Some words of advice from Americans who know what freedom is and what it costs.

Our society is so far removed from the true patriots that wrestled this country from the British that I doubt 99 percent of the population actually know what it is to truly be free.

Our founding fathers knew better than anyone in history about freedom, they not only thought long and hard about what the word meant, they contemplated, explored and probed there deepest thoughts of the meaning of the word. From those countless hours, weeks, months and years of contemplation we have the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the United States of America.

Lost in time is to know exactly what it means to be free. Being free is not being able to choose McDonalds or Burger King! Being free is being able to opt in or out of government involvement and to be a private citizen free of a social security number and the system if you choose to live from the land. Free to organize block parties without being tear gassed and beaten.

Freedom is your government telling you the truth and taxation WITH representation. Freedom is your government working WITH you instead of against you. Freedom is power to the people to change the course of the country instead of being forced to vote for a two party system that will do the same thing at the end of a very long and disappointing day. Sadly, freedom is something most Americans today are not familiar with.

Here are some quotes to ponder about this subject, try and wrap your mind around what the word means, what it meant to them and see if you feel like we possess the essence of that word today.

"Those willing to trade security for freedom, deserve neither,".....Ben Franklin

"Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction”
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd U.S. President


By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.
Benjamin Franklin

Distrust and caution are the parents of security.
Benjamin Franklin

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
Benjamin Franklin

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.
Benjamin Franklin

And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.
Benjamin Franklin

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.
Thomas Jefferson

"A constitution is not the act of a government,
but of a people constituting a government;
and government without a constitution is power without a right.
All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning.
It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either." Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force;
like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master.
Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." George Washington (1732-1799)

"In framing a government, which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."
James Madison (1751-1836)

"The liberties of our country,
the freedom of our civil Constitution,
are worth defending at all hazards;
and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.
We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."
Samuel Adams (1722-1803)


This is but a very small sample size, perhaps it is time for AMERICANS to rediscover our heritage and understand exactly why this once great nation was founded and the principles to which our laws and basic rights are still shallowly afforded us.

It is time for us to realize that this is not a country any longer that our founding fathers would approve of and should they have still been alive would probably be preparing revolt.................. Freedom is not only a word, it really is a lifestyle and ideal, just no longer one practiced in this country.

Thank you.

I think some sensible regulation of society is a must in the modern world, but certainly we have allowed far too many of our freedoms and our rights to be sacrificed at the convenience of timid souls and greedy men.

Our servents do need to be reminded who is the master of this land.... We the people.

SnF

Originally posted by Fiberx
Thank you.

I think some sensible regulation of society is a must in the modern world, but certainly we have allowed far too many of our freedoms and our rights to be sacrificed at the convenience of timid souls and greedy men.

Our servents do need to be reminded who is the master of this land.... We the people.

SnF

An excellent sentiment, A country for the people by the people reflects the majority opinion of the people. Our current course couldn't be more wrong, we have a select few profiting from millions. We have people in power making decisions almost every day against the will of the general majority of the public, that is enough to declare a truly free peoples government rogue and ineffective and dissolve it for something more favorable if we were truly free.

It is not about being Republican or Democrat. Our government on every level has failed to demonstrate they have the will of the people in mind and on a daily basis perpetuate tyranny by separating themselves from the people and making decisions and laws based on lobbying and foreign affairs and not what the actual body of people wishes.

We have become a corporate Fascist state that is controlled by the all mighty dollar and the pursuit in not letting that dollar be devalued, gone is what the American people desire, freedom or the ability to change things through peaceful protest.

Nice post!

One thing very few people understand, or believe, is that living in a completely free country means you are NOT guaranteed safety.

People talk about the cost of freedom being military conflicts, or money, it's neither of those things.

The TRUE cost of freedom for the average citizen, is to live with less security. To loose your life as a victim in a terrorist attack is a cost of freedom, if the cost of preventing that attack was less freedom. That is a cost I would gladly pay. I'd much rather die in a terrorist attack, than live with the current constitution haters ruling the country.

Most people have no idea what freedom means. They are cowards. They are sheep. They are babies that want to be taken care of. They refuse to stand up and live with that fact that it's their responsibility in a free society to not give into their fears and allow others to trample their freedom because of it. "OH I'm so scared of some Arabs bombing my city! Here, take my freedoms and make me safe!" People like this need to sit down, shut up, and occupy their time by sucking their thumbs because they have proven they are not useful for anything else.

reply to post by James1982


Excellent post, I agree with you 110% percent. In any true free society there can be no guarantee of safety because many in the world will not have the same thing and will envy the idea.

Foreign governments will perceive freedom as a threat to there totalitarian control on dictatorships and communist run regimes. There will always be those that wan't to eliminate and destroy freedom and that is exactly why we have the second Amendment, so that every law abiding citizen in America becomes a soldier to protect freedom.

