As Americans we own what we work for. It’s been that way from the beginning, confirmed July 4, 1776, when a working team of Americans declared the United States free from British rule. Over and over again without using the words own or ownership its signers attested to an individual’s, a local government’s, a state’s, and a nation’s right to govern and dispose of what they considered theirs without interference by outside agents. Yes. Local governments, states, and our federal government have rights to exercise in similar fashion to the rights exercised by individual citizens of the United States. We often speak of the powers of government at its various levels, but rarely if ever think of their rights. Americans, leery of powers; prideful of rights took great pains in the writing of the US Constitution to balance powers against each other. We don’t expect, look for, or welcome outside forces limiting or balancing our rights. Our rights are considered “self-governing.” Rights should be self-governing. Who else knows what the individual values, holds dear? It’s the self-governing aspect of our rights, holding them dear, that gives us the sense we own our rights. Property is what we think of in terms of owning something, tangible, capital objects: land, buildings, inventory, household items, cars, boats, planes, and bank accounts. We own so much more, especially as Americans, not so much as global citizens since they are ashamed of what they own, feel it was taken from someone else. As Americans we own our hours, days, weekends, months, and years. We can spend them much like cash, barter them. We can devote minutes, hours, days, months, and years to ideas, ideas we also own. Of course Michael Moore considers those invaluable ideas: “national treasures.” His contra-Adam Smith idea not withstanding, Americans own their ideas. Americans also treasure their heritage, their families, and their faith. Such items, the same as with things, are bequeathed from generation to generation. Not everyone shares the same heritage. The heritage of families of the South is different from families of the North, possibly of the West; a potent reason why individuals, local governments, and states should be raising holy hell when agents foreign to their interests (ACLU, SPLC, and others) take towns and states to court to disenfranchise them of monuments and flags, symbols of value inherited from their forebears. In the language of The Declaration of Independence there is more than one way to “dissolve Representatives Houses repeatedly” to the effect of taking an American’s inheritance. That phrase was a complaint sent to King George III. A new Declaration of Independence might be addressed to the courts, in particular to the US Supreme Court at 1 First Street, NE. Washington, DC that is. The applicable argument paraphrased from the Declaration: “By taking our flag of the Confederacy you have in effect dissolved our statehouse, repeatedly; making their duly legislated decisions of no effect.” This can apply to the removal of monuments of Jefferson Davis and General Robert E Lee also. Perhaps the US Supreme Court has not made such a momentous decision yet, but interests foreign (ACLU, SPLC) to local and state governments are funded extremely well, making the prospect of defending the symbols and monuments so very expensive for towns and states forced to repeatedly fight off these court bound takings. Instead of “taking up arms” to defend their rich, highly valued heritage, that which was willed to them, that which was earned the old fashioned way through blood, sweat, and tears of great great grandparents; as often as not towns and states shrug their shoulders and allow the taking. If the ACLU were to sneak into a house to steal a Confederate flag; whether hanging on a wall or tucked away in a dresser drawer, we all know a homeowner would reserve the right to protect such property from being taken. Let’s add the feature the flag was his great, great, great grandfather’s carried high in a strategic battle of the Civil War. The value of the threadbare flag to the homeowner in his own eyes would grow exponentially immense. But the thief, the ACLU, even if they knew the personal significance of the flag to the homeowner would not care a bit. For he is not the owner of the flag, nor proprietor of its heritage. The takings from southerners by foreigners are not so much cultural demands made upon them, nor societal changes expected of them; they are simply at the core, theft. Towns, cities, and states own inherited flags and monuments. Towns, cities, and states are the houses lived in by the gifters’ descendants. Towns, cities, and states are responsible to their residents to defend their jointly owned inheritances. Listen to the founders and apply their grievances sent to King George to grievances some of us might send to the US Supreme Court or the deep state today:
Don’t we suspect, if Hillary Clinton had been elected President, one of her first pen and phone acts would have been to order all calendars turned back to 617AD, back past, way past a later barbaric era Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the United States and the world should also avoid: medieval feudalism? Americans inherited much better than either of those horrendous periods in world history, both so antithetical to what it is to be an American. The Declaration of Independence is an important reminder of that, at least from this time traveler’s perspective.
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About The Pundit
This retired window washer now provides instruction on the benefits and perils of time travel through focusing an allegorical lens on the present. Archives
February 2018
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Photos used under Creative Commons from garlandcannon, KAZVorpal, Mrs. Gemstone, Gage Skidmore, abhishekmaji, tonyhall, Joanie-21, warriorwoman531, DonkeyHotey, DonkeyHotey, KarlaAnnCoté, Gage Skidmore, KarlaAnnCoté, escapedtowisconsin, US Army Africa, Faith @101