Principles

Life, Fortune, Honor. Now!

No One saved a life, without first acknowledging (consciously or unconsciously) that they were willing to forfeit their own lives for the sake of another.

No One created a substantial fortune, without first risking, and in many cases, sacrificing all of it. And as hard as it is to fathom, most fortunes are made in the service of others; providing goods and services to those who might not be able to provide that product or service for themselves.

No One has gained true honor, without first exhibiting great humility.  If you do not know what it is like to be the lowest of the low, while still humbly serving and honoring others, including those in authority over you, then you will never know the great responsibility carried by those who are worthy of true honor.

None of these virtues can be bought.

None of these values can be given.

ALL of these values must be earned by putting them into practice now… for the benefit of our posterity.

The Founders knew what was at stake when they signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: They knew they were going to sacrifice their Lives, their Fortunes, their Sacred Honor. They didn’t sacrifice everything for their own benefit. Nothing they did was for themselves….

They sacrificed everything for us… for NOW.

For now. We are their posterity.

While you’re pondering that idea, think about how we as a nation, are showing our appreciation for the sacrifices made by those who gave it all so that you and I can live free.

How are we vigilantly guarding, protecting and honoring our freedoms and liberties? Are you willing to sacrifice your life, fortune and sacred honor for future generations you will never know? What will you do? Where will you stand in your lifetime, that will give future generations pause to remember and honor… you?

 

The Founders sacrificed everything… for an IDEA.

Everything was on the line.

They did what they did… for Us.

For Today.

For Now.

 

Where would YOU have stood if you were them? Where do you stand now? What will the generations that come say about you, after you are dead and gone?

Will they say anything at all?

Or will they share the sentiment of Sam Adams?

If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace.

We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

~ Samuel Adams

Choose your rendezvous with destiny

Have a grand Independence Day!

Now that we are thinking (a little) about the ideas of independence, freedom, liberty and the founding principles that made America the greatest nation in the world, this is probably a good time to choose whether you will live like a person determined to be free… or not.

These aren’t shallow words, but what do they mean? They were written by Brigadier General Anthony Wayne in a short letter to George Washington after they won an important victory at Stony Point. Wayne was wounded by a bullet in his head. It was said he had to write this letter to Washington before he would let them take the bullet out of his head. The letter read:

Stoney Point [N.Y.]
16th July 1779 2 OClock a.m.

Dear Genl

The fort & Garrison with Colo. Johnston are ours—Our1 Officers & men behaved like men who are determined to be free.2 Yours Most Sincerely

Anty Wayne

Are you living like a person determined to be free?

Are Americans living like a people determined to be free?

How are we going to get this feeling back? Fireworks and cookouts certainly aren’t doing the trick.

I’m convinced that the only way to return to the kind of American exceptionalism that founded this nation, is to encourage you, to look in the mirror and say… to believe… “I want to live like a person determined to be free.” Then you convince the next person, then another.

“You and I have the courage to say there is a price we will not pay. There is a point beyond which they must not advance… you and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope on earth.”

~ Ronald Reagan

History is made when one person, does a humble act, then others follow. There will never be a great leader of nations from the start. Don’t wait for others to lead. Don’t ask whether others will stand on the principles our Founders pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to uphold and defend.

Do look in the mirror and pledge to yourself, your family and to future generations:

“I Will Stand.”

Or don’t.

“If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace.

“We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

~ Samuel Adams

Sources: glennbeck.com – founders.archives.gov

 

Will you stand, or tie your shoes?

Here’s an interesting thought experiment for today: If Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had believed God when He said to not bow down to idols, but when the time came to stand for their beliefs, noticed that their sandals were untied and took that opportunity to remedy the situation, what do you think would have happened?
When the time comes for YOU to either take a stand or bow to the will of tyrants, or the peer pressure of the majority… will you discover that your shoes are untied?
It’s a tough question that requires fearful consideration. But be sure… a time will come when you WILL be asked.
Plan ahead.

When Taking a Stand Hurts Others

Michael Farris, Chancellor of Patrick Henry College and Chairman of HSLDA recently posted a sentiment to his Facebook page, that no doubt rings true for millions of Americans:

I hope to move on to other issues soon but the future of our country is at stake and I am compelled in my spirit to speak out about the presidential race.

