An Open Letter to the Congress of the United States of America

How stands the republic?

That is a question often asked in the first years of this nation. It is an important question and deserves to be asked regularly by those who have been elected by the citizens of this nation. It is your job to maintain the republic. It is not your job to create school curriculum or to destroy the character of the states through greed for federal monies. It is also not your job to regulate what toilets and light bulbs we may use. It is your job to maintain the republic. The purpose of the republic is to secure the unalienable rights with which we are endowed by our Creator.

"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, ..."

The US Constitution is a list of limitations placed upon the federal government by the founders of this nation. You are to be limited in order that liberty may be maintained throughout generations. You are to maintain the republic in such a way that the generation that comes after ours has the same  liberty to legally exercise their Creator endowed, self evident, unalienable and Constitutionally affirmed rights as does this one. (Or perhaps, considering how many rules and regulations have been put in place to stifle our exercise of those same liberties of late - more than did this generation.)

The people, according to that same Declaration of Independence, have a right and a duty to choose to replace this government with one that will secure those rights if you will not resist the whims of current culture in this regard.

"--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of 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. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.-"

There are ever growing attacks against the rights enumerated in the US Constitution. Attacks against the right to worship as our conscience directs, the right to speak freely, and once again, after a tragic shooting calls to limit the right to bear arms.

Our natural rights, as do all natural rights, have natural limits. The right to worship freely ends where a religion demands that our government be replaced by sharia, or any form of government other than the one our founders established. (And no, I do not have to bake you a cake if by doing so I violate my own conscience with regard to my faith and you do not have to bake me one either.)

The right to freedom of speech ends where your speech may cause immediate. and tangible harm to another - such as yelling "fire" in a crowded theater.  (Disagreeing with your opinion or pointing out an unpalatable truth are allowed even if by so doing, you are "triggered".)

Your right to bear arms ends where it is used to rob, rape or murder another.

Yes, some arms may also be used for hunting, target practice, self defense or etc., but the logical impetus behind the 2nd amendment is to recognize that the people have a natural remedy - along with the right to employ that remedy -  for maintaining the republic in the face of invasion or of tyrannical government. Because that is how important it is to maintain the republic. It is of such importance, that each individual citizen has a duty to speak up and take action when government exceeds it's grant of authority. The same principle is demonstrated every time a citizen does their duty to work with law enforcement officers to maintain the rule of law.

On the national level, it is YOUR job to maintain the republic. The United States is not a democracy, where the whims of one generation may vote away the legal exercise of the rights of the next. Those rights, are self evident, as stated by the Declaration of Independence and unalienable. Unalienable means, that those rights cannot be removed from us but by death. We are "endowed by our Creator" with those rights. That means that they are not the grants of any earthly government and cannot be voted or legislated away by government. At least not legally, so long as the Constitution remains the supreme law of the land. And if the federal government should attempt to do so illegally, then the republic has been lost.

 If you fail to maintain the republic in this generation, then you will inevitably drive the next to restore it by force.

It is understood that there is pressure upon you and that you may be publicly shamed by those cowards and weaklings who would prefer a government that will take care of them rather than a government that maintains and respects liberty along with all the responsibilities that imposes upon the individual, but you have asked to be put in that position. A position where strong character is required - to maintain the republic, not to "fundamentally transform" it. That is the duty for which you were elected, not just for today, but for tomorrow.

So, for today, on your watch, how stands the republic?

"18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:

20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." ~ Deut 17:18-20