Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 07/04/18> Why do we celebrate the 4th of July anyway?
I wish I didn’t know half the things I do and I say that with all sincerity. The 4th of July celebration in Tomball, Texas has been cancelled this year and honestly I think it is about time we just cancel all the future 4th of July events in years to come as well.
This year’s event has been cancelled due to some severe weather expected in the area and I will give the folks running the city credit for not waiting to the last minute to decide to pull the plug on the fireworks and other activities. If the forecast for today holds true it will damn sure be a mess come this evening, even if the rain has stopped by dusk when the fireworks display normally takes place.
With regard to the United States of America, like I said, I wish I didn’t know half the things I do.
Since I do know them though I have a duty to put it out here in my Daily Dose so that my future grand kids will have a chance to read my thoughts on this subject, this Daily Dose might be the only connection that those future grand children might have with me.
So, why do we celebrate the 4th of July? The tradition dates back all the way to 1776 when the founding fathers of this country signed the declaration of independence. There was a time when I might have written those four words starting each word with a capital letter, The Declaration Of Independence, out of respect for the document that gave this country its freedom. Those days are well in the rear view mirror of my life now, that piece of history is just that; history.
If my tone here today sounds a bit on the negative side, it is. It is that way because of the things I know about the history of two hundred and forty two years ago today when the colonists that settled here did something that had never been done up until then.
From what I know, they broke free of the tyranny that they were living under. They stood up for themselves and said no more, they were willing to fight for their freedom and they weren’t afraid that it might cost some them their lives.
The freedom that came after the tyranny however was short lived. Sure, we no longer had a king over across the Atlantic Ocean calling the shots here or demanding retribution of the colonists. We had formed a Republic; one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
Each member of the United States of America had and still has a duty to defend the country against enemies both foreign and domestic. For the most part it has been a job well done against foreign enemies; the failure has come in the form of not defending against the domestic enemies.
Tyranny is alive and well here in the USA, and since all of us alive today have been raised up in it, along with our parents before us and their parents as well, most of us don’t even realize the tyranny we live under. I could point to several things today that, while normal and acceptable to us, would surely have the founding fathers of this country turning over in their graves.
For starters, and this will probably be the only one I mention, how about we talk about the law of the land? My guess would be that over 85% of the population living today doesn’t have a clue about what the true law of land is in the USA.
I have friends that have studied in the law and actually practice in the law as attorneys and don’t know the true law of the land because it isn’t even covered in law school as a required subject or course of study. That right there should be all you need to know about the tyranny we are currently living under, when the law of the land has been replaced and not one person stood up to defend against the change.
On the subject of law I might also mention that when the country was founded that attorneys were not eligible to be elected members of the government, people holding “titles of nobility” such as “esquire” which is the British title for attorney could not seek office. How many congressmen, senators and presidents are or were lawyers? The majority is the answer and has been for quite some time.
Most people think that the Supreme Court of the United States is the most powerful court in the land. Today that is probably the case, but it wasn’t ever intended to be and when you get right down to it, it isn’t. We have been lead through our education system to believe it is and that the laws that they are basing their rulings are the law; but in fact they are not. We have accepted these things as such through our ignorance.
Common law and the common law court are the foundation of law for the United States of America. The common law court is the highest court in the land due to the fact that a decision in common law court cannot be overturned on appeal. There is a ton of money made for the current court system and attorneys in the appeals process; I guess that shouldn’t come as any surprise, since the lawyers in congress had a hand in setting up the current court system.
So, if I sound down and negative about the 4th of July it is with good reason, we have failed as the country we started out to be and no one seems to notice or care.
As for my freedom? I don’t know that I have any freedom or liberty. If the weather would be good enough to fish today I might want to go fishing. In order to that let me think about what I would have to do.
First I would need a fishing license.
To get that fishing license, I would need a government identification card or driver’s license to prove who I am in order to buy that fishing license.
In order to get to my fishing spot at the lake, I would have to drive and my car has to have license plates, inspection, insurance and I also have to follow the traffic laws in order to get to the lake.
