Memories of Freedom
What If We Have Only Memories of Freedom?
by
Andrew P. Napolitano
Recently
by Andrew P. Napolitano: Is
There a Drone in Your Backyard?
What if Memorial
Day reminds us of times when we had more freedom? What if freedom
is dying right under our eyes? What if the memory of the past is
more fulfilling than the reality of the present?
What if the
federal government could write any law, regulate any behavior and
tax any event, no matter what the Constitution authorized? What
if the majority in Congress rejects the idea of limited government
and views the Constitution as granting it blanket power to do whatever
it can get away with? What if the constitutional prohibition on
the government’s taking of life, liberty or property without due
process of law is only for show and is not for real?
What if the
House of Representatives seriously considered letting the military
lock up whatever Americans the president ordered the troops to arrest,
without charges filed or lawyers present or a judge presiding? What
if the House seriously debated this idea of indefinite military
detention of Americans in America and actually voted in favor of
it? What if this unconstitutional monstrosity becomes the law and
your right to due process depends on whether you remain with the
majority, stay silent or behave properly? What if the Constitution’s
guarantees are not guarantees at all, but are subject to the whims
of whoever is in power?
What if the
Declaration of Independence, which articulated the moral authority
for the revolution against Great Britain, recognized that our rights
come from our Creator and are inalienable? What if very few in government
recognize the divine origin of human freedom and its natural integrity
to our humanity?
What if the
government only permitted freedom so long as it was exercised as
the government pleases? What if the government rejected the basic
values of every person’s right to life and liberty and property
in favor of some collective good, where the government could arrest
you without evidence, ration your freedom to suit the general welfare
and take your property from you and sell it at a profit?
What if the
government could hire thugs to keep you safe? What if it gave the
thugs uniforms and badges and sent them to airports? What if it
gave them rubber gloves to wear and told them they could touch you
and your children and your parents however and wherever they wished?
What if these thugs touched the private parts of little babies and
old ladies and intentionally restrained those who have criticized
them while the rest of us just watched and let this happen?
What if the
airlines did a better job of keeping their customers happy and their
property safe than the thugs did? What if the government spent millions
of your tax dollars to advertise what a great job it’s doing? What
if the government charged the airlines millions of their dollars
for the illusory services these thugs are rendering? What if the
government’s thugs never caught a single bad guy intent on harming
a flight in America? What if the government’s thugs actually let
weapons and bad guys onto planes because the thugs are dopes who
have no competition, who can’t be sued and who won’t be fired?
What if the
government found more dopes and dupes and convinced them that they
should conspire to commit acts of terrorism? What if the idea for
terrorist acts and the means for committing them came from the government?
What if no real threats were involved in these games and no real
weapons were used, just fake threats and fake weapons, fomented
and provided by the government? What if the government created these
phony crimes just so that it could solve them? What if no one was
ever in danger from these government-created crimes, except those
the government tricked? What if the government did this again and
again and then boasted that it was keeping us safe from its own
creations? What if Congress and the media and even the courts fell
for this?
What if, on
Memorial Day, we remember times that were more free than today?
What if, on Memorial Day, when we think of those who died for our
freedom, we end up recognizing that the freedom they died for is
dying? What if it becomes fashionable for the government to ignore
the Constitution? What if the Constitution dies because the government
stops following it? What if, next Memorial Day, freedom is just
a memory?
What do we
do about it?
Reprinted
with the author’s permission.
May 24, 2012
Andrew P.
Napolitano [send
him mail], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey,
is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano
has written six books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent
is It
Is Dangerous To Be Right When the Government Is Wrong: The Case
for Personal Freedom. To find out more about Judge Napolitano
and to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists,
visit creators.com.
Copyright
© 2012 Andrew P. Napolitano