Observations©

By Donald S. Conkey

Date: July 10, 2008 - # 8828 - Title: It’s Time to go vote. (812)

Have you taken advantage of the ‘Advance Voting’ system and voted yet? We have today and tomorrow to cast our ballot before Tuesday’s projected long lines. My tolerance for non-voters is very low. When people fail to vote they are playing Russian roulette with their freedom and liberty. Freedom has enough enemies without adding negligent voters to the list.

Among freedom’s enemies apathy is number one. Apathy is the failure to vote with the excuse “my vote won’t matter; they are going to do what they want to do anyway.”

            Another of freedom’s enemies is ignorance of the candidates and issues facing the city, county, state, or federal government. Far too often the average citizen fails to study the candidates who have stepped forward and offered themselves for leadership roles in our government, at all levels. And too many voters fail to study the propositions and vote blindly, or skip them altogether. On the July 15 ballot are three republican propositions and one general proposition on taxes. Go to www.voter.cherokeega.com to study them.

            But perhaps the most insidious enemy to freedom are the stealth organizations formed by people who want to reestablish ruler’s law and destroy our constitutional form of government and the inalienable rights associated with our form of government. These are elitist people and look with distain upon the common people believing them incapable of self-government. History is replete with examples of this type of activity.

Many governments have been toppled by those who unknowingly get ‘sucked into a cause’ thinking they are involved in a ‘just cause’ without understanding the ultimate goal is at times the overthrow of the government. The best example, at least for me, is the environment movement. And I don’t say this lightly as I favor many of the ‘just causes’ that have improved our standards of living. But I totally oppose those who have shut down America’s oil exploration and the building of nuclear power plants. The current energy policy is given control of America to foreign oil nations whose goals are different than were the Founders.

            Recently a friend gave a talk on freedom and referenced an ancient scripture that related to this issue. The scripture reads: “For behold, they do study at this time that they may destroy the liberty of thy people, (for thus saith the Lord) which is contrary to the statutes and judgments, and commandments which he has given unto his people.” This statement could well be applied to our current situation where the Congress has been led, often by environmentist’s, to ignore the ‘statutes and judgments’ the Lord gave to America in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. 

            The Founders gave us a republic. We have the privilege of electing from amongst our own those we want to make the laws that govern us. When we fail to elect people who understand our special system of government chaos can follow. A near by example of what this near chaos does to a community is Clayton County. People flee such governments and often lose their life savings. Internationally we see real chaos running rampant in Zimbabwe. As we choose our candidates we should remember that the power to lead is also the power to mislead, and the power to mislead is the power to destroy.

            Many believe, including me, that America was established by inspired men to restore freedom to a world then enslaved by tyrants. But I also believe the Founder’s ‘Supreme Judge of the World’ then turned maintaining our freedom and liberty over to us, the people.

            Most people don’t like to get involved; they’d like someone to come in and ‘rescue’ them from the evils being entrenched in a society that seems to be ignoring the moral laws of all civilized societies. There is grave danger in letting government do for us that what we ought to do for ourselves. It is a political truth that “the more government does for you, the more power it has over you.” The song of freedom’s enemy is, and we hear this song daily in the promises the national candidates are making, ‘Come, vote for me, and let me do it all for you.” These promises lead to slavery, slavery that destroys individuals, families, and nations.

            There is a reason the Constitution says that all powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the States respectively. And the same is true when the state takes over the duties of the county. A free government requires the people to be involved; otherwise it is not a government “of the people, by the people, [or] for the people.”

            With this said, let me close by encouraging you to vote today, if not today tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, then on Tuesday for sure. And vote intelligently, go on line and obtain a copy of the ballot for your precinct, study it, learn of the issues on the ballot, and the candidates then make your decision. But vote.