Against all threats, foreign and domestic!

Id like to see other members post some of there favorite quotes from our founding fathers, I am pretty sure I haven't seen them, what do they mean to you?!?

If your not familiar with what they had to say, it is one of the most eye opening experiences you have as an American pouring over the wisdom they had on freedom and you truly start to realize why we have the Constitution.

For those that are familiar, what are your favorites? I am dying to know!

I began reading prepared to scoff at another USA, USA,USA cheering party. I finished in tears. Your thoughts took me beyond the falseness of modern patriotism to a time when I was proud of this nation. Proud because I thought we were the hope of all people across the world. This was the manifest destiny in which I was raised.

As I matured I found, as have you that things were amiss. In our time the actions of my nation began to be noticeably lacking in relation to what I had been taught were it's founding principles. As I traced the origins of these undemocratic and and even imperialistic actions, I came to understand that the dream I had held so close, though shared by my family for generations and so many other free men through history, were dreams that had grown through false assumptions.

The demise of our freedoms and liberties has not come about just recently. The quotes you have used in the OP almost seem prescient in their understanding of our nation today. It is not that these men could see the future as much as these men could see the other men within our fledgling nation, men with whom they did battle, and with men with whom they were forced to compromise to win the freedom we today so lightly toss away.

Some of our founding fathers were republicans, men with vision and men who fought the hard battles for freedom. Others were imperialists and men who held hope only for themselves. It was these men who developed the shallow dream of manifest destiny, the dream that freedom, liberty and justice were a gift.
This is a lie.

These liars and imperialists have been with us through our history, until now they are the owners of industry and media and government. They have risen to be the corporatists who have wrung the spirit of freedom from our blood and replaced it with the thin fluid of consumerism.

And now they are leaving. Taking our jobs with them, they are moving and leaving us with our unfulfilled dreams as they seek to conquer the world stage as they have done here. They are leaving us in debt, debt that they incurred to pay for the wars that they convinced us were our wars.

As free men, in debt to our ears, in a land of schism and strife we need to warn the world of the beast that has prayed upon our souls and is now unleashed upon the world.

I imagine that there is a significant number of people who feel exactly this way. I further imagine that many of these people are just waiting for that perfect moment when something happens to raise the hackles of the general public and awaken them into action. My fear however, is that the public is too far gone--too docile, dumbed down and fluoridated to ever do what has to be done.

I deeply hope I am wrong in my fears. We are almost out of time.

I like a lot of things that Thomas Paine has said, and he doesn't seem as popular in quotation as others of the time. A few of my favorites from him:

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."

-Thomas Paine

"Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing."

-Thomas Paine

"A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation."

-Thomas Paine

"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."

-Thomas Paine

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

-Thomas Paine

Star and Flag, Helious, and more if I could. Your eloquence rivals that of our founding fathers.

I've often imagined those august ones weeping should they see our nation as it is now. I certainly do. We've strayed so far from the path envisioned by them, and more "We the People" need to open their eyes to the reality of what is occurring, no matter how unpleasant, unbelievable, or inconvenient it may be.

For those who still cherish freedom and liberty and understand the true costs, I think Benjamin Franklin still sums it up best...

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

reply to post by James1982


Excellent, It is amazing is it not that even our founding fathers without the fear of global terrorism recognized the fact that government created fear is the most effective way to control a docile public?

Those quotes rang home with me in allot of ways and I am amazed that even though this knowledge is abundant to all Americans nobody realizes how real this perceived threat is to us as a people.

When your government tries to scare you through any means, real or perceived it is then that you must focus all your thoughts and energy about the threat and the implications.

Originally posted by ladyjem
Star and Flag, Helious, and more if I could. Your eloquence rivals that of our founding fathers.

I've often imagined those august ones weeping should they see our nation as it is now. I certainly do. We've strayed so far from the path envisioned by them, and more "We the People" need to open their eyes to the reality of what is occurring, no matter how unpleasant, unbelievable, or inconvenient it may be.

For those who still cherish freedom and liberty and understand the true costs, I think Benjamin Franklin still sums it up best...

We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.

No matter what quotes I can post here, no one has ever said it better than Ben Franklin! He along with John Adams and a couple others who I will not name just yet have got it right in spades but there is no denying that good old Ben was the elite of freedom thinkers, a genius in my book.

Originally posted by erumisato
I imagine that there is a significant number of people who feel exactly this way. I further imagine that many of these people are just waiting for that perfect moment when something happens to raise the hackles of the general public and awaken them into action. My fear however, is that the public is too far gone--too docile, dumbed down and fluoridated to ever do what has to be done.

I deeply hope I am wrong in my fears. We are almost out of time.

