In the movie The Untouchables the incorruptible beat cop asks Elliot Ness several times: “What are you prepared to do?” It is Sean Connery asking the question, and it is powerful.
It is my favorite line from any movie.
I was as struck by that as I was by God asking “Whom shall I send?,” and Isaiah answering “Send me!” I was seventeen and in one of the darkest times in my life when I first read that. It is God, after all, asking the question, and it is still powerful after all of these years.
It is my favorite chapter in the Bible.
A great man told me once of the Bible that it is better to know a little and to put it into practice than to know a lot and to do little or nothing with it.
We did not become the freest people on the planet because our government gave us permission or ordered us to be so. I am afraid now that if someone were to tear the gate off of the pen our government has forced us into, we would remain in that pen.
If you are waiting for a bureaucrat or a politician to make you free again, you’ll have a long wait.
I may not be particularly bright, but what I can do is collect the ideas developed by smarter and wiser men than myself and gather them into an arsenal. It just so happens that the greatest, freest, most prosperous nation was built on these ideas. Perhaps it is foolish to stand and act on them as they did.
I am not waiting for anyone to return my rights and my freedom to me. They are mine, and I will take them.
We are not a nation of men with power, titles, and wealth. We are a nation of laws. Every nation has laws, but ours are based on principles and not given to us by powerful men.
“The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.” – Alexis de Tocqueville
I am not surprised that this has never been said of any other people in the history of the world, and I am certain that it never will be. America was essentially a true Christian nation where individuals, not government, embraced God and pushed back the enemies of Liberty, guaranteeing freedom from authoritarian central control over our faith, lives, and property.
Christians believe in right and wrong, like everyone does… which even Liberals do in their own lying, twisted way, but we believe your relationship with God is between the two of you, and that you should be free to work that out between yourselves. I’ll apologize now: if true-Christians have their way, you’ll be free again. Sorry about that.
So, the point to be taken from all of this is that I do not care where you find it in yourself to want to be free enough that you will stand up and do something about it. Only that you do.
True Christians tear down power structures and they write constitutions, like ours, to keep them at bay. Freedom is the most foundational of Christian principles. What are your principles, and what have they done for us lately?
This nation was created for those alone that want to be free, are capable of leading a disciplined and moral enough life to be free, and that will stand up to preserve their freedom and maintain our republic.
I am comfortable saying to the rest of you that you can go find a cage somewhere else to live in. There are plenty of places on this planet where they will be glad to lock the door behind you.
We are a nation of ideas based on specific principles, and if you do not hold those principles you are in the wrong country and your willingness to be enslaved is forcing me into that cage with you.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.” – Samuel Adams
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” – Samuel Adams
Jefferson and Franklin called Samuel Adams the Father of the American Revolution because he was tireless and alone in pushing the ideas that led to the minority fanning the fire that created these United States of America.
If you cannot be motivated enough to preserve what others fought and died to create, that you have enjoyed your entire life, then you are not an American.
If you do not hold the principles that create and sustain freedom, that if truly held would motivate you to action, then you are not principled and not an American.
If you are constrained by your fear, apathy, and intentional ignorance more than you are motivated by your desire to be free and for your children to be free, then you are not an American.
If that is the case, then it is time to stand aside and stop pretending and stop posturing so the rest of us can get to work saving our republic. I am tired of people telling me that they care about our country but do not know or care enough about our Constitution to see it enforced again.
It is the barrier between us and the barbarian horde, and it has been torn down.
So I ask, what are you prepared to do?