Presents
If We Were Still Free
Pamphlet #902

Walter William’s

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

If you have you been enjoying those news articles beating the drums of war,
and reporting how our courageous troops are grandly attacking Afghanistan and the Taliban -
close your eyes and remember the images of one of those bombed out Afghani villages.
Are you smiling because you feel revenge?
While you're looking at that image of a bombed village,
look at the smelly fly-covered guts of a little Afghan boy
and his mutilated hand laying fifty feet from the mush that was his body,
and notice and feel the hate in the eyes of his twin brother
who vows to kill an American when he grows up. .

It is true that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance,
and part of that vigilance has been, traditionally,
keeping a watchful eye on laws and on lawbreaking lawmakers.
given the current pace of law spewing and unconstitutional regulation-writing,
you could watch, plead and struggle "within the system"
24 hours a day for your entire life
and end up infinitely less free than when you began.
Why throw your life away on a futile effort?
Face it. If "working within the system" could halt tyranny,
the tyrants would outlaw it.

Why do you think they encourage you to vote,
to write letters, to talk to them in public forums?
 It's to divert your energies.
To keep you tame.

'The system" as it presently exists is nothing but a rat maze.
You run around thinking you're getting somewhere.
Your masters occasionally reward you with a little pellet
that encourages you to believe you're accomplishing something.
And in the meantime,
you are as much their property and their pawn as if you were a branded slave.

In the effort of fighting them on their terms and with their authorized and approved tools,
you have given your life's energy to them as surely as if you were toiling in their cotton fields,
under the lash of an overseer.

The only way we're going to get off this road to Hell is if we jump off.
If we refuse to cooperate with evil.
How we do that is up to each of us.
I can't decide for you, nor you for me.
(Unlike congress people, who think they can decide for everybody).
But this totalitarian runaway truck is not going to stop unless we stop it.

Stopping it might include any number of things: tax resistance;
public civil disobedience; wide-scale, silent non-cooperation;
highly noisy non-cooperation; boycotts; secession efforts;
monkey wrenching; computer hacking;
dirty tricks against government agents;
public shunning of employees of abusive government agencies; alternative,
self-sufficient communities that provide their own medical care and utilities.

There are thousands of avenues to take,
and this is something most of us still need to give more thought to
before we can build an effective resistance.
We will each choose the courses that are right for our own circumstances,
personalities and beliefs. Whatever we do, though,
we must remember that we are all already outlaws.

Not one of us can be certain of going through a single day
without violating some law or regulation we've never even heard of.
We are all guilty in the eyes of today's law.
If someone in power chooses to target us,
we can all, already,
be prosecuted for something - for anything - for nothing.

And I'm sure you know that your claims of "good intentions" won't protect you,
as the similar claims of politicians protect them.
Politicians are above the law. YOU are under it.
Crushed under it. When you look at it that way,
we have little left to lose by breaking laws creatively and purposefully.

Yes, some of us will suffer horrible consequences for our lawbreaking.
It is very risky to actively resist unbridled power.
It is especially risky to go public with resistance
(unless hundreds of thousands publicly join us),
and it becomes riskier the closer we get to tyranny.
For that reason, among many others,
I would never recommend any particular course of action to anyone -
and I hope you'll think twice before taking "advice"
from anybody about things that could jeopardize your life or well-being.

But if we don't resist in the best ways we know how and if a good number
of us don't resist loudly and publicly - all of us will suffer the much worse
consequences of living under total oppression.
And whatever courses of action we choose,
we must remember that this legislative "revolution"
against We the People will not be stopped by politeness.

It will not be stopped by requests.
It will not be stopped by "working within a system"
governed by those who regard us as nothing but cattle.
It will not be stopped by pleading for justice
from those who will resort to any degree of trickery or violence to rule us.

It will not be stopped unless we are willing to risk our lives,
our fortunes and our sacred honors to stop it.
Recall the words of Winston Churchill:
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed,
if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly,
you may come to the moment when you will have to fight
with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival.
There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory,
because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." "

The bottom line is that if politicians weren't in the business of granting favors
and exacting tribute, every single issue surrounding campaign
finance reform would be irrelevant.
After all, why would anyone spend money for influence,
access, favors and tribute if the only thing
that politicians do is to live up to their oaths
to uphold and defend the Constitution?

 --Walter E. Williams

is

Published by:

Rhine Publishing Co.

If you would like to have your essay published
as part of the American Wisdom Series
submit your manuscript to Rhine Publishing Co
at the address above for consideration, or e-mail us
at the address shown on our home page.

Click Here to Return to "The American Wisdom Series" home page.