In Joseph Addison’s 1712 play "Cato a Tragedy," Cato the Younger said, "It is not now time to talk of aught/But chains or conquest, liberty or death." He was in his last days before his death and proclaimed his beliefs in liberty and freedom. The great Patrick Henry, an elder statesman from Virginia and one of the most underrated of the Founding Fathers, proclaimed during his speech to the Second Virginia Convention in 1775, “Give me liberty or give me death!” It was said in reference — or some may say deference to — Cato.
Throughout our nation’s history, we have time and time again cried out for liberty. But as time goes by, these cries grow quieter. They grow weaker. They grow farther apart. This July, our nation will celebrate our 248th birthday. We celebrate many things on July 4th: Whether we’re celebrating the Declaration of Independence, our resistance to oppressive British rule, or our tradition of revolution against tyranny, all these things are relevant and should be celebrated. But one thing isn’t being celebrated as much and as proudly as it should. Liberty.
Liberty is in our DNA; it’s in the very consciousness of this nation and every fiber of our being. But now it’s in danger of becoming our unconsciousness, and the consequences of that are dire. Liberty is “the state or condition of people who can act and speak freely,” with the “power to do or choose what you want to." It’s important to know and understand because as time goes by, it’s becoming a social pariah. Liberties are being deemed petty and or unnecessary in these modern times.
We are seeing this play out in front of our very eyes. Places like Australia, New Zealand, Austria, and Canada for example saw their liberties brutally and systematically destroyed or eroded. Whether it’s your right to free speech, your right to peacefully assemble, or your right to just go outside and enjoy the fresh air, these rights are being pummeled to death.
Civil liberties are under attack here at home as well. Our right to do what we wanted and where was restricted under the guise of public safety during COVID. Rules were made by unelected bureaucrats, doctors, and politicians alike. They were able to decide where we could or couldn’t go, with or without showing someone who wasn’t our doctor what our personal health status was. Before the pandemic, we only had to worry about protecting our Second Amendment rights. But now, under the guise of COVID, we are in the fight of our lives. Our First, Second, Fourth Amendments — and more — are being eroded into the abyss, and every day brings news of more rights being eroded. As the Austrian-British economist and philosopher Friedrich August von Hayek said, “Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.”
If you’re paying attention, you’ll know that parents’ school choices for their children are being taken away in some states. In California, laws have been proposed and or passed that remove parental rights from knowing what goes on in our children’s schools. Laws that allow our kids to be taken from us if we don’t affirm their gender. Parents are being looked at through the eyes of federal agents as domestic terrorists for speaking their minds at school board meetings, the same way they look at drug dealers, human traffickers, and even terror suspects. And now, the federal government can look at your personal bank account and bank transactions.
The leftist armies of tyranny have taken form, and they used to do it with extreme camouflage and secrecy. They were binding their hostile takeover of your liberties with smiles on their faces; showing you a simple and allegedly minor infraction of your liberties dispersed in a bouquet of roses with one hand in front of them. But with the other hand closely held to their backs, a blade of vicious subjugation. They cry foul when caught, saying you are just being irrational or having a knee-jerked overreaction to a very minor issue. Now, because of our inaction and the suppression of our voices, they are open and blatant with their agenda. This state and many more are now actively and openly going after us and our children, along with our liberties.
In his speech at the 1964 Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where we were free.” He was speaking about the threats from an outside power like the Soviet Union and how the evils of communism and socialism pose a direct, clear, and present danger to the United States. I would dare say that he, like so many other great Americans, saw that he was also talking about the same threats from an enemy within. We see that today, the biggest threat to liberty and freedom comes from within.
My friends, peel off the blinders they are trying to put on your eyes and see. Uncover your ears from the muffs they are offering and listen. Look and listen with an eagle’s eyes and ears. Liberty doesn’t go away crying havoc into the night. It doesn’t slip away under the waves of society for all the world to see. No, my friends, liberty slips quietly asleep, never to be awoken again; it burns slowly away like a candle being starved of air. It is unnoticeable to those who are not paying attention or to those who do not see them as being vital to our existence. And when the sheep awake from their slumber and see that liberty has died, they cry out and ask, “How is this so? How did we not see this coming?”
Liberty is the very essence of being an American, and we must remind ourselves every day that it exists and be grateful that it does. Never should you “normalize” our liberties and freedoms. They were bought and paid for with blood and the lives of patriots that came before us. They were so important to them that they uprooted their entire lives and families and risked everything just to ensure they were enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Of the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence, five were captured by the British, tortured, and killed. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the War, and another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. These men risked — and some gave up — everything for our freedom.
My friends, I beseech you, settle for nothing and expect everything. Ask yourself here and now, what is it that you are ready to sacrifice for living in peace and freedom? What is it that you are ready to willingly and without reservation give up to allow you to live a life free of oppression and tyranny? The answer, my friends, should be an easy one; however, it comes at a great cost.
It was President Thomas Jefferson, in his correspondence with William Smith in Paris in 1787, who said, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants; it is it’s natural manure.” As we have seen over the years, our political and ideological opponents have taken to a new strategy: one of insulting, intimidating, and more. They go after not only us as individuals but also go after our friends and family. They have made it their mission in life to destroy ours.
It takes patriots with strong hearts and minds to fight for the liberty Patrick Henry shouted for on that Thursday, March 23rd, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia. He was speaking of a war in 1775, a war which would lead to the birth of a nation that is the envy of the free world. Our American Revolution spurred revolutions of similar purpose around the world. The war we observe growing larger on the horizon may not be a war of physical aggression, but it is a war regardless. It has been labeled a culture war, but I assure you, it is a war on our liberty and everything we hold dear. Remember, my fellow patriots, nothing in this country or world is free. Everything, contrary to what our liberal friends say, has a price. And the price is what you decide to pay for it. It was the wise Greek tragedian Euripides who originally said that he “would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” Liberty is for the strong and brave, and bondage is for the weak and cowardly.
Be not afraid of standing up to fight. Because fight we must! The more we acquiesce and watch these events unfold, the faster we will damn ourselves to a future of subjugation.
As Patrick Henry would say: Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war has begun! The next gale that sweeps from the east might bring federal laws that strip any rights parents had for their children’s education! The next gale from the West might bring radical laws that allow schools to hide info about their kids! The next gale from the south could bring more drugs than you could imagine that will poison and kill our youth. It takes patriots with strong hearts and minds to fight for the liberty Patrick Henry shouted for on that March day in Virginia. In his closing remarks to the Virginia Convention of 1775, he said:
“Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
