“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”

Benjamin Franklin

Our founding fathers would be stunned if they could see how far our nation has drifted from its original charter. While many of the changes have seeped into our lives over a period of years, the pandemic has caused an escalation in government power and lack of personal freedoms. I’m amazed how quickly we are giving up our civil liberties for “security”. Our liberty came at the price of the blood of patriots and should not be so easily relinquished.

Our freedoms are being quickly eroded with the government’s plan to track people, police citizens for social distancing (even in their own backyards) and by handicapping or shutting down our livelihoods. Our elected officials are herding us like cattle to slaughter.

Business owners and citizens throughout the U.S. are being arrested for violating quarantine measures. In Hawaii, Democratic Governor David Ige announced that anyone caught “flouting” social distancing measures could face up to $5,000 in fines and a year in prison, and dozens have already been arrested. The House of Representatives introduced HR 6666 called the COVID-19 Testing, Reaching and Contacting Everyone Act (TRACE). The Bill awards grants to conduct diagnostic testing for the virus, “and related activities such as contact tracing, through mobile health units and, as necessary, at individuals’ residences and for other purposes”. Wake up people! This is happening now, in our country. Is this still America, or is it Russia during the cold war?

Prior to the pandemic, I experienced this lack of freedom only once when I attended the Good Will Games in Russia in 1986. I’ll never forget that overwhelming feeling when getting off the plane at the Moscow airport. There the Russian military stood, fully armed with rifles, lining the walkways three feet apart. We had to have a pass to go into and out of the hotel and could not access other areas of the hotel without an escort. I had a KGB officer sitting in a folding chair immediately outside my room (24/7). These soldiers all wore black arm bands. As there were so many of them, I assumed they needed the bands to identify themselves to each other. They were everywhere, outside every hotel room and filling the lobbies, outside entrances and exits. Talk about intimidating! Russian citizens were not allowed to travel from town to town, much less from state to state, without proper state-approved documents and check points were everywhere. This is one of the ways the state tracks and controls citizens. That was in 1986 in Russia. Just imagine, with the technology we have now, how much more intrusive, restrictive, and oppressive the government would be.

My Russian experience taught me a great deal about freedom. I learned we really don’t appreciate our liberty and freedoms until they are gone. Today, we have people advocating for Socialism. They flower it up by calling it Democratic Socialism but, trust me, it is the same. Your voice, at the polls, has never been more important to preserve our freedoms.

I believe in the Judean-Christian principles that established this nation. Our original charters and constitutions acknowledged God’s authority and recognized that the state was subject to and accountable to God. It seems everywhere I turn our countrymen are in denial of our roots and what made this country the envy of the world. The very freedoms that made us great are the ones liberals are destroying as they revise our history to fit their purposes.

Wherever you stand, it’s time to choose a side. Are you one ready to give up your liberty, roll over to a totalitarian government and be herded like cattle, having no say in the future? Or, are you like me, believing we still have a country worth fighting for, a country for the people and by the people? The battle lines are being drawn.

Call to Action: Get educated on the issues and vote for candidates that represent your position on the issues. Stay in contact with your local, state, and federal representatives and make your voice heard. Join conservative coalitions and protest. Above all, pray!

By Whose Authority?

For more information on my Commentary and to see some of my backup research, or if you wonder why I take the position I take, go to www.LyleBrennan.com.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) “If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”