A low tide exposes much of the beach when the water recedes. The tightly compressed grains of sand begin to discover their individuality as the sun spreads its warmth on them, and they begin to dry. The consistency of the beach is transformed from a tightly constricted hardpan to an inviting collection of warm individual grains of sand. The predictable movement of the tides and their impact on the countless mini-pebbles of sand provide a fitting metaphor for our situation in the United States today.
The power of the surging water has washed over our land and compressed our liberties. With the new Congress we appear to have a respite of sorts as many people seek to exercise their rights and restore the ideal of individual liberty that was designed by our Framers. We should note, however, the new Congress is NOT attacking all the egregious affronts to our freedom. They have sought to minimize a few of them, ignore some of the others, and extend another group even further. High tide will return with a vengeance.
While we may be tempted to rejoice in some apparent tiny victories, this is not the time for God’s people of liberty to become satisfied or complacent. The nature of government, all governments, is to acquire power and to grow larger. The little pause that we are celebrating now is misleading. While there may be some stalemate in the legislative realm, the executive branch, the judiciary and the bureaucracy continue their march toward tyranny. If we hesitate, if we dance in the end zone, if we curtail our vigilance and our efforts, the tide will sweep back to shore and compress us more tightly than we have ever known before.
The difficulty for us is that while the tide has receded, we revel in our individuality, but in order to assure that we can recapture our God-given or natural rights, we must band together. As a people with varying priorities and preferences, we must suppress our personal desires in order to secure our personal freedom. In other words our countless grains of individual sand must cling together to form a barrier to limit the tide’s effect when it returns. We can erect a levee of protection if we are willing to stand on the shoulders of each other. If we insist on our singular paths and priorities, we shall be swamped by the might of the surging water.
Defeating Obama and the progressives in the 2012 election is absolutely necessary, but it must be done with candidates and servants DEDICATED to personal freedom. “Smaller government” is a meaningless term and is subjective, relative and easily manipulated. The same holds true for “less spending” or “lower taxes.” Only an absolute commitment to individual liberty will provide the impetus for an officeholder to work to dismantle the monster of government. Any other position can be compromised into meaningless incrementalism. The commitment to liberty must be absolute…unwavering, unmoving.
Sadly, there are many grains of sand who prefer the high tide. They see it as an amniotic fluid of comfort and safety. They do not care that the suffocating nature of the water dramatically restricts their movements and their choices. Like most grains of sand they are mindless, but those of us who cherish liberty must struggle to escape the hard pan and fight for freedom. Black Americans represent roughly 13% of our population but managed to stir the conscience of the entire nation during the Civil Rights era. Radical feminists with their hairy legs and burning bras revolutionized our social contract. A remnant of freedom-loving people, a minority of the sand can construct, must construct the levee of freedom or we shall all be drowned.
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