WhatFinger


Death or Liberty was Patrick Henry's rallying cry that day in March of 1775

Facing Harsh Realities



On March 23rd, 1775 speaking to the Second Continental Congress , Patrick Henry gave his now famous speech , "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!" In the speech he wanted to emphasize to all those who were in attendance the importance of breaking away from Great Britain, and how it came down to living in slavery or fighting for the chance to live in freedom.

Support Canada Free Press


Over the eight years prior to this speech, the people living in the colonies endured one tax increase after another. The individual liberties and freedoms of the population were being slowly taken from them. The Boston Massacre saw the first of many to shed blood in the fight for freedom. In 1774 the First Continental Congress met and the Boston Tea Party occurred in a show of defiance to Great Britain with the treatment that she imposed upon the colonies. Not all in attendance were sympathetic to breaking away and for most they still felt loyal to the king. The argument back and forth between those who wanted to remain loyal and those who felt that the time had come to break away was heated and full of passion. Everyone in the room that day knew that once they openly declared the intentions to break away from the crown that they were committing treason and not only had their freedom at stake but their lives as well. Henry made a point to let it be known that this was no cause for celebration, he pointedly stated,
" it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." Just as then, we today indulge in the illusions of hope. For so many of us it is much easier to keep our eyes shut to the painful truths and the harsh realities that face us. While we may not be calling for armed rebellion against our government, our freedoms and liberties are as much at stake today as they were then. Have we become so led astray that we are no longer able to know that the worst could very well happen to our nation? If we continue down our current path of fiscal irresponsibility we could very well slide into the slavery that our fore fathers fought against. No we will not be slaves to another nation, but we will still be slaves! The personal greed of not facing up to the truth, that we here today have to become the wise men and women, who engage in the great and arduous struggle to ensure generations behind us have the same opportunities of freedom and individual liberty of generations who came before us. On that day in March of 1775 many citizens of the colonies were still loyal to the status quo of big government ruling over their lives. They continued to hear not and see not the fact that no matter how many times they grieved to the British government that their grievances fell on deaf ears. Today we have a split in our population that is perfectly happy with the status quo of big government and actually look to it for their salvation in life. These people are not our enemies as the Tories who remained loyal to the crown became, but these people today are embarking upon a path that could very well split this country in half. Over the last few years many citizens of this great nation have been willing to acknowledge the painful truth that we can no longer sustain the status quo or the dependency it has created. At the same time these folks found their voices and began to petition the government about the grievances of over taxation and out of control spending. This same government once again followed along the same path that the British government did so long ago with an insidious smile and a campaign of lies and smears to gin up discontent between the two opposing camps.
A house divided is a house that eventually falls. This is a lesson that we need to take to heart, as we have those that are using class war to divide us right down the middle. The forces behind this division are not looking to preserve the Republic that was established by the founding fathers, but to instead transform us into a society that favors the few while enslaving the mass to feed the indulgences of those who are not willing to take a stand and do the harder sacrifice. In the 1770's we had those that were willing to make great sacrifices so that the generations that were to come could live in a society where they were not beholden to big government and those allied with it. Patrick Henry said,
"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House."
What is our lamp today? Is it the reality that looking at past experience we do not see our government willing to address the out of control spending and the call of the people to reign it in? Can we judge the future by looking at the past that no one is willing to take a stand once and for all and say that we cannot continue along this course? The patriots that took a stand long ago understood that once you became dependent on the government to set the course without listening to the people that the people would become nothing less than slaves to the government. The sacrifice of doing the hard thing is not a once in a life time occurrence. When we look back in the history of this nation we can point out many generations that sacrificed so that others could benefit in the long run. Those that fought in the Civil War fought for both the freedom of the destitute and for the preservation of the Republic. For many they fought for the original intent of our form of the Republic and that was that States had more power in dealing with the day to day lives of the citizens and not the Federal Government. From that point forward it was turned upside down and the Federal Government imposed more and more control over the citizenry and we started down the path that we currently are on. To that end we should still recognize that this generation was willing to take a stand and face the harsh reality that complacency and status quo do not always result in favorable outcomes.