I have staked out a position for nearly 40 years with two key ideas. Character matters. Constitutional principles matter.

If people like me support Donald Trump then we forfeit the right to ever again claim to speak for these ideas.

Supporting Trump means that being a Republican is more important than a Christian worldview on character and a constitutional worldview on government.

If I forfeit my convictions then I am no longer the person I have claimed to be.

A presidential election is very important. But it is not sufficiently important to forfeit our ability to speak the truth about character and conviction.

Here I stand. I can do no other.

I don’t need to tell you the kind of heated blow-back taking this kind of stand creates. You’ve no doubt seen it across social media.

The bile, doom-and-gloom, apocalyptic rhetoric can be boiled down to some basics:

  1. A vote for anyone other than Trump, means Hillary in the White House.
  2. If you don’t cave to your idiot religious convictions and vote for Trump, then Hillary will get in and THEN your religious liberties will be TOTALLY gone. (Can you feel the irony there?)
  3. If you don’t cave on your convictions… then ALL OF AMERICA will be hurt. (Translation: “Life will suck for me, so get off your religious high horse and do what I tell you to do. *sniff* I’m scared.”)
  4. Etc., etc., etc.

Two EvilsTaking a principled stand is tough.

Why yes… yes it is! Forgoing expedience and taking a stand for something because it’s right, sometimes can get you hurt. Allowing a culture to destroy itself by not going along with the culture that’s destroying itself, ultimately hurts the culture. Then they blame their problems on the principled ones… so they hurt them. It’s history. It always happens. Get used to it.

In case you haven’t noticed, our culture has already started circling the toilet bowl. As we all swirl into the vortex together, people without conviction (let alone an oar to help paddle out of this mess) will be honestly perplexed! Why would someone take a stand on an issue that could not only get themselves hurt, but the rest of America too?

“We’re all in the crapper together… without a paddle! What are you doing with a paddle? Don’t you see that the rest of us have democratically voted to not use paddles? Quit paddling! You’ll get us all hurt!” 

Let’s face it, the “hurting others” thing is why Trump supporters are most worried. See, Trump supporters are more worried about themselves than those who might be making the hardest principled stand of their lives.

“Sure Trump is a dirt bag. Everyone knows that. BUT if you don’t vote for Trump then America will go to hell–and take me with it.”

Well maybe you should have thought about that during the primaries, and voted for the person who had at LEAST a little more integrity and class than the Orange Man. I assure you… they were (and still are) out there.

Look around you Trumpers. Democratic Socialists, Liberals and Progressives are voting for Socialism and Vice, Treason and Tyranny. The Republican GOP, RINOs and (establishment) Progressives are voting for a Strongman King. And the Constitutionalists? They vote for anyone who will admit they have a clue what the Constitution stands for. And you say THEY are ruining the country? Surely… you jest.

All of America is marching away from something we used to call a Republic, and heading directly towards something they’ve heard, called ‘democracy’. The only people standing in their way, are those principled patriots. If they would only cave on those stupid principles, then we’d all be saved.

Frankly, if history holds any clues to our future, then no matter who ends up in the White House, those of us who stood our ground will be the first to feel the pain. Both the Trumpers and the Socialists will see to that.

Stand by your convictions, ladies and gentlemen. They’re all you’ve got that has any meaning in this world. Make the things on which you stand, worth your Life, your Fortune, and Your Sacred Honor. Our Founding Fathers did, and we still remember them today. History’s dust bin is full of those who chose expedience over principles.

BbBennett – IWS

What Does IWS Mean?

When people ask me what IWS means, I say it means “I Will Stand.” This of course begs the question, “What am I taking a stand on?”

Our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.

It’s actually simple: I read the words of our founders and the writers of the Constitution, and they all believed in one idea; Liberty for all, by seating the power of self-governance in the hands of THE PEOPLE, not in the hands of rulers.

To that end our Founding Fathers pledged their LIVES, their FORTUNES and their SACRED HONOR. They took a principled stand, so that their posterity (us) could live free.

I admire people like that. How about you? I have made the decision to live by, the simple principles that were the philosophical building blocks — the foundation — of the Constitution. These ideas were so important, a small percentage of the then population of America (around 30% or so) decided that it was worth standing up and defending, promoting, discussing and most importantly, worth fighting for. As for me… I Will Stand with those guys.

