My Thoughts on Thanksgiving Day 2010

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/22/lawmakers-seek-probe-tsas-pat-training-reported-misbehavior/

Well, it has been a very busy last three months for me. I have been blessed greatly by having the work to warrant overtime and especially – having and keeping my jobJ It has been a while since I posted a blog and I thought that today would be a wonderful time to do so.

Being Thanksgiving Day, I have been pondering what I have to be thankful for. In doing so, I have come to the conclusion that there is so much that I am thankful for that the real question should be what there is that I am not thankful for! I will not discuss those though, because I want to publicly thank my Heavenly Father and His only begotten and beloved son Jesus Christ for the myriad of blessings they have both poured out to me in my life. When I awoke this morning (truthfully nearly afternoon;) – a blessing in and of itself LOL) I happened upon a story on the news about the unrest and troubles afflicting the people of Haiti. I saw photo after photo of these people and the suffering and disease they are dealing with and could not help but feel that I have been so graciously blessed in my own life. I do not have to sleep outside and deal with crime, exposure, malnutrition, cholera and the host of other afflictions these people have had to endure. I must admit that my own “problems” seem like no more than simple inconveniences to what many around the world endure on a daily basis.

One thing that I truly thank my Father in Heaven for is the fact that I am able to live in this nation at this time. Our nation holds the values of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness above all others. Do we as a nation have problems? Yes. I think we all know that we do have them, but they are not insurmountable. If we as a society would spend time being thankful for what we have instead of focusing on what we don’t have (especially in material blessings) we would naturally focus on making our nation a better place.

After I read and viewed the pictures of the suffering people of Haiti, I came across an equally poignant but different set of pictures. It had to do with a group of orphans becoming naturalized citizens of our blessed nation. I was filled with emotion as I saw their precious little faces looking forward with anticipation and happiness for what had just occurred for them. Though they are young, I could feel that they knew that what they were experiencing was right and a wonderful blessing.

My friends, we as American citizens are so greatly blessed to enjoy the freedoms that are far too easily taken for granted that we must all stay involved in the political process. The recent TSA policy of forcible sexual molestation (in my opinion) of any citizens flying brought to my mind just how fragile our freedoms are. These unlawful and invasive “searches”, in the name of “security” throw out the window the idea of privacy, innocence until proven guilty, and a host of other basic rights we have (until now) been able to freely enjoy. If I had a daughter and she wanted to fly, I would not allow it under these draconian measures enacted by the TSA. The idea that our bodies are sacred and that modesty is of paramount importance to me personally, and I believe that these searches do nothing more than demean and insult everyone that has to endure them. Treating U.S. citizens as common criminals and subjecting them to searches that are more invasive than most prisoners endure is a slap in the face to our founding fathers and the countless others who have sacrificed so much to keep our country free.

I am shocked that the protest of the airports did not catch on more fully. We all want to visit our families and see our friends, but if we put that above our freedoms then the cowards like Osama Bin Laden and others like him have won. They want to destroy our way of life and force us to capitulate to their extremely warped and evil view of life. If we throw away or freedoms, this gives people like Bin Laden both more resolve and more food for his megalomaniacal ego; not to mention throws away all of the sacrifices in blood, sweat and tears by countless American patriots before us.

We the people must take a stand and take some inconveniences to secure our freedoms and way of life. If we cannot stand canceling our vacations or seeing family temporarily, then I feel that we do not deserve the freedoms that countless others have given all for. The best way to force the TSA to redo their policies is to not submit to these illegal searches. They have no authority to tell us that we have to be viewed naked or submit to being molested in public by their employees. I am frankly extraordinarily angry at the fact that this type of behavior is not being met with more resistance and public outcry. The link I included at the beginning of this post happened right here in my back yard. Do we as a nation want to allow strangers to touch us and our kids in a way that we as parents would beat the living tar out of for anyone else doing it to them or us? NO!

We are witnessing the downfall of our constitution and our precious freedoms and I for one will not sit idly by and submit to being slaves of the federal government. Safety and security are NOT PARAMOUNT to freedom and liberty. There are some who think me extreme in thinking this way, but to those I suggest a careful review of the words and thought of our founding fathers and then see if these views are too extreme. The same people who sit in idle complacency are the same who I will compare to the analogy of the trapped monkey that I discussed on April second of this year.

“If you place a treat inside of a trap that only consists of a hole small enough to fit its hand into, but won’t allow it to be removed with the treat, the monkey will be trapped by not letting go even though he’d be free by just letting go of the treat. So it goes with people habitually feeding at the trough of governmental “generosity.” Right now, a majority of our collective hands are gripping the treat (promises of government invasiveness and pork keeping us all secure and safe) and keeping us trapped by federal bureaucratic inefficiency. Shrinking the size of the Federal government will be a painful but necessary endeavor.”

I believe that we as voters and more importantly, citizens of the United States of America, have a duty to counter any type of tyranny (foreign or domestic) and keep the light of freedom shining brightly. The same sparkle of hope and freedom in the eyes of these newest young citizens of out great nation should always be in our eyes and never be dulled by either complacency or forced servitude (slavery) by unjust and corrupt leaders.

I know that this is not a message of happiness – it was not meant to be. I meant it to be a message of warning to all of us as citizens that our freedoms are under attack from outside and within and we must throw out all of the bums who have been in office too long and replace them with morally astute and just men and women to represent us. Men and women who value the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms we have enjoyed more than their own lives and/or careers. With regard to the TSA, I say that the head of it must be fired and these practices immediately discontinued. This blatant usurpation of power by a Federal Governmental agency must not stand.