LETTER: It’s important that we honor men like Dr. King

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Thursday, January 24. 2013

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Dear Editor:

As the nation observes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s day, this year, it’s a time for us to take stock of the racial equality and relationships that make up our nation.

Compared to the 1960s when Dr. King led civil rights marches to now when President Obama as America’s first minority president has won re-election to that office, we have come far in the improvement of that racial equality and relationships in our nation.

But we can improve and most importantly must not lose ground on racial equality and relationships in this country. Because when a nation does, it can cross that fine line between being a democratic and civilized one to becoming a barbarian one as seen when Germany crossed that line and became Nazi Germany.

While the United States didn’t go that far after 9-11, we did put aside some of our civil liberties in the name of national security.

If we do set aside the principles of freedom and liberty on which this nation was founded out of fear, then we move closer to crossing that fine line and leading the world into a new dark age.

So it’s important that we honor men like Dr. King who take a stand for that freedom and liberty who too often pay for such stands with their lives. But by taking their stands keep our nation from crossing that line and help keep that freedom and liberty safe for all of us.

Sincerely,

Terry Adams

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#1 Patriot on 01/29/13 at 05:05 PM [Reply]

Republic vs. Democracy

"Hence it is that democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths... A republic, by which I mean a government in which a scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking." (James Madison, Federalist Papers, Federalist Paper #10, page 81, 1788)

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" Franklin, Benjamin

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” - Thomas Jefferson

“Our real disease - which is democracy.” - Alexander Hamilton

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams

“Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable [abominable] cruelty of one or a very few.” - John Adams

#2 John Fulford on 01/29/13 at 05:20 PM [Reply]

What is a Democracy?

The origin of the word democracy comes from the Greek demos, meaning people, and kratos, meaning government. Literally, democracy means government by or of the people.

In a democracy, the majority rules either directly, or through elected representatives or appointed officials, without the restraint embodied in a fixed body of law. The law is whatever an official organ of government determines it is. ("The law is in their mouth," as was said of absolute monarchs.) It is rule by whim rather than law, by emotion rather than reason. Individuals have no inherent rights, but are considered the products of history (slavery, the renaissance, dark ages, etc.), culture (western, oriental, etc.), class (nobility, merchant, artisan, peasant, etc.), gender (male or female), race (Caucasian, Negroid, etc.), religion (Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Moslem, Jewish, etc.), etc., and are classified and categorized accordingly. Rights emanate from the mass will or power. The purpose of government is to satisfy needs (food, clothing, shelter, education, healthcare, etc.). It is government by conflicting biases with the result that members of politically powerful constituencies receive privileges because of their classification within certain categories rather than on merit at the expense of everyone else. The racial and other quotas under Affirmative Action are an example.

The laws are political or man-made, and reflect not truth and justice, but power. They are a mass of ad hoc decisions produced through lobbying, geared to expediency, concerned more with immediate consequences and less with consistency or continuity. Gun control and drug laws are prime examples. They are based on the emotional reaction to societal problems for which the misuse of guns and drugs are merely the symptom. Despite overwhelming evidence that such laws not only don't work, but actually encourage lawlessness, those who support them demand more draconian measures in the face of their repeated failures. As a consequences, our prisons fill with peaceful people who merely want to defend themselves or relax with a drug which is, at most, harmful only to themselves while murderers, rapists, and robbers are set free to make room for these political prisoners.

Political law creates advantage. Therefore, political factions compete to control the law- making process. Government power is a prize to be won for the benefit of the winners at the expense of the losers. The law becomes an instrument used by the winners against their opponents. Officers of the law are appropriately called law enforcement officers or policemen (from the Greek, Latin, and French to regulate, control, or cleanup). Their primary role is to enforce the corporate will, and protect the power of the state. The military is an instrument of foreign and, at times, domestic policy. Taxes are imposed without the individual's consent, and are used to reward and punish as well as pay for legitimate government functions.

People vote for what they want, not what is right. The public looks to the political class for moral leadership. Public and private morality are considered the same which justifies making private morality public policy. Thus what one does in the privacy of his own home with consenting adults (gambling, for example) must meet the same standard as for public behavior. As a result, vices become crimes, and the exercise of certain freedoms become criminal activities. What is lawful today, may not be tomorrow, and an individual considered law-abiding one day, may be a criminal the next, though his behavior has not changed.

Restraint is upon the individual. Rights are relative and take the form of privileges granted through government licenses and permits, or simply permissions revocable at the whim of those in power. The will of one segment of society - the majority - is imposed on everyone. Government acts like a hammer punishing violations of majority standards as enacted by legislation. Consent of the governed is meaningless, for such governments exercise their powers over anyone they choose.

