Where has Freedom gone?

By Sage Wheeler 

June, 1996. I remember my mother screaming at the policeman : “Don’t you dare take my boy!  He’s an Eagle Scout!” The words did little to soothe the bite of rage in my heart. My mothers trust in my innocence, her firm belief that I’d done nothing to warrant arrest, was comforting. But the bite of the tight handcuffs digging into my dignity was too infuriating to think about anything but “why?”   To add to the insult, as the dictator’s pawn clamped the stainless steel around my young wrist he noticed a blue line on my wrist, a healing bruise I incurred while jumping from my friends truck, and  he asked: “What kind of drugs did you shoot up there?”  Once again – guilty until proven innocent. If only he knew how absurd an assumption that was! Since before high school I’d not only vowed to be drug free, but to also abstain from tobacco, alcohol, and even sex. I watched my mother fade into the distance and I was driven the 20 miles back to town and booked into the county jail. She had to wait for my dad to pick her up since she had forgotten her license at home, the pawn had insisted on that. While in the cold grey cell I sang “I’m proud to be and American” and could see the shame in the guards faces.

So what was my crime, indeed there was one. I was pulled over for doing 63 in a 55 mph zone and had a warrant for an unpaid parking ticket (I still do not remember ever getting one). It cost 850 dollars to get me out of jail. Did I commit a crime? Yes, I certainly did. My question to you: was the treatment justified. If you cannot see the crimes that were committed against me then you are a fool and should read no more.

Our forefathers fled their motherlands to escape tyranny. They yearned for religious freedom, and for a place were debtors were given a chance to earn, not thrown in jail and made to be slaves! I still yearn for such a place. We have become debtors to the State. We have allowed ourselves to be jailed with rules and regulations that “seemed good at the time”. 

An example of one of these laws is the mandatory insurance law. Sure, it is a good idea and only a fool would drive uninsured. But if you choose to be a fool it should be your choice! Who does the state think they are to force you to swallow these criminally inflated premiums! If they can force us to pay, why can’t they force them to make it affordable? I pay 260 a month! My loan payment is only 320 for both my car and my wife’s.

One prime example for reform is an experience I had in February of 2000.  I was driving on a rural road in Utah and apparently did not come to a full three second stop. It was a dark moonless night, there was no one around for a mile in either direction and the sight of a squad car pulling out of the brush caught me very off guard. I handed the man my papers and was later informed that my insurance was not valid.  I had just returned from a two year stay in Brazil where I had been doing volunteer work for my church and my father had said that he had taken care of the insurance while I was gone, apparently he was mistaken; a mistake that doubled my premium and cost me $750 in fines. Yes, I needed the law to tell me I was uninsured, but I paid dearly for that service. Justice would dictate that maybe I could receive benefit of the doubt, go get some insurance and all would be good. No harm done to anyone. But NO! They have to stick it to you every time! Time and time again!

Fast forward to January, 2003: I sit in the back of a squad car, the sun was just setting and I was pulled over for not having my lights on, a wave a panic hits as I realize that my registration and proof of insurance are at home by my computer where I had just switched to a cheaper insurance company over the internet. The policeman was relatively understanding until my license came back as having been suspended for not having insurance, it seems that the insurance company that I have been paying to maintain my sr22 wasn’t doing its part and the state thinks that I am still uninsured. In the mean time I’ve been paying these crooks $260 a month for two years for NOTHING! They have done nothing but laugh all they way to the bank. So now in addition to paying a $1,086 ticket I have to go to court to prove I was actually insured these past to years, and even if I was paying for insurance that doesn’t mean I was “insured” because the small print says that if my license is suspended I lose coverage, but my license was suspended because the insurance didn’t communicate with the state! Do you see why they want to take away our guns? Because I am ready to go postal!  Unless you make $100,000 a year you just can’t get ahead in this land of hypocrisy.

I have many more stories to tell: my father has been jailed for not paying a traffic violation, my mother has been fingerprinted and had her mugshots for not fixing her one faulty headlight within the given 14 days, my dog was taken away and put to sleep for being on our front porch instead of the fenced backyard, and a man in my town was just released from jail after doing 3 months of a 1 year sentence for fishing with live bait.

If you read this much and find yourself enraged by how ridiculous all this is then congratulations, I hope now that you feel the need to take a look around you and realize that YOU ARE NOT FREE. We have let ourselves be imprisoned by rules and regulations sponsored by faceless corporations and put into law by career politicians. We have let our freedoms be corralled into pastures when they used to run wild. Prime example: “Free Speech Zones” at the last Olympics. Hey! Wake up! Last time I checked our whole damn country was a “Free Speech Zone”.  Now the hippies get rubber bullets and tear gas, well its time we stood up and said ENOUGH! From now on I will be there on the battlefield.  I don’t care who is protesting what, for all I care it could be some flag burning psycho, I am there to protect their freedom to protest! That is what that flag stands for.

This freedom that America stands for was bought with the blood of heroes and patriots and every day we let more and more of it slip through our weak, lifeless fingers. We the people of the United States need a new declaration of independence, we have no brave new world to occupy, and there are no more vacant lands for the tired, sick, and afflicted. I am tired of living in this cage of unlivable laws, I am sick of the rich running my homeland, and tyranny is my affliction, but there is no where to run. This is a fight that must be fought here, with pens and swords we must rise up and say: “NO MORE!”  No more bureaucracy! No more taxes! No more worthless laws that only serve the rich! No more lying politicians! Let us live and be free! Lets us work for our dreams and reach for the stars. Just let us be.

My friends, it is time for a revolution. I pray enough of us have the courage to fight it. Write your senators and representatives. If you love freedom and want to let it run wild once again run for office, be the senator or representative and we will support you. Don’t think that an average Joe can’t win. There are millions of people just like me who spit in disgust every year and vote for the lesser of two evils. Be the person we rush to vote for!

This is a call to all good, intelligent Americans everywhere. We need you. And to all you in office, take heed, Americans everywhere are being pushed to the edge. Things will change one way or another.

Thanks Sage, your a good man.  I still remember that ticket for Racing that you got due to a squealing fan belt.  JACKHOLES, ALL OF THEM!

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Copyright G H Hill 1999-2012