Once I am at the lake I can’t keep all the fish I catch because there a limits on size and species so I have to have a rule book in order to know what I can or cannot keep.
There is a game warden that might come by and check what I have caught and I could be charged with a crime if I don’t have the fishing license or if I have to many fish or the wrong size fish, even certain baits and hooks are illegal to fish with as well.
So just where is my freedom in the scenario I just laid out? There is none when you really look at it, my liberty to fish and enjoy myself is regulated to the point it almost isn’t even worth doing what I enjoy doing when I stop and look at it.
If you live the USA and plan on celebrating today, have at it. I am going to sit this one out and more than likely sit out others in the future out of respect for the founding fathers of this country who gave so much for us just to piss it away in less than 250 years.
So why are you celebrating the 4th of July? Freedom? Liberty?
I know, maybe you enjoy the tyranny.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
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I think this goes for just about any country in the world today. Off the top of my head, I can't think of one where this is not the case.
I don't think any of us have. I don't know if you follow @wwf, but he has managed to disengage himself from the system. He has no government identification and pays no taxes. He has declared himself sovereign. It has taken him more than ten years but is not responsible to any entity but himself. It is an interesting journey he has taken...
Yes Ceci, I don't know that there is any place left that doesn't have tyranny or a dictator ruler situation. I might just look up the fellow you mentioned, I have seen some others like him from your description of him and it sounds interesting.....
Yes, do. He is a very interesting fellow with some good ideas...
You bring up a lot of great points here. Your fishing story is a good example of the ridiculous layers of bureaucracy that plague us. I wish more Americans (and many other countries) would analyze the reality of their situation and become actively engaged to bring about real change. The trouble now with the media is people aren't sure what's factual anymore. It's going to be very difficult to climb out of this hole we find ourselves in but we have to start somewhere if we want a better future for our descendants. Have you ever listened to Noam Chomsky? He cuts through the BS as good as any I've ever heard.
I am not sure if I have listened to the man you mentioned or not, the name looks familiar but if I have if has been along time ago. I will make it a point to look him up though since you have mentioned him.
The biggest problem is that we are like frogs in a cooking pot, the water started out cool and they slowly turned up the heat and we never noticed, now we are cooked and being eaten alive everyday by all the rules, laws, codes and statutes and we still think the water in the pot is the right temperature.
It goes back at two and maybe even 3 generations here were we have been in the pot, and that has everything to do with the education system phasing out civics and replacing it with government classes.
It is a sad state of affairs indeed!
Here in post apartheid South Africa there still is no freedom for many of the former oppressed; our leaders have enriched themselves and their families but the ordinary man in the street still live in horrendous conditions with a higher rate of unemployment and the gap between the rich and the poor getting bigger!
Further, our law system protects the criminals - if someone breaks into our home and threatens us, we would be arrested if we dare fire a shot at them or injure them in any way! We I do not own any firearms so that would not happen to us, but there have been many instances where victims of crime have had to go to court to defend themselves.
About land matters, an act was passed in 1998 called the Prevention of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation of Land, which often is used by tenants to avoid paying rent (one reason we started Lily's Cottage and not get a tenant! My late brother had a tenant who only paid one month's rent, then stopped. Her lawyer threw this act at us after my brother's death; my poor brother was in such a state about this - he died suddenly after a heart attack, aged 42.
We were shocked to hear that we would be arrested if we tried removing her from the duplex! She lived there rent-free for the rest of the seven months it took for my brother's estate to be wound up! We sold the property and she agreed to move out if we signed a document absolving her of all the rental monies!
I heard many other horrendous stories about this issue.
Freedom it certainly is not!
So I will not be wishing you a happy 4th of July mr Papper after reading what you've written - and sorry I got carried away with my long story!
No apologies needed on the length of your reply, I enjoy reading others take on situations and their experiences. It is a shame about your brother. I find it interesting that they name the law as such "Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation of Land".
It would seem that your brother's tenant had broken their contract with him and therefore would be subject to eviction. But upon further thought, (thinking like a gov. official) the tenant even though they have broken the contract has done nothing wrong, governments break the contracts with people all the time. The only time broken contracts need to enforced is when a person breaks a contract with the government, and those would be the "laws", so the person is charged, convicted and then forced to pay or in some cases incarcerated at the government hotel (jail).
