A Re-Declaration of Independence - Sixth Installment | Eastern North Carolina Now

Diane's "Magnus Opus" is rather long, so it has been broken into excerpts, and we will bring those excerpts in a concise manner here. If you are one who considers knowledge is the key to all worthy endeavors to, in exact wisdom, take back our Republic, Diane Rufino's "Magnus Opus" is a must read.

The previous fifth installment for "A Re-Declaration of Independence" can be found here.

    It starts with re-introducing ourselves to perhaps our most important of founding documents - the Declaration of Independence - which declares to we the citizens of the united States and to the world the government philosophy on which we fought for our independence and the principles on which we established our unique and noble nation. It starts with us re-acknowledging the rights and liberties on which our country was founded back in 1776 (when the Declaration was adopted) and 1781 (the treaty signed to officially separate us from Great Britain)? Patrick Henry perhaps said it best at the Virginia Ratifying Convention on June 5, 1788: "If a wrong step be now made, the republic may be lost forever. If this new government will not come up to the expectation of the people, and they shall be disappointed, their liberty will be lost, and tyranny must and will arise. I repeat it again, and I beg gentlemen to consider, that a wrong step, made now, will plunge us into misery, and our republic will be lost."

    We NEED to re-dedicate ourselves to preserving the country as it was founded for liberty sake, and therefore we, as our great Founding Fathers did before us, must re-Declare our Independence from this tyrannical government and corrupted political system. Charlotte Cushman explained it perfectly in her article "Founding Principle of the United States of America: Individual Rights" (July 2016):

    ""Any violation of our rights completely contradicts the ideas of our Founding Fathers who were very serious about individual freedom." On February 25, 2011 Yaron Brook gave a rousing speech at the Tea Party Patriots Summit in Arizona where he pointed this out about the Founding Fathers: "They didn't say, 'We just want a little bit less taxes, please, King George.' They didn't say, 'Give us some liberty, please, King George.' They changed the world because they asked a fundamental question. And the question they asked is, 'Who does your life - does my life - belong to?' That's a question that people had never asked, because it was always obvious: your life belongs to the state, to the king, to some emperor, to somebody else - and it's your job to do his bidding. The Founders of this country said 'No: sovereignty belongs with the individual. My life is mine. Your life is yours. And nobody can take that away - not a king; but not even a majority!"

    If we want to restore freedom to our country, we must re-discover our roots. Our Founding Fathers were so committed to their revolutionary ideas that they were willing to put their lives on the line for the document that laid the moral foundation for the United States of America-the Declaration of Independence. We need to be willing to do the same. We need to be willing to stand up and say: "My life belongs to me, not to the government, not to the state, not to King George, not to a welfare program, but...to me!" We need to believe in that principle and commit to that principle, the principle of individual rights.

    'I want you to look at the birth of a miracle: the United States of America. If it is ever proper for men to kneel, we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence. The concept of individual rights is so prodigious a feat of political thinking that few men grasp it fully - and 200 years have not been enough for other countries to understand it.' -- Ayn Rand

    Just like parasites (including leeches, intestinal worms, viruses, bacteria, fleas, and ticks) suck the life and health out of a healthy host, Democrats, leftists, progressives, Antifa, atheists, and the like are like parasites on our healthy conservative society. They have destroyed our essential institutions (like the traditional family unit, our churches and their doctrines, and our free exercise of religion in any public place) and they are attacking our traditional and historic natural and civil rights. Why are they succeeding in doing so? And why are we allowing them to get away with it?

    James Monroe once said that "he best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil." And this is true. As the great Roman Senator, Cicero, once explained, the purpose of good law is to prevent and punish evil and wrongdoing and to reward good behavior. As we have all observed for many years now, our current federal government, and especially those Democratic congressmen and senators, and Deep State members in its various agencies have gone overboard to encourage and reward all that is bad in and for our society and to suppress, mock, and punish all that is good.

    When I read Glenn Beck's book, Overton Window, I was struck by one particular paragraph. It read: "The riddle today is the same one faced by our Founding Fathers when they began their experiment. Societies need government. Governments elevate men into power, and men who seek power are prone to corruption. It spreads like a disease. And sooner or later the end result is always a slide into tyranny. That's the way it's always been. And so this government of the United States, so brilliantly and deliberately structured by our Founders, was designed to keep that weakness of human nature in check. But it required the people to participate daily, to be vigilante. And they have not. It demanded that they behave as though their government was their servant, but they have not. While they slept, the servant has become their master." It struck me because it seemed a perfect summation of what has happened here in America with our government, to the destruction and decay of our individual and social existence.

    I always knew Hollywood's Moses, Charlton Heston, was a great actor. But as of the last ten years, I came to recognize that he was a great American patriot as well. He was president of the NRA, has been the featured speaker at several law school graduations, and has spoken up very publicly about what are treasured values are. For example, he once said: "Every one of us born beneath this blessed American sky has rights that no one can take away because no one gave them to us. They were ours from the beginning. Each of us has a birth certificate, but it didn't give us life. It merely put on paper what everybody knows - that we're alive. In the same way, the Constitution doesn't give us rights. It just puts on paper what everybody knows - that we are free to say and write and think and work and worship as we choose. We're also free to own a firearm, and that right shall not be infringed. A firearm is the fundamental symbol of our freedom."