Democracy concentrates power into the hands of the few organized and clever enough to manipulate the masses. It is characterized by a communistic attitude toward property and monopolistic enterprises. It becomes an instrument for the redistribution of wealth as well as the security of the state. It is the rule of men, the dictatorship of the majority without regard to the consequences upon individuals or society.

#3 John Fulford on 01/29/13 at 05:27 PM [Reply]

What is a Republic?

The word republic is from the Latin res, which means thing, affair or interest, and publica which means of everybody. It literally means everybody's thing or interest.

The Declaration of Independence contains the principles of republican government: that all men are created with equal, unalienable rights, that governments are formed by men to secure these rights, and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Upon these principles, our forefathers established a body of law called the Constitution of the United States to which they added a Bill of Rights as the first ten amendments to further restrict majority rule.

The essence of a republic is the rule of law, by which is meant the common or scientific law, which is certain and unchangeable. This law is discovered, not made, in that the tendency is to find the freedoms and restraints imposed by natural law, and base decisions upon them. ("Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them," wrote Tom Paine.) Since human nature doesn't change, what was right yesterday should be so today and tomorrow. Courts seek out and enforce a higher law as opposed to political or man-made law. As a result, the law seeks truth, transcends politics, is reasonable, consistent, predictable, and reflects or approximates natural justice. Government acts like a shield punishing the abuses of freedoms - assaults against the life, liberty, and property of innocent people - not the freedoms themselves. For example, the misuse of a firearm which results in injury to an innocent party would be punished rather than the mere possession of such a weapon. Officers of the law are appropriately called peace officers, for they do not enforce political law, but protect everyone equally from force and fraud. The military is used as a last resort to protect the nation. Moral authority rests outside the political class who are held to a high moral standard through public pressure. Government's purpose is to protect rights and defend freedom. Taxes are voluntary assessments used to fund legitimate government functions serving the common good (in obedience to John Adams' dictum that "No man may be taxed against his will. . . ." ).

Under this form of government, individual freedom and responsibility are maximized. The individual is sovereign and his rights are sacrosanct. Individuals are free to act without permission, but must never impose without consent. Everyone has an equal right to compete in the marketplace, succeed or fail on their own, and pursue their own happiness restrained only by the rights of others to do the same. Republics reject as a danger to liberty the public interest doctrine espoused in democracies, because, as John Adams articulated, "You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe."

In a republic, the government has just enough power to carry out its proper functions, but is otherwise limited, inhibited and restricted. According to political historian, Thomas Molnar:

The prevailing concept [of 18th century liberalism] was . . . that the State should concern itself with public safety, and should be called out - in the form of its armed forces only to restrain the disorderly and crush the rebellious.

Power is decentralized, divided, and regulated by an elaborate system of checks and balances, with the ultimate check held by the people in the form of free and open elections (the ballot box), indictment and trial by jury (the jury box), and an armed citizenry (the cartridge box). The law is neutral. No one is exempt; everyone is equal before it. All are held fully accountable to an injured party.

Republican government is based on Tom Paine's premise that "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

Thomas Jefferson, in his first inaugural address, gave perhaps the best description of republican government:

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another . . . shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

In a republic, government is an instrument solely for collective security in which the people are served rather than regulated, represented rather than ruled. When the principles of republican government are followed, free markets spring up automatically followed by a growing middle class, abundance, harmony, a high degree of liberty, and ethical behavior. The emphasis is on the creation of wealth, not the accumulation of power as in a democracy.

#4 John Fulford on 01/30/13 at 01:48 PM [Reply]

True . However without the true principles of a republic Mr King would have never accomplished what he did.
A democracy would have allowed the majority to over turn the civil rights movement. That is why we don't have a democracy we have a republic . At least we use to.
But since the opinions of all are not allowed here.Something I tried to post before was not posted here . First Amendment censorship might be more appropriate.

#4.1 Virginia Moss on 01/31/13 at 09:48 PM [Reply]

Interesting views on the two forms. Not used to such informative posts here. How have we moved more toward democracy and away from republicanism?

#5 Calvin on 02/07/13 at 08:52 PM [Reply]

What is said in the in the Pledge Of Allegiance ? I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic. It does not say I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Democracy . So I would have to say what John says here is fact not views . I believe the public school is probably responsible for teaching this misconception and under the disguise of liberalism which is just socialism
has instilled this lie into our children past and present .

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LETTER: It’s important that we honor men like Dr. King

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LETTER: It’s important that we honor men like Dr. King

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