Are we lions or sheep?

Are we lions or sheep?

Oct. 14, 2000

STRAIGHT TALK
By Muriel Sluyter

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

There have always been injustices in this country. But many Americans are no longer concerned with injustices or threats to their Constitutional rights. They have other priorities. I don’t know who wrote this, but it may explain the problem: "Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now they bleat like sheep for security."

Perhaps this explains the following: Groups are getting to-gether and having themselves de-clared In-dian tribes. According to reports, that allows them to set up casinos where they could not otherwise do so legally. But that isn’t all. Some then go into houses as soon as an owner leaves — even if he is only going to the grocery store — and declare it to be their property, based on their "tribal rights."

This is happening in a town close to California’s border with Arizona, Lake Havasu City. These fake Indians had taken possession of several houses before the people of that town knew what was happening. San Bernardino County has refused to evict them, so the owners are having to try to reclaim their homes by going to court.

A man from Germany has said that in other countries, freedom means "freedom from," whereas in America, it means "the freedom to." If [people in other countries complain of lack of freedom, they are reminded of those things from which they are free. But they don’t know that "freedom from" does not equate to "freedom to," unless they visit America.

In America, it means the freedom to speak out; the freedom to have a press uncontrolled by the government; to assemble peacefully; to practice the religion of our choice.

It means the right to bear arms. In fact, in the 1840s, the state of Illinois required that all men have their own weapons and be a member of the militia. It is unlikely that Illinois was alone in that requirement, though that knowledge is being carefully hidden from present-day Americans.

It means the right of citizens to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, and that a person cannot be arrested without probable cause. No one can be forced to testify against himself. His property cannot be taken from him without just compensation (that part seems to be in grave jeopardy).

We have many rights guaranteed in our Constitution, but those who have no problem with the various governments’ supporting the criminal activity of those phony "tribes," shouldn’t be so foolish as to place their faith in the other Constitutional guarantees we have enjoyed for over 200 years. They too, hang in the balance.

We should have been suspicious when Clinton began declaring national monuments on land that included not only state property, but private property. There have also been the ongoing episodes of the Forest Service shutting people out of their property, unless they sign away their rights to their own driveways.

Nobody stopped Clinton and his followers on those, so individuals who wanted land without having to pay for it to set up a scam and forged boldly ahead. They simply take property and dare the rightful owners to do anything about it. In Europe there is a saying that the bold own half the earth, and these phonies seem to have taken that saying as their motto.

Are the citizens of this country going to continue to tolerate these outrageous "takings"? Have we been bleating like sheep for so long, that we have forgotten how to roar like lions? If so, we too will soon be confined to "freedom from" instead of "freedom to."