For the Fallen
As most Americans probably do, I have a lot of questions about what's going on in the country.
First question: Why do we need a "deal" in Congress to control the southern border when the United States has valid laws, processes, and procedures already in place to manage immigration?
Next question: Why are New York City students being sent home so that their school can be used as a dormitory for illegal aliens?
Third question: Why do I have to buy a ticket, present government-issued identification, and go through security checks to fly on a plane when illegal aliens breaking the law by crashing the border are flown to their US destinations without questions, identification, vetting, or payment for their tickets? (Oh, wait. Taxpayers like you and I are paying for their tickets. Silly me.)
Those are only the first three questions, and I could go on for quite some time. I'm sure you could as well. Five years ago, these scenarios were unimaginable. Yet look how quickly they all transpired and turned into national catastrophes.
My questions above focused on the illegal immigration crisis. But there is a smorgasbord of constitutional crises happening daily in the US. Any one of us could ask one hundred questions and just be getting started.
What about the hundreds of thousands of fentanyl deaths? What about the crime waves in major cities? What about the dismantling of police protection? What about school curricula promoting the sexualization of children and the throttling of parental influence?
How about the government threatening parents speaking out at school board meetings, Catholic Latin mass goers, and people who pray outside abortion clinics? Do such actions by the government respect our constitutional rights?
Can we ever expect any satisfactory answers to our questions? Now, that's a silly question.
You won't find much coverage of this on our dinosaur media, but farmers all across Europe are revolting against proposed EU tax burdens and regulations to be imposed upon them by the government. Germany is the most recent country where farmers have risen up, and the videos of their massive and spreading protests, as well as the overwhelming popular support, are stunning to behold.
Although legacy media is careful to guard this well-kept secret, the farmer protests have been going on for quite a while. Besides Germany, farmers in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Spain are among those standing up to big government bullying. Of course, they are being slapped with the handy label, "far right," which in the media applies to anyone standing up for personal liberty.
There's quite a bit of coverage on these widespread protests on "X"--just search for "farmer protest" and you'll have a lot of scrolling and video to take in. In the comments, I often see the question "Why aren't American farmers protesting?"
I have a theory on that. Most of the European countries protesting have seen and suffered long hardship under either communist or fascist rule. They understand tyranny and dictatorship in a way most Americans cannot (at least, not up until the current administration).
These European farmers are willing to draw the line and stand against the authoritarian regimes that are encroaching upon their nations. They will not give up their hard-won freedom and independence without a fight.
The farmers in the United States would be wise to watch closely and to learn from their European counterparts. For us, the time for individual rights and freedom is rapidly running out.
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| Farmers protest in Germany - January 2024 |
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Freedom of religion is the first right recognized in the opening sentence of the Bill of Rights, the ten Articles ratified as Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in 1791.
Freedom of religion opens the first sentence of the First Amendment. Why would that be?
In a free country, people honor religion as an individual right derived from what the Founders referred to as "the Creator." Government has no place in the personal faith choices of the people. The issue is between the individual and God.
The violations of the First Amendment that are transpiring recently, with undercover FBI agents infiltrating Catholic Latin masses in search of "domestic terrorists," and with violent anti-Semitism running rampant throughout our educational institutions, would have enraged our nation's founders.
When I was growing up in a Sunday Mass-going Catholic household, my father would not stand for any joking or disparagement of other religions. If he caught us giggling about Jewish yamulkes, Buddhist monks with shaved heads and orange togas, or any other visible feature of another faith, he would shut us down instantly. Dad would reiterate the fact that "other people's religions are as important to them as ours is to us." We learned to be respectful of different beliefs. By extension, we learned to be respectful of other people, period.
Despite the current national chaos, research shows that America remains a religious nation. If we can hold fast to our values, we may continue to remain that way. I certainly hope so. As the Founders knew, freedom of religion is the key to a free country.
