Letter to the Editor from Judith Niewiadomski
Sunday December 15th was Bill of Rights Day! Did you see any mention of it in the media? How many politicians had their photos taken with a copy of the Bill of Rights and spoke about how important it was? (The first Bill of Rights day was celebrated on its 150th anniversary—just eight days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.)
The Bill of Rights does not grant rights to American citizens—our rights are God-given and preceded government. Many founders, including George Mason. “Give me liberty or give me death,” Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and others feared that the Constitution delegated too much power. In response to their concerns and a promise made to the Anti-Federalists, James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights which was ratified on December 15, 1791.
The Bill of Rights says “Yo–government, we can’t list them all but here, in your face, is a legal reminder to keep your power and money-grubbing hands and perverse ideologies off these rights–period. The people are sovereign. You may only operate such powers which are specifically delegated (temporarily allowed) to a branch of government, so don’t get any ideas about trying to snatch more for yourself.”
Early Americans understood the place of government—as a servant, not a tyrannical master. The anti-Federalists were concerned about the lack of terms limits, excessive federal power, judicial tyranny and the federal government having direct taxation. Thomas Jefferson felt that these all violated the spirit of the American Revolution.
https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/world/10-famous-anti-federalists-and-their-arguments-against-the-u-s-constitution/. Our founders knew that: ”Government is at best a necessary evil, at worst, in intolerable one.”–Thomas Paine.
Look especially at Amendments 9 and 10. In essence, these say: “just in case you try to weasel and stick your nose in our lives–if we did not specifically authorize you to do it–keep out. All rights not mentioned as delegated (temporarily allowed) to you belong to the states and the people.”
Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Read the Constitution; start listing what the Constitution does not authorize that government has stuck its nose and paws in, and take your power back. A few examples: the Constitution does not authorize taxpayers’ money being spent on the Kennedy Center, abortions, baby sitting, promoting LBGT etc, etc. especially not in other countries, shrimp on treadmills, drunken monkeys, congressional junkets to the Great Barrier Reef and hundreds, perhaps thousands of other ways politicians find to waste the money they have taken from us.
Monday, December 16th was the 251st anniversary of the Boston Tea Party—an action taken because the British government had imposed a tax on tea whether the colonists bought it or not. (Sounds like ObamaTAXnotCare and other massive cost laws.) The unjust tax was to be imposed as soon as the tea was offloaded on to the dock. So the colonists took initiative. Their strategy was specific and neither harmed anyone nor damaged anything else. A lock broken in the action was replaced. Another foundational American event ignored because the lust for power, recognition and incessant validation has outshouted the call to service. Of the Boston Tea Party, John Adams wrote in his diary the next day: “The people should never rise without doing something to be remembered–something notable and striking . This destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I can’t but consider it as an Epocha in history.”
The Boston Tea Party united American colonists, inspiring tea parties in at least ten cities as the British used force to enforce their hold on power. It was an signal that here was a people who would fight for their rights and freedom.
So, do you want to be a slave to the politicians? Use those cell phones, I-pads, and laptops, and the internet and contact our government officials at all levels (frequently–be an overseer giving them regular check-ups) and demandthat they cut regulations (instead of imposing more) and cut their salaries and perks, take less of our money, mind their own business instead of attempting to nanomanage everything we do from how we heat our homes, what we drive, where we drive, what we can say or where we can pray.
Our 250th anniversary as the freest and most prosperous nation in human history, which is to be ruled by the people and the standard of God’s natural laws and the Constitution, is in a year and half. But the revolution was in the hearts and minds of the American people long before the war began on April 19, 1775. It’s long past time to restore Americanism. Start with Mark Levin’s Restoring Americanism, The Founder’s Constitution, and a frequent re-reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Judith Niewiadomski
Yonkers
