Independence Day Prompts a Review of Freedom

by Robert L.Gisel

On this Independence Day one reflects on what's it all for; when not busy sipping beers at the barbecue what message is there to celebrate. The 4th of July came and went, albeit with a weak show of fireworks, evidencing that expensive fireworks were evidently pared down by a tough economy and, it would seem, a less enthusiastic America.

Ailing economy born of real economic abuses, challenges to our civil rights advanced by the past President bent on what could he get away with, his carnage left for the next President to patch up the wounds, these and other contemporary controversies leave one to wonder, are we making it? Various drastic changes over the last 3 centuries in our nation's benchmarks are perhaps not justified by proclaiming these to be mere advancements out of the experience of a nation moving past it's adolescence.

Loyal or not to whence they came, the migrants to America were set on living free of oppression and finding new opportunities to break into more desirable social standing. Freedom, rights, enterprise and lots of space were the draw. The American Revolution only accentuated the pride and integrity of a civilization alive with passion for life. The first outbreak of war was met with the Minutemen, volunteers who grabbed their guns from the hearth in their homes, became instant soldiers in defense of a lifestyle better than any up to that time. A free nation had to be fought for; it wasn't simply granted to us willingly by despots.

We see this fighting spirit in the volunteers that form our Armed Forces to stand watch for freedom around the world today. This patriotic turnout, in calls for support for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, is still very much appreciated and understood as important to the sovereignty of our nation. This has been the general air during each of wars we have engaged in in the past. The only difference is the growth, the numbers of population and 50 states preclude hiking with rifle from one's house to the war confrontation. The preemptive wars initiated by a President gone mad with power, however, punctuates the challenges of shielding the People from despotic government action. Thus we have the Bill of Rights.

The issues we have with our government today aren't principally any different from issues that have arisen other times in our history. The Patriots Act with its encroachment on human rights is, in the main, actually milder than the 1917 sedition and alien acts that were introduced in Woodrow Wilson's administration, where the nation was besieged by the invasion of Privacy by an army of civilian domestic intelligence and surveillance groups. Earlier in John Adam's presidency his Alien and Sedition Acts were one of the newborn nation's first challenges of the torch for freedom. Subsequent countering of the messages in the Constitution and Bill of Rights from the John D. Rockefeller and other administrations have demonstrated the necessity for watchdogs of rights and freedoms that speak out against dangerous changes that would usurp our rights and freedoms.

Several challenges have occurred, though, that have been new in the cultural progression which strikes a cautious note. Of late the boldness of the President Bush toying with the American People was taken to new heights. His bent was to test, in some weird Machiavellian conceptualization, just how much abuse the People would take and how much he could get away with in the way of greed and covert criminal action. No doubt Obama was brought in to calm everyone down after Bush's excesses, but possibly just so that more abuses could be again injected. The jury is still out on that one.

Another major change has been the extent of drug abuse that has swept society. Psychedelic drugs impair individuals with an irresponsible drug personality that lessens reach and ambition. Truth be known about the human mind, the so-called "mind altering drugs" factually submerge the creativity necessary to beneficent growth and advancement of a culture. The downside to that is a breakdown of human values and morale fiber.

The incept of psychiatry has been another major change in our society. This one stands above them all as genuinely and broadly destructive. No doubt about it it has been more harmful than it has been of help. The 70s drug culture itself was a product of psychiatry, who gave us LSD as well as the false datums that came with the free love and careless pursuit of mind altering addictions. Fomenting false data and twisted truths the conscious path of psychiatry has been to break down concepts of right and wrong, saying these concepts don't exist, while at the same time claiming this to be the test of sanity, the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. We bought into it, bowled over by the thrill of drugs and the excitement of permissive sex.

Psychiatry in society has been a most insidious addition due to it's covert actions and intentional hidden influence. Genocide and it's precursor abortion, segregation, racial discrimination, street drugs addiction and narcotic, psychotropic drugging of children, pregnant women and elderly all have psychiatric source, complete with names and places. These have been movements deliberately initiated by psychiatrists or the psychiatric associations such as the APA who, with a false smile on their faces, will tell you how good it is for you.

Vigilance for Freedom requires a high confront of evil, a strong ability to sanely observe and question. Abrogation of Freedoms and Right is rarely successful in the absence of deceit and deception. The Freedom Fighters that have the courage to stand up for the good of all are greatly appreciated.