Just to keep this article from becoming ridiculously long, I'll only go back as far as World War I. What kind of freedoms did we have before the many wars that mankind fought in the last nearly 100 years? Did we gain any new freedoms or did we just lose ones that we had?

Before these wars, we were not required to hold a passport to travel abroad. Just in the past few years we have also had to by law, carry a passport just to fly to our neighbor of Canada. Did they fight for us to have a thieving I.R.S. or an absolutlely corrupt Federal Reserve constantly devaluing our money?

We were free, before the soldiers fought for our freedom, to do with our property and ourselves as we saw fit. Now we are inundated with absurd regulations that instead tell us that someone other than ourselves has a higher claim upon us and our property than we do. Did men who were paid to kill other people go forth into other nations and fight so that we may have that? If they did then it can be easily proven that they fought for our enslavement instead. It appears that the lie repeated often enough not only is believed, it is not even questioned.

We have an added “war” on drugs, that made us slaves to government edict. Property may be seized without due process by the police, to enrich the coffers of those who did the original theft. The Fifth Amendment is turned on it's head and you must have the resources to sue in court if you are innocent, just to regain your homes, vehicles, or other property. If not then you are an innocent who was ripped off by those pledged to protect your property. What freedom could ever come of that? Did armed soldiers make us free with that? If so, how? I am a man of what my friends and family tell me capable of vision yet, I just don't see it.

Government pushes us around with numerous laws and regulations. Did the armed services fight for that? We didn't have to carry papers before the wars, have numerous licenses just for the “privilege” to do business in our community. Are you going to tell me I'm more free because of what a man did with his gun to another person in Korea, France, Germany, Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq? Are you for real?

I could go into several dozen pages of just what freedoms we had but no longer have before the wars of the last hundred years. I won't do so because I think you get the idea. Or at least I sure do hope you have the idea by now. If not, then I was wrong and your freedom means nothing to you, please go about your business.

With Liberty,

Dan Steward