In my opinion, it would be dishonorable to be someone who stands against the principles that founded this nation. However, you are free to do so. You are free to do and say whatever you want. You can have principles based on the ideas of others, or you can make up your own. Really. I’m okay with that.

All I ask, is that you be honest with yourself, and others. Be truthful about what you stand for. What are your core principles? Where do YOU stand? And if you stand firmly against the principles that founded this nation (thus against the principles I hold dear) then KNOW THIS: Based on history, I know that I will not be the one who demands that YOU be denied your freedom, liberty or even your LIFE, because of what you believe. I’m pretty sure it will be the other way around. Just like it was for the founders.

I can live with that. Can you?

But If Not…You, Then Who?

I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

I can’t think of anything more to add to this. Dr. King really just said it all. It’s worth listening to the entire sermon where the quote below was taken. Links follow.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.

You can listen to the audio on YouTube, here: http://youtu.be/pOjpaIO2seY
Or you can find the MP3 recording here.

What a Peaceful Revolution Looks Like

I believe that the real revolution to re-found America will begin, not with violence, but with thousands — perhaps millions — of people taking a stand for principles, values and the Constitutional rule of law. How will they take a stand? Call me a loon, but I believe it will be LITERALLY, People standing. Everywhere. Many praying for sure, but not all. Some of them will be simply standing up to the evil that is tyranny and collectivism wherever it rears its head. There will be video, there will be sound, and there will be lots of opportunities to see angry people, mostly politicians, yelling at quiet, prayerful individuals, who have finally decided to stand up and be counted. Quietly.

This “imagery” (I’m not sure what to call it myself) came to me over a year ago, probably around January of 2009. I’ve been mulling over it ever since.

Vision? Prophesy? Don’t know. But I do know… something like this is going to happen all across the country, in many, many ways and under varying conditions. Think Tienanmen Square only on the internet. Viral.

What Do Millions of Americans Taking a Stand Look/Sound Like?

No wild signs. No screaming. No chanting. Imagine thousands and thousands of average Americans, gathering for one reason — to take a stand on the principles, the ideas the bedrock foundational purpose of the original document that founded this country. Maybe they’ll start to look like Katy Abrams.:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Thousands of people — some at local school board meetings, some at the White House, some at local government meetings, some just gathering together to pray or to discuss what real freedom and liberty looks like; what it feels like — just standing up, letting people know where they stand on these foundational principles and issues, and telling their neighbors.

Here’s what’s going to happen (I believe): Tens of Thousands of people will simply decide to just stand up for the Constitution… as individuals! Groups with names and leaders? There will be several, but one unified group, like the Tea Party Movement won’t work. It will be one of many… all with the same overall goal: The Resetting of America. Signs and slogans, charismatic leaders and big names will do nothing but give the Quisling Media Complex something with which to make fun of and marginalize. But thousands or even millions of Americans that are acting independently on the local level and semi-corporately on the national level? The media and the political elites won’t know what to do!

You! Yes, YOU! Stand up!

Find out where your neighbors stand on that old piece of paper called the Constitution. Talk A LOT with people about where they stand. What are their principles and values? They all don’t have to be exactly in line with your beliefs, but wouldn’t it be nice to know if your neighbor believes people who think like you, should be put in jail? To me, that’s good info to know.

Go to public meetings. If public representatives begin acting like they are powerless to represent you because there are those higher up that make the rules… remind them that WE THE PEOPLE make the rules, and according to the Constitution, all powers not expressly granted to the Federal government are given to the states and the people. END OF STORY.

STAND ON IT! Don’t take crap for answers. Stand there quietly and wait for an answer that makes sense. When the police lead you away for … for what? … disrupting a public meeting? How? — You will have taken the high (and non violent) road, and your political foes will look like fools.

What’s the plus side of getting carried out of a public meeting for standing peacefully for our founding principles? Others might come out with you and you can all discuss what the Constitution means. You’ll make new friends because you’ll know that THEY also believe in the truth and power of our Founding Documents.

Who Loses Here?

