by Ed Hohmann

In 1776, the American colonies fought a bloody Revolutionary War to win their freedom from the English crown. The brave men and women who rose in rebellion against their own government well knew the price of throwing off the yoke of slavery when the odds were against them. They understood how precious and precarious freedom really is. The Founding Fathers spent the years immediately following the American Revolution carefully crafting a form of government for their new country that would, to the best of their ability, ensure freedom from tyranny for their descendants.

With the smell of gunpowder and the taste of blood still fresh in their memory, the Founders stressed the importance of remaining ever vigilant to prevent even the slightest encroachment on America's new freedom. They knew that the major threat to that freedom would be the new American government itself, the very one that they were creating. Repeatedly, the Founders warned that the battle to preserve their hard-won freedom would be a continuous one, as that freedom would always be under attack from those who want to rule the rest of us.

Unfortunately, the history of America since the current Constitution and Bill of Rights were written has been that of a relentless, continuous erosion of the freedom guaranteed in those documents. As memories of the Revolution dimmed, Americans took their freedom more and more for granted. Rather than something to be jealously guarded, freedom came to be thought of as an American birthright; as something that other nations may never know, but Americans will always have.

When America was young, a wary and vigilant population held their government strictly in check. Because of their watchfulness, the American government appeared benign, so that generation after generation grew up without it being a threat to their freedom. Foreign governments might be oppressive, but America had the best government in the world. Bad things might happen overseas, but never here. The American people began to trust their government to such an extent that the government itself was eventually able to usurp the role of guardian of liberty! Lulled into a false sense of security, Americans completely lost sight of the fact that any and all government is inherently evil. Far from being their guardian of liberty, it is a robber baron, to whom the American people have handed over their loaded guns and turned their backs, settling into their easy chairs with a beer in one hand and a remote control in the other.

The American people ignored the Founding Fathers' advice to avoid all foreign entanglements. Two World Wars and many smaller ones were fought under the guise of preserving America's freedom. However, each and every war in which this nation engaged only served to limit freedom. By using foreign enemies as a distraction, domestic foes have repeatedly conned the American public into happily "sacrificing" some of their freedom in order to "preserve" it.

This incremental destruction of our freedom has resulted in the gradual enslavement of our nation. Central to this process has been the creation of a welfare state to eliminate self-reliance, and a police state to monitor the entire population and ensure their absolute obedience. The fundamental American concepts of personal liberty and individual independence are a thing of the past. Americans are no longer in control of their government; the government is in control of its people. Most Americans today, though, would argue that this is the way it should be: the government must have control over our lives in order to take care of us and keep us safe.

All of the major planks of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto are currently in place in America, yet most Americans still think of themselves as free. Meanwhile, both President Bill Clinton and Texas Governor George W. Bush are on record as saying that Americans have too much freedom!

Now, in the final days of 1999, the freedom upon which this great nation was founded is all but gone. A passive population has allowed the American government to ignore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There was a time when a series of bloodless battles would have preserved the freedom that was so dearly won by the American Revolutionaries. That time has passed.

Blood has already been shed at the notorious Ruby Ridge assassinations and during the Waco massacres. Miraculously, no one was killed in the recent Seattle police rampage. However, eyewitnesses, including medical doctors, reported that the police inflicted serious physical injuries by throwing flash bang grenades and firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters directly into their victim’s faces at point blank range. In Seattle, as at Ruby Ridge and Waco, the targets included small children, mothers, and elderly people who were peaceful and threatened no one.

Our country is rapidly resembling the nightmarish future world depicted in Alex Jones’ prophetic documentary Police State 2000. When that video was first released in the summer of 1999, many people could not believe that this was actual footage of real police state activity right here in America, with genuine police checkpoints and multinational armed forces being trained to round up American citizens into concentration camps. Some of the callers on Alex’s talk shows thought that the cops and soldiers were paid actors. Nobody thinks so anymore.

The American government is waging war against its own people in order to keep them subjugated. It is difficult to see how the men and women of today’s America can regain control of their government at this late date without further bloodshed. Yet, we must try. The longer we wait, the greater will be the odds against us, and the more costly it will become, until at some point we will have to fight with no hope of victory. Then our only choice will be whether to perish rather than to live as slaves.