The "Greatest Generation"

The "Greatest Generation" was willing to take a stand despite the sacrifices that were asked of them. They were willing to do with less, they were willing to place their lives on the line so that the spread of oppression the world over could be stopped. This generation deserves to be considered one of the greatest generations that we had as they did not want to leave the generations that followed with the burden of cleaning up the mess if they refused to step up and face the harsh realities that faced them. From the offspring of this generation, though we unfortunately got those who are currently in charge in both the government and academia, where they ignored the lessons and the sacrifices of their parents and grandparents. As a result of the sacrifices that the parents endured they wanted to make sure that their children did not have to face the reality that they themselves went through. We have seen on the campuses the entrapping philosophy of collectivism and socialism that emerge today is rooted deeply in those who are in charge over the generations that follow us today. Lenin once referred that people can become useful idiots and today we see many that are falling into that category. I hold no personal animosity to those in the trade unions, but they are being led along like "useful idiots" by their leadership and by those in power. Despite the overwhelming evidence that the leadership have allied themselves with communist groups and socialist groups that support bigger government and the ideology of entrapping the population to be serf's to the limited few. They continue to allow themselves to go down the path of divide that class war encompasses so that they can preserve what they feel entitled to. The harsh reality is that by doing so they are willing to pass on to the next generation the debt of the personal greed that they feel by continuing on with the current status as it stands the consequences will not affect them. The painful truth is that it does affect them! We are hearing those in this camp that are calling for revolution, but listen a little deeper and examine the forces that are aligned together. You will see that this revolution is not one that is driven to fix the problems that we face, but to make them much worse. Those that are following this camp are not hearing the fact that these people are willing to go to no ends and that includes violent means to get to the end goal. On the contrary those that are taking the stand to preserve the overall freedom and individual liberty that comes about when you are less indebted to government are willing to do so through the process that our fathers and grandfathers fought so hard to preserve and that is through the peaceful change of leadership thru the electoral process. The gulf of divide that faces this generation and nation is getting wider by the day. The time has come to examine if we want to keep passing the buck off to the generations that follow us or if we will be willing to do the hard thing and face the harsh realities that are in front of us. Great sacrifice will have to be felt by all no matter what economic class you come from just as in the past. We have to be willing to break the chains of the mentality that the "Me" generation passed along to us and become one again the generation that is willing to do with a bit less so that our children and grandchildren are not beholden to the very few. Slavery comes in many forms. You do have to be willing to recognize what it does and understand that Marxist theology, even though it prophesies that it benefits everyone equally, never in the end practices it realistically. Our generation faces a crossroad at the moment, we can rise up to the task and follow along the examples that our fore fathers were willing to embark upon or we can continue down the road that leads to our children living in servitude to big government and the very few. The American Creed written by William Tyler Page and accepted by the United States House of Representatives on April 3, 1918 states,
"I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies."
Enemies are not always those of a foreign power and they are not always attacks in the physical sense. The enemy today is the enormous debt and the programs that feed that debt. If we fail to become a generation willing to step up to the plate, the freedoms and equality of generations to come are in peril. Will we transform back to what Patrick Henry, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and all those that were willing to put their lives and livelihood on the line? That is an insult to all those who came before and were willing to sacrifice for generations to follow. What will the history books say about this generation? Will they say that we were a generation willing to face down the harsh realities and preserve the Republic or will they say that we were content allowing the Republic to fall and transform into a society where we allowed our children to be enslaved due to our own personal greed? Death or Liberty was Patrick Henry's rallying cry that day in March of 1775, today that same cry applies with the death of liberty and the Republic if we do not face the harsh realities that the status quo has to be tackled once and for all.


View Comments

Robert Rohlfing -- Bio and Archives

Robert Rohlfing writes about Liberty and the Preservation of Freedoms.


Sponsored