The other interesting part is that the person could afford a lawyer to battle for them but couldn't pay the rent. Lawyers aren't cheap here, I don't know about where you are, but here I don't know that having a lawyer and winning in court would be any less expensive than paying the rent.
What would constitute a legal eviction where you are? If not paying the rent doesn't qualify I would have a hard time guessing what would. The other part would be the "unlawful occupation of land" , the probably has no teeth in it since we both know that there is a big difference between "legal" and "lawful" from prior discussions about law.
Here we have in Texas a statute called the "Castle doctrine", which says a mans home is his castle and he can defend his castle with deadly force if need be. There was actually a case here in the Houston area where an older gentleman saw his neighbors house being burglarized and grabbed his shotgun and went out and defended his neighbors property, killing one of three suspects. He did end up in court, but was not convicted of a crime. His saving grace in that case was that when he stopped them they were actually on his property in his front yard. If he had shot them in the neighbors yard in might have been a totally different outcome for him.
But according to the statute, we can defend our own property.
When nation's start to celebrate themselves it's usually a sign that bad things are going on. Your post makes me think that maybe instead of 'sitting out' these dates we should actively commiserate them, as dates when people are being conned into celebrating their slavery.
@moderndayhippie has a good post today about freedom from a veterans perspective, if you haven't read that I would suggest it as well.
Maybe we should commiserate on days such as this one, then at least there would be reason to BBQ, not like I need a reason of course.
Thanks for the tip! I'm just catching up after another internet-free break so I'll read his post once my voting power has replenished.
Tell us how you really feel. It really is frustrating when you think about it. Fishing is about the same here in Canada...and the Game Warden can take your car and your gear, on the spot!, if you are breaking the fishing laws. Solutions? Has it gone too far? I don't know.
I can't speak for Canada, I have only been there once and was thrown out of the country as quickly as I got there. I can say that here in the USA , I supposedly have a constitution that protects my God given rights and of those are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Having all these licensing and regulations interferes with my pursuit of happiness when it comes to fishing and that is a direct violation of my rights.
If Canada is anything like the USA when it comes to your rights then yours are being violated as well. I don't know that the game warden here can confiscate your car or fishing gear lawfully but I don't think that would stop them from trying if they decided to do it for breaking a fishing law.
I'll answer your questions for you; "has it gone to far?" You know damn well it has, so don't say, "I don't know." , it has and it really needs to stop.
As far as solutions go, and I think this would apply in Canada as well, we need to go back to the law of the land which here in the USA is common law. I am 90% certain that common law was also the law of the land in Canada.
If you are not familiar with common law you need to read up on it. The only way there can be an issue at common law is when someone is injured or damaged by another person's actions. It doesn't necessarily mean bodily harm, stealing someone's property damages them as much as punching them in the face. You get the point I'm fairly certain on that.
The fact of the matter is the state can't point to a person and say I "damaged or injured" that person by not having a fishing license.
When common law was replaced by codes and statutes, all our rights became in jeopardy of being violated and they sure have been.
The state uses it as just a money making scheme charging people with victim-less crimes in order to gain money they otherwise wouldn't be able to extract from people like you and me.
So, going back to common law would be the first step in the solution process, there might be other steps as well, but that would be first on the list.
Thanks for stopping in and I enjoyed listening today to you on PYPT.
I hear your frustration, and I always appreciate the honesty you bring to your posts. The thoughtfulness, as well. The fishing example is a startling one, but true. So much regulation crushes whatever freedom might have been there before... however, they can't take away the enjoyment of sitting by the lake, listening to the water lap on the shore.
I think many people notice and care. Obviously you are one of them. I have mixed feelings about celebrating July 4th (or Canada Day, since I'm up north now), because of the history of the country. I can't say I'm proud of it, that's for sure. However, I appreciate the act of celebration for the sake of having fun. I think we need that. I also think we need to be much more aware of what we're pretending to celebrate.
Fabulous post, as always.