AN ENCOURAGING THOUGHT

By Jim Beers

This morning my parish priest mentioned a paradox worth pondering: "When it is easy to be a Christian, it is hard to be a Christian; when it is hard to be a Christian, it is easy to be a Christian". That wise observation about human nature has application for all of us facing a government that threatens our freedom, our culture, our traditions, and our Constitutional Republic. To paraphrase, "When there is no threat to your (property rights, guns, animal ownership, public lands, rural lifestyle, transportation, children's moral values, etc. - you fill in your own concerns), it is hard to remain vigilant about defending your rights; when your (as above) are threatened, it is easy to enunciate and defend those rights".
There is no doubt in my mind that at no other time in my 6+ decades of life were the threats to property, hunting, fishing, trapping, animal ownership, animal use, public lands, state government, local community autonomy, timber management, wildlife management, ranching, farming, outdoor recreation, transportation, pet ownership, children's environment, families, human dignity, and all of the Rights specifically enumerated in The Bill of Rights as threatened with destruction as they are today.
Eighty years of federal growth resulting from two Constitutional Amendments authorizing a federal income tax and the popular election of US Senators has fed a federal behemoth that has grown out of all proportion to the good of a Constitutional Republic.
Forty years of social turbulence and radical movements that have attached themselves to the federal "beanstalk" have given us animal "rights", "Wilderness" closure of public lands and unimaginable fires, "endangered species" confidence games that take property and impede economic development, sexual license of every imaginable stripe, replacement of parental authority with government authority, "environmental" laws that are 70 to 80 percent unnecessary yet give radical groups legal vetoes over human welfare, and incredible scams like global warming claims that threaten
government authority over every aspect of our lives and expose the ignorance of an increasingly ill-educated populace.
All of this terminates in the acceptance of more and more federal power for every aspect of our lives as best exemplified in the current "Bailout/Stimulus" fraud wherein Billions are appropriated overnight for "emergency" bailout of banks but then goes to other things. The current Trillion being rushed to authorization as an "emergency" to help the unemployed and to "stimulate" the economy will go to everything from Congressmen's favored institutions (extending federal controls and paying political debts) or to criminal enterprises like ACORN as well as to condoms
(eliminating children) and Billions and Billions for other Fabian-Socialist causes like dictating company salaries and business operations like what cars to build that are altogether like replacing the propellers on the engines of the American socialist movement bi-plane with jet engines. This "emergency" cover scheme has been an historic ruse for establishment of all manner of dictatorships and oligarchies that have come and gone throughout history. One need look no further today than Venezuela and Zimbabwe to observe the same scenario; elected governments that use "emergencies" and central government authority to cement themselves into "unreplaceable" dictatorships to the great distress of their citizenry and the national welfare.
It is a fact that The White House is now bursting with radicals that have and intend to achieve these Fabian-Socialist ends from gun control to "rights" for animals and the control of all property, businesses, and human activities by an "unchallegeable" federal government. The House of Representatives is controlled by a majority and by a "Speaker" that not only support these same goals and this White House; even more do they strive to accelerate and enlarge on these Fabian-Socialist goals before they might lose this sympathetic White House and an overwhelmingly sympathetic US Senate. What is true of the House of Representatives is identically true of the current US Senate. This "troika" amounts to one-party government and will almost certainly be able to soon place sympathetic Justices on the Supreme Court that will rule from their political sympathies and not from the Constitution to assure that the coming federal laws and treaties and regulations and bureaucratic actions are all affirmed. Add to this an overwhelmingly socialist-oriented federal workforce plus state governments, state agencies, and Universities that are all increasingly similarly oriented and increasingly dependent on the federal "dole" of "grants",
"cost-sharing", "partnerships", and now "stimulus" money with all the attendant "strings" and you have a very gloomy outlook to say the least.
Yet, there may be "hope". If it is true that being a good Christian is easiest when it is hardest: then today being a strong defender of rights should be easy in today's atmosphere. There is no doubt that the threats were never greater: the only question is how many of us will stand up for freedom in the face of these threats? Each of us has certain strengths and capitalizing on our strengths is where we are most effective. Community dialogues, talking to friends and acquaintances, writing, contacting those that might benefit from truth, coming together with like-minded people, and not buckling to intimidation are but a few of the things for each of us to consider. Our American freedoms are too precious to lose by cowardice; once
lost, their replacement is next to impossible. Not only our current families and communities, but also our descendants are depending on us.Jim Beers 4 February 2009