note:
-Happy Halloween!

Declaring our Independence

As we celebrate another Fourth of July and the birth of our nation, I think it's appropriate to remember the conditions we were under and why those brave men who became our founding fathers thought it necessary and just to declare our independence from England and the tyranny of King George.

This was the object of the Declaration of Independence. Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of, not merely to say things which had never been said before; but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take. Neither aiming at originality of principle or sentiment, nor yet copied from any particular and previous writing, it was intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion." ~ Thomas Jefferson

They believed it  proper - polite, actually - to explain their reasoning, so the Declaration of Independence was written. Most people are familiar with the first part, but few take the time to read the list of offenses. Take time to do so today. I think you'll be surprised at how we seem to have come full circle with our current government structure exercising the same tyrannies we fought a war over in 1776.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
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.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
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:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
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.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. 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.

Happy Birthday America!

Quote of the Day - defending our liberties

As we celebrate the birth of our nation this week, it seemed appropriate to feature this quote:

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." ~ Samuel Adams

Happy Birthday to a most unique and well-founded United States of America!

Quotes of the Day vs Ohio laws and regulations

As part of my writing for Ohio Watchdog, I cover a lot of the proposed laws and regulations coming out of Columbus, primarily from Republicans because they're in the majority.

I'm working on a story now about the proposed revisions to the precious metals dealer license. Apparently, criminals used to use pawn shops to liquidate their stolen goods and now they're using businesses that buy and sell gold and other precious metals to do the same.

Of course, that means TOTBAL ... there ought to be a law.

With this on my mind, I opened my daily email from Liberty Tree and find these two quotes which seemed so very appropriate.

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." ~ Alexis de Tocqueville

"It used to be the boast of free men that, so long as they kept within the bounds of the known law, there was no need to ask anybody's permission or to obey anybody's orders. It is doubtful whether any of us can make this claim today." ~ Friedrich August von Hayek

I can't help but wonder how we got to this point and whether or not we even realize how much freedom we've actually lost.

Deneen Borelli at BlogCon2013

I was at my first BlogCon in Denver in 2011 when I first heard Deneen Borelli speak - and I was inspired! I immediately ordered her book, "Blacklash: How Obama and the Left Are Driving Americans to the Government Plantation".

Sadly, being a Kindle version, when I saw her again at BlogCon2012, she couldn't sign it for me. But it is one of the few books I return to again and again for inspiration.

She spoke to BlogCon2013 yesterday and began, as she usually does, proclaiming "America is an exceptional country."

"I am living proof that America is an exceptional country where anyone can succeed," she said. And her story is definitely one of living the American Dream.

But it wasn't easy. She said she lived for a while on Ramen noodles because that's all she could afford. In the end, she got an education, wrote a book, is a Fox News contributor and the Director of Outreach for FreedomWorks, sponsor of BlogCon.

"When can someone like that end up as a Fox News contributor, author … you can’t tell me that America is not an exceptional country because it is," she emphasized.

She promotes herself as a living example of how the principles of freedom and liberty can appeal to everyone, especially minorities. She grew up in a Democratic household, but found that the messages of that political party didn't reflect what she learned and came to believe.

"If I can adopt these principles, anybody can - and boy do we need more Americans to adopt the principles of freedom."

Building on the theme of her book, she said that our tax dollars are being used to create a dependent class who will always vote for their masters. She contrasts that with the conservative view:

"We’re not telling people what to do. We want them to be empowered and be the boss of themselves."

She explained that President Barack Obama believes in the power of the government - not in the power of the individual. She advised to use his own words against him and show how his policies are hitting minorities and the poor disproportionately - especially his energy policies which unnecessarily raise the costs of gasoline, heating and cooling and his opposition to school choice which traps primarily minority children in low-performing schools.

He - and others - promote victimhood, she said.

"Blacks are victims who need special help to get by…this message is coming from black media, preachers, liberals, ... and that (message is) Blacks are victims of the white guy with the only hope being government."

Borelli has a powerful message: " The liberty message is about empowering individuals – especially those in the Black community who are under the cloud of the Black liberal establishment," she said. "There are some you won’t be able to reach…but if I can do it and understand it and come to my own conclusion and not be told, anyone can."

"It’s liberty, not government, that allows us to pursue our dreams," she emphasized.

But in order to reach others and spread the message, it takes a relationship. We can't just reach out to people at election time and expect them to pay attention to us, much less hear and understand the message.

While she said the common message of liberty is appealing regardless of what color you are, there are challenges in outreach to minority communities. "In a perfect world, it shouldn’t matter who the messenger is – this isn’t a perfect world," she said.

She gave us some tools to help start the conversation, telling us we can ask questions like "Why does Obama oppose school choice, trapping your kids in failing schools while sending his own to an elite, private school?" and "Why is Al Sharpton rich and you're not?"

She also encouraged everyone to support conservatives who are also minorities in their efforts and to welcome into our groups and tea party organizations the Black conservatives who "come out of the closet." We need to engage them and incorporate them into our regular activities and work with them to spread the message that:

"America is an exceptional country – an exceptional country - and our country does not guarantee you success, but it is liberty that guarantees you the opportunity to succeed."

Deneen Borelli, and her husband Tom, will be in Toledo on May 21st for a dinner event sponsored by the Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition.  Information and tickets are available here.