Freedom is sadly controlled through illusion. Being able to wake up in the morning and deiced weather you are going to go to the gym or order pizza and watch the game can pass very nicely for what is generally considered freedom for what most deem the word meaning.

Very, very sadly, this is wrong, it means a whole other thing, what it actually means is what is lost to us because it has been too long since we have sacrificed anything to remind us of how precious the word really is. What is left is a dormant shell, a shadow of what was meant for this nation and perhaps something that is out of reach for a society that has been brainwashed, manipulated and taken over by your would be nobles.

We have become surfs to the local castle and make no mistake.....

Originally posted by Helious
Id like to see other members post some of there favorite quotes from our founding fathers, I am pretty sure I haven't seen them, what do they mean to you?!?

If your not familiar with what they had to say, it is one of the most eye opening experiences you have as an American pouring over the wisdom they had on freedom and you truly start to realize why we have the Constitution.

For those that are familiar, what are your favorites? I am dying to know!

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants:" Is a quote from one of America's greatest heroes, Thomas Jefferson. Many of his words are engraved on my heart, but this one, simple as it is in comparison to many, resounds within me. It has such an effect because it can be taken as Jefferson's advice on what path we should take if ever his warnings were not heeded and our republic degrades back to what he fought to free us from.
Our tree is withering. Let us hope that it will be watered with more blood from tyrants than patriots.
Peace and Love to all you who are willing to fight for it,
Q&A

Originally posted by Helious
reply to post by James1982

 

Excellent, It is amazing is it not that even our founding fathers without the fear of global terrorism recognized the fact that government created fear is the most effective way to control a docile public?

Those quotes rang home with me in allot of ways and I am amazed that even though this knowledge is abundant to all Americans nobody realizes how real this perceived threat is to us as a people.

When your government tries to scare you through any means, real or perceived it is then that you must focus all your thoughts and energy about the threat and the implications.

Indeed!

Time has passed, and we have to deal with different events and situations as those in the past did. But the specific concepts that they were dealing with are the exact same ones as today, and dare I say people will continue to deal with until our species or planet is no more.

There will always be those who's aim it is to take from you what they can. They want to take your freedom, your life, your wealth, your safety, your happiness, your hope, your strength, your family, and your love. These are the people that are the true enemy of every human on this planet. And unfortunately these are the people running the planet as we speak.

While they definitely had their faults, I truly believe the founding fathers understood this, and wished to fight it. Which is why it is so sad and ironic that the US today has become one of the largest exporters of the evil this country was founded to fight.

I feel there is more real wisdom spoken by these men during their lifetimes than has collectively been spoken since.

The mettle of our FF has been both bred out of as well as chemically removed from their posterity.

Until people are willing to embrace that freedom means responsibility and potential peril...they'll stick with American Idol and look for their handouts. While some of us are ready and willing to engage in making true change, it's difficult to do so knowing that not only would our sacrifice not be wanted...we would be seen as the enemy since the teats would dry up and they would be required to face the world as it stands without a nanny to wipe their backside.

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

Most of the time, post on ATS remind me of how ignorant and stupid even most Americans are. This is definitely not one of them. It's good to hear there are still TRUE Patriots.

A few of my faves.

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- HL Mencken

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
-John Stuart Mill

"You know, comrades," says Stalin, "what I think in regard to this: I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this —- who will count the votes, and how."

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
-Thomas Jefferson

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
-George Washington

Coersion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.
-Ronald Reagan

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong
enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." -Benjamin Franklin)

"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." - Sirius Black

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first. -Ronald Reagan

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson

One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.-Charles Austin Beard

Well the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant but that they know so much that isn’t so. -Ronald Reagan-

and of course my sig below....Good post and some good replies...how long before the dummies arrive?

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost
forever." President John Adams

"You can't hold a man down without staying down with him."
Booker T. Washington

"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."
George Washington

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”
Newt Gingrich

"Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong."
Calvin Coolidge

Great quotes so far you guys! I love the fact that even good ol Newt Gingrich fit in there! Would be a real shame to leave out Mark Twain so here goes....

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.
Mark Twain

All generalizations are false, including this one.
Mark Twain

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Mark Twain

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
Mark Twain

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress.
Mark Twain

And now back to some bread and butter as it were!

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.
Thomas Jefferson

Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
Thomas Jefferson

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.
Thomas Jefferson

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Thomas Jefferson

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
Ronald Reagan

Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
Ronald Reagan

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Ronald Reagan

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Ronald Reagan

reply to post by Helious


The American people have allowed our nation to become hijacked by an elite few that their sole purpose is increase their personal well at the expenses of a nation full of great people that still cling to liberty and freedom.

The leaders of today are not the visioned leaders our forefathers had in mind and the ones that started this great nation.