GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!

Those famously “dangerous” words were shouted by Patrick Henry of Virginia in March of 1775 just a few weeks before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War.  His words captured the deeply held sentiments of the American colonists who were tired of having their perceived rights trampled on.  The perception of those rights is important to note because at that time, that’s exactly what they were, a perception.  Those rights had not actually been won yet…they needed to be fought for! 

Until that point in human history, individual rights were given and revoked at the whims of kings, queens, and tyrants.  Because of the American Revolutionary War, the power of government and the rights of the individual became enshrined and safeguarded in a Constitutional system where the people were born with unalienable rights.  With those rights, the people had the privilege and duty to restrict the naturally encroaching power of government because, "The People ARE in fact THE government!"  That was and still is an incredibly revolutionary idea that changed the world!

Patrick Henry’s words laid the foundation for the American spirit and that spirit became so entrenched in the American psyche that we have even rallied around, “Give me liberty or give me death” when it comes to the rights of others who have been suppressed like when we fought for the freedom of slaves in the Civil War, when we charged across no-man’s land during WWI, and when we stormed the beaches of Normandy and Okinawa in WWII.

Furthermore, our history is rich with patriots who didn’t wait for a crisis to be over but instead called upon the spirit of Patrick Henry to bravely stand for our rights and refuse to give in. In 1863 after the Battle of Gettysburg, with the Civil War still very much in doubt, Abraham Lincoln begged us to remember that our government was "OF the people and FOR the people!"  Later in in 1933 during the height of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt reminded the nation that, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  It was only a generation ago in 1955, that Rosa Parks again reminded us of the incredible power of "We The People" with her simple protest of "dangerously" remaining in her seat instead of giving into the ridiculous state mandate of moving to the back of the bus.

So why have we collectively shrunk so quickly and given up our Constitutional rights with very little push back during this current Coronavirus crisis?   Isn't during times exactly like this where we are supposed to stand the tallest and remember where the true power of government resides?

The time has come to exercise our God-given rights by standing up and speaking out even if it is something simple and demand our states open up.  Let's fight this Corona war the same way we have fought every other war...head on... instead of cowering in our homes willingly giving up our rights.  The Coronavirus has less than a 2% fatality rate but if we don’t open up our states it will be 100% fatal to our ability to survive!

With those thoughts coursing through my head, I went on my daily jog last night through town with a hastily made up shirt declaring, “Give me liberty or give me death” hand-written on the back.  It was my simple way of standing up and speaking out during this crazy and historic times.  Did it make a difference, did anyone notice, will it change things?  Probably not, but the echo of Patrick Henry did have the desired effect on at least one person…me!