Independence Day the Hard Way

I know the value of independence. I truly get it. There is not a moment that goes by that I am not reminded in some way of the value of being a US citizen and living in this country. But most people have forgotten what it took to get here and what it takes to preserve this state of independence. And that forgetting literally makes them dependent. How very sad?

In the late 1700 our founding fathers and mothers were faced with many stark choices. To name a few they faced the reality of the difficulty in merely raising and family in an environment of harsh climate, predators, sickness, urgent safety, and rulers who demanded obedience. Much like it is today to be honest.

 Independence Day Podcast

What on earth made them break free from tyranny and stake their lives on independence? We to this day are still the only nation to successfully live independent and not beholding to a government or ruler. Yet what did happen in the late 1700s? 

Well in short order the people who were here were awakened to the reality that the various govts or outside tyrants were not very helpful in day to day life of surviving and raising a family and protecting a family, nor were these tyrants capable of protecting them from predators or bad groups of people. Our founding fathers and mothers literally realized that they were more powerful and could raise their families and protect themselves much better if they were free from outside governance. 

I am not trying to brush over the complicated nature of governance and security and raising a family and nation. It is complicated at best. Yet I know this one stark fact about independence and freedom and exercising both … freedom isn’t free. Independence demands constant diligence.

To those two divergent points of freedom and diligence, lay all current conflicts and issues we face in America. Freedom comes at a price people don’t want to pay and independence takes constant effort to remain so.

It is much easier to think that the govt will protect your freedom. It seems much simpler to pay a tax and hope the police or some agency will correct your own failure to protect yourself.

I find this notion given my 23 years of being a navy seal to be the oddest thing to witness in our society today especially on independence day.

I find the notion that people have given up their own rights to self protection in hopes that someone else, somewhere will come to your aid, to be the dumbest thing ever. Why would I say this? Here is the truth that I have witnessed in my life. 

I have see by both policy and by direct confiscation of arms that the rapid control and demise of a society is when the ability to for each citizen to be trained and have the ability to protect his or her own family gets taken away then that society literally dies off in one generation. Those people and families lose the ability to grow, to learn, to achieve, to have any happiness because they are not at the liberty to pursue any of it. 

You all must understand that to control a nation but overseas and here, that the first part of control is taking the arms away and giving the people the false impression that the govt is their safety net.

That breaking from tyranny in 1776 was the most dangerous most misrepresented, most independent event that actually succeeded in the history of man. 

We broke from dependence and tyranny and tried to grasp the smoke of independence.  The british immediately tried to take our guns and ammo that is what happened on the road between concord and boston. We took up arms and protected our life and family from being dependent on someone else.

Men and women and kids died. Villages were burned. Food stores were burned and destroyed. Because the cost of freedom is always these points of payment. And always will be. 

To this day there will always be a group of men who will take up arms and go to battle to keep independence alive and diligently protect the people in our country not the government. 

What makes me laugh at what I see and how history plays out again and again regarding how independence dies each generation by the new generation simply wanting to be lead and not be responsible for their lives. Every town or city where tight rules of weapons dumbs down the people into thinking someone else is responsible therefore those same people never learn the be independent and protect themselves violence always increases. Because here is the deal, dependence, leads to irresponsibility which leads to violence which leads to bigger oversight and more tyranny.

Contrast that with cities who pledge individual responsibility and openly want the individual to learn to protect themselves. These societies thrive. Because here is the read deal, independence leads to responsibility and growth and training, which leads always to less violence and less oversight and no tyranny.

Why in the hell does each new generation go back to wanting tyrants and wanting not to be responsible.

As I sit on my back porch during the July 4th week of celebrating independence from tyrants, I celebrate every single man or woman who died so that we could have the freedom to chose our own path. I celebrate your deaths by doing these three things this week.

I celebrate your life by living my own and protecting my family and teaching them how to protect themselves. I teach my kids to hunt and fish and shoot and to respects life and weapons.

I celebrate your life by cutting my grass and enjoying the birds and deer that move through our yard.

My finally celebration of the ones who died so that liberty could prevail, is to have a empty place at my table for your spirit. That spirit of independence in the face of a tyrant. 

I ask everyone who is listening to take a moment and remind yourself that being independent comes at a price. That price is the diligence to be responsible for your own life. All of it. Stop thinking someone will bail you out. Stop blaming someone else for your woes and own your own life. Learn how to protect yourself go buy a gun and learn how to use it. If you a living in a place you cannot own your own weapon then move. Because the place you live in no longer safe.

Be bold, Be Unbreakable