Progressive, Type-A, Community Organizing (of the proletariat) Control Freaks will, of course, be outraged and shocked! They will look for names to call you. There will be plenty, but none of them will be true. They will look for leaders to snoop on and crucify in the media. They will find none. They will take quotes (of our Founding Fathers) out of context and try to prove that all of those Americans out there, standing up for the Constitution are racists and even terrorists.

This is why a peaceful revolution must be carried out by simply standing up for what we know is right. Standing up for what we know has worked for centuries.

So what happens when this “vision” happens in real life, and thousands of people are in the streets, simply gathering, talking about the Constitution and some just praying together at various locations across the country?

That’s probably with the violence will start.

We (those who are beginning to participate on the myriad number of patriot-themed networking sites) are starting to read the occasional call for some kind of ‘revolution’ to begin. I can’t emphasize enough, that for everyone concerned about the liberties and freedoms this country has stood for over the centuries, a violent revolution MUST NOT HAPPEN. (Not that we could do anything about it if it did start, but it must not start as a result of a patriot and lover of liberty making the first move.)

Boston+MassacreI believe that a true cultural revolution can be affected by millions of individuals coming to the understanding of what is right and what is wrong. We need to relearn the meanings of  freedom and liberty as well as the definition of evil and tyranny. Individuals need to feel confident in taking a stand and calling a thing what it is. For example: if an idea is an idea born out of the theories of Karl Marx, then it is Marxism.
Individuals need to stand up among their peers and express confidently and boldly their ideas of what freedom means. If you are called names or shouted down, so be it. Be sure, others who agree with you will see your bravery and wish they had done the same. Possibly they will standing with you next time.
A peaceful revolution starts locally; at school board meetings, local community and civic boards and even on the editorial pages of your local paper. They start with people TAKING A STAND on an issues and ideas, then communicating those ideas to others, then gathering with more and more people who agree with the ideas.
Some Want a Revolution NOW

Believe me, I understand that sentiment. However, no matter how tyrannical things get, the answer to that statement must always be NO, we can NOT have a (violent) revolution right now. Take a look at history! Violence from the dissidents is what Tyrants want. The Boston Tea Party wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was a good enough reason for King George to tighten the screws.
health care voteBefore Health Care passed, the Congressional Jesters did their own version of a pre-victory perp walk through protesters. DUH! They WANTED people to spit on them, call them names, possibly shove them around that day. And since no one did, they lied about it anyway. “Those Tea Baggers called us names! Waaaah!”
Babies.
But what would have happened if something DID go violently wrong? Imagine the media frenzy if just one damning video got out!! Tea Party/9.12ers/etc. are already pretty much on the domestic terrorist watch list. So… what one thing do most terrorists NOT do? Quietly standing up for what they believe? There you go!

The answer, I believe, is in millions of people, taking INDEPENDENT action by standing up for whatever is right, wherever they are, and being vocal (but not violent) about it. Get to know your neighbors. Find out where they stand on things. IF they don’t agree with you on some very important principles, make a note to not rely on them in an emergency or in a time of crisis… whatever that might be. The neighbors you DO agree with, start going to public meetings together, hold ad hoc public gatherings just to talk about local politics. DO THINGS AND TALK WITH THE PEOPLE WHO SHARE YOUR PRINCIPLES AND VALUES. GROW FROM THERE.

Network in Real Life, not Virtually

If you network with five of your neighbors, and they network with five more and so on, then when tyrannical laws DO go into effect, there will be more people predisposed to NOT COMPLY than who do. And you’ll know this because you’ve actually networked with real, local people, not 1,000 virtual people who contributed to a FaceBook page from all over the country.

YOU can ONLY make a difference if YOU encourage people to make real life contact with like-minded individuals, and then encourage all THOSE individuals to take a stand on the singular, foundational principles and values that drive the issues of the day. Defend liberty by promising yourself, then your neighbors that you will take a stand. Convince them to take a stand with you, then do it again, and again.

This, my friends, is what a peaceful revolution will look like.

God bless.

BbB

 

When Healthcare Passes, Ignore the State

Ignoring the state, in other words, standing up for yourself and doing without government intrusion in every aspect of your life, is something that Tolstoy dealt with a long, long, time ago.

Check out Tolstoy’s Letter to Liberals where he answers the question: What then to do?

I posted this to my SkippingSchool.us site to illustrate how people might skip government schooling and reclaim their lives, but it applies to all things, including the health-care debate.