    And he also said: "Our core beliefs are the work of all the men and women of our childhoods - a constellation of people who orbited around us, tugging here and pushing there, day after day as we grew, shaping our beliefs and carving our characters until we became who we are. Remember them? Parents, who didn't just talk about values but who lived out those values. The gym coach, whose knotted robe taught you to pull your own weight. The scout master, who surely had a job and family to tend to, but always made time for you. Clergymen, whose moral compass helped guide your way. The grocery store owner, who played along with Mom in an unscripted scolding that ended your candy-pilfering days forever. The principal, whose handmade paddle meant punishment for sure, but who also showed the meaning of forgiveness and who gave you the opportunity to make a fresh new start. The neighborhood teenager, who bragged about joining the Army but whose silence after the war taught you even more. The teacher, who stood up for the weak and who stared down the bully, taught you that everyone should be treated the same. The neighborhood policeman, who not only knew the law but somehow also knew what you were thinking. All those strangers, men and women, you happened to watch at football games who instinctively put their hands over their hearts during the Pledge of Allegiance and who stood with their eyes transfixed on the flag. All those people.... they gave you a sense of geography about your life. They taught you where you fit in, what is right and what is wrong, what you must be responsible for, and what values are important and why. Each of us is a tapestry of threads, woven by all of them. This is the living torch that they pass to us. And in turn, we must pass to others."

    Let us never forget what one of our greatest Founding Fathers emphasized: "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." Nor let us forget what Thomas Paine wrote: "It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government." And "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." He, of course, was restating a core principle of the Declaration of Independence.

    Ronald Reagan reminded Americans again when he offered this critical warning: ""Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

    Please take all this to heart and share.

    REFERENCES:

    Declaration of Independence, transcript, from the National Archives -

    Charlotte Cushman, "Founding Principle of the United States of America: Individual Rights," American Thinker, July 4, 2016.

    Thomas Eddlem, "A Legacy of Violations of the U.S. Bill of Rights, Hyperlinked," The New American, February 26, 2014.

    Joel M. Killion, "The Bill of Rights Violated," WilsonNC Tea Party, May 22, 2014. [Joel originally wrote the paper in 2014 for a college assignment] *** Full article was incorporated in this paper with Joel's permission

    James Madison, Helevidius, No. 3 (September 7, 1793)

    Declaration of Independence

    "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," issued by Secretary of Homeland Security on April 7, 2009.

    Dennis Prager, "I Now Better Understand the Good German," Townhall, January 5, 2021.

    Dennis Prager, "The Good American," Townhall, January 12, 2021.


    Andrew Brookhiser, "That Time When Jefferson Tried to Have a Supreme Court Justice Impeached," HistoryNet, August 2019.

    Thomas Jefferson on Judicial Tyranny. Referenced at: http://www.robgagnon.net/JeffersonOnJudicialTyranny.htm

    Thomas Jefferson - Thoughts on the Judiciary. Referenced at: https://www.foundingfatherquotes.com/articles/28

    Thomas Jefferson, Quotes - https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

    Full text of Patrick Henry's Speech in Richmond, Virginia (March 23, 1775 - "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!"). Referenced at:

    Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union Message to Congress, January 11, 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Referenced at: http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/address_text.html

    Josh Jones, "F.D.R. Proposes a Second Bill of Rights: A Decent Job, Education & Health Care Will Keep Us Free from Despotism (1944)," Open Culture (History, Politics section), August16, 2017 Referenced at: https://www.openculture.com/2017/08/f-d-r-proposes-a-second-bill-of-rights.html

    Works Cited Specifically in the Section on VIOLATIONS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS:

    "9th Amendment to the US Constitution." Revolutionary War and Beyond. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

    "The 10th Amendment." Revolutionary War and Beyond. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.

    Adams, Becket. "Third Amendment Violated? Nev. Police Allegedly Invade Family's Home to Use During SWAT Call, Arrest Two for 'Obstruction' When Owner Refuses." The Blaze. N.p., 8 July 2013. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

    "Amendment VII: Jury Trial in Civil Disputes." The Rutherford Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.

    Associated Press. "Report: NSA Secretly Broke into Yahoo, Google Data Centers, Collected Millions of Records Each Day." The Blaze. N.p., 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

    "The Bonus Army March." American Treasuries of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.

    "The Bonus March (May-July, 1932)." UNC-TV/American Experience. PBS, n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.

    Darcy, Oliver. "Timeline of Terror: Benghazi One Year Later." The Blaze. N.p., 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

    "The Declaration of Independence: a Transcription." The Charters 0f Freedom. The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.

    Grossman, Jonathan. "Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage." United States Department of Labor. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.