Troy on Troy - Freedom to Pursue Happiness

We have all heard the following words:

We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It is the preamble to the Constitution.

This is the history of how this came to be:

(Now stick with me on this one, the end gets good!)
In 1761, fifteen years before the United States of America burst onto the world stage with the Declaration of Independence, the American Colonists were loyal British subjects. They inhabited the New World from roughly Georgia in the South and up to Maine in the North. Most were English but there were immigrants among them that were Scots, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, Swedes, Finns, Africans, French, Germans, and Swiss.

Those from England in the American Colonies were heirs to the thirteenth-century English document, the Magna Carta, (That is going to be a different Blog) which basically says that no one is above the law (not even the King), and that no one can take away certain rights. So in 1763, when the King began to try and collect taxes for the successful Seven Year’s War, the final dissention started eventually ending in the Revolutionary war. Those protests and civil unrest lasted 10 years and were do to laws and taxes being implemented without representation. The British were well entrenched in the Colonies with soldiers, constables and basically treated the Colonists as subject of the King; which is what they were. Finally, the conflict was set in motion when the Colonists declared there would be a separation from the “Motherland.” As you can imagine, the King declared war and the revolution that had been stirring for years was finally under way. The War lasted for 8 years, ending in 1783. The French played a major role in the Victory of the Colonies and in fact, the document declaring the American Revolutionary War is called the Treaty of Paris. The document recognizes the United States sovereignty and included the land territories from what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south and extended west to the Mississippi River.

While many of us have read the Preamble, I bet not many of you have read the entire Constitution of the United States. Here is a great link for a full history of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html

With our freedom being challenged so much in recent times, it is important to know what all the fuss is about. The Constitution gives us certain rights and protections from an overly intrusive Government. We need to remind those in power that our freedom is ours and not given from them but earned from our ancestors. Freedom is our right; these rights are protecting us from Government, not the other way around. They tell us not what the Government can or will do, but what it can’t do. It restricts Government’s influence. This all came at a time of the creation of our current system. The Founding Fathers were wise enough to know that absolute power corrupts absolutely. That’s why at every turn, they continue to drive home the point that the people of this new experiment called a Republic, not a Democracy, are free from the tyranny of Government. They also knew that this would not be a perfect document for all time. That is why they built into the system a way to add to the basic document, but never change the original intent. This is done with Amendments.

I have actually heard certain leaders of our Government complain that the Constitution is too limiting. Thank God. Speaking of God, we have all heard the statement that the constitution says there has to be “a separation between Church and State.” I have read this particular section dozens of times. I can’t find those words anywhere.

The First Amendment says the following, I quote:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

In a nutshell, it says that our Government can’t declare any one religion to be the official religion of the United States and that there can be no laws telling you that you are not allowed to exercise your religion, whatever that religion is, freely. Do you ever hear that on the news? I don’t. What you get is the ACLU telling businesses to take down their mangers or Star of David because it might offend someone. People believe in God, get used to it. If you are so insecure about your belief system that a sheep in a barn at Christmas is going to send you into convulsions, try reading something besides Newsweek. If you don’t believe in a higher power, that’s fine and good luck to you, but know that our Country was founded on Jewdao Christian beliefs. The founders were so secure in what they were trying to create that they made sure you may or may not worship without fear of persecution. In other words, you can’t be forced to be religious; you are free to do as you wish. So, let me be free to worship as I please.

Before you go out and start demanding that the Government owes you discounted cars or free insurance, or even a rebate because you are using a different kind of light bulb, understand a few things. Healthcare is not a right, it is a privilege. There are only three rights you have as an American and those are the “right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. It does not say that someone else owes you happiness. Secondly, entitlements are not free. Someone somewhere is paying more in taxes and fees so that someone else can have something for free. Finally, if you want a better life, work for it. I travel all over to places like New York and Chicago. I love meeting the people that have come here from Nigeria and Viet Nam and Russia. They come to this Country to make a better life for their families and their future generations. They are succeeding because they work very hard. They have two jobs and still go to school. Some of their families are back in their home countries and they send their paychecks back to help. They are saving so they can bring their children to America to be free.

We are blessed in America. We have wealth beyond our understanding and we don’t appreciate where it comes from. If you are waiting for someone to extend a hand to help you up, look around and find that there are handrails everywhere. Pull yourself up by using the tools that our Founding Fathers laid out for us. Our right to pursue life, what ever it is that you want to do, it is your life to live as you see fit. Liberty, the freedom to choose what you want to do and how you want to do it. And happiness. 230 or so years ago, a bunch of old men in wigs wanted their future generations to pursue happiness. Go out and find it. They didn’t say someone owes you happiness, but to pursue it.

Are you happy? Does someone owe you something? You owe yourself and your family and your future generations to get up and find your happiness. What are you waiting for?

If you’re waiting on me, you’re backing up!

Fight On!

Troy