The Gulf Which Is To Swallow All
The Right to a Trial by a Jury of our Peers is a long established fundamental Right, codified in 1215 through the Magna Carta. Yesterday, through the verdict of the Jury in Oregon acquitting the Malheur protesters, America and the world learned why that Right is so vital to the preservation of Liberty. In a system where the government writes the laws, interprets the laws, enforces the laws, prosecutes the laws, and even sits in judgement of those laws, the only protection for the Liberty of the people is the Trial by Jury. If that system were left unchecked by the jury, the statements of theses government agents tell us exactly what the outcome of that trial would have been:
Governor Kate Brown: “While I respect the jury’s decision, I am disappointed.”
Sheriff David Ward: “While I am disappointed in the outcome…”
Dan Ashe, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service director: “We are profoundly disappointed in the outcome of the trial,”
If judgement were left up to these people we can see that there would be no justice, only slavish submission to government orders. There would be no Right to Protest the government, there would be No Right to Free Speech, and there would be no Liberty.
“This sacred Privilege is so essential to free Governments, that the Security of Property, and the Freedom of Speech always go together; and in those wretched Countries where a Man cannot call his Tongue his own, he can scarce call any Thing else his own. Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing the Freeness of Speech; a Thing terrible to Publick Traytors.” Silence Dogood #8
These people, in their statements, have told us all we need to know about who they are- they are public traitors to Liberty and they are the reason very reason why our Trial by Jury in necessary.
The actions of the US Marshalls after the verdict was rendered also give us a shocking picture of what our government agents have become. The fact that attorney Marcus Mumford was violently attacked by these agents, handcuffed and tazed, for simply demanding they show legal cause for detaining his client should be outrageous to every American. The fact that Judge Anna Brown sat by and watched this happen in open court without objection, gives us a wakeup call as to what our federal courts have become. These are not the scenes we would expect in a nation dedicated to Liberty and the fundamental Rights of Due Process. Anna Brown and these Marshalls are more fitting in a third world banana republic. They are the picture of despotism and must be held accountable if America will ever see Liberty restored.
Every American should remember, a government with this kind of unchecked power will be a foe to all men sooner or later. The sword of the government you cheer today, will be the sword that persecutes you tomorrow and all of history proves that to be true.
Yes, Liberty was vindicated in the jury verdict. But where will we go from here? As long as there are governors like Kate Brown, as long as there are sheriffs like David Ward, as long as there are judges like Anna Brown, as long as government agents can wield violent and arbitrary power, Liberty is not secure and no American can rest in the peaceful enjoyment of his pursuit of Happiness.
We must learn from this and move forward. We must demand and expect that those in government reflect Liberty and not despotism. We must hold them accountable and remove them from their positions if they refuse to defend the Rights of the people. Any loyalty to an expanding and authoritarian government cannot be rewarded or even tolerated if Americans wish to be free.
“when all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another…If the States look with apathy on this silent descent of their government into the gulf which is to swallow all, we have only to weep over the human character formed uncontrollable but by a rod of iron…” Thomas Jefferson, 1812
Choose you this day, love of government or love of Liberty. As for me and my house…we choose Liberty.
~Most Sincerely Submitted,
KrisAnne Hall, Liberty First
