We believe we live in the country that epitomizes the very concept of ‘being free’, that we are the harbinger of liberty. Maybe we are but, if we are, the concept of liberty has changed to a form unrecognizable by our founders.

Originally, the founders fought for the right to establish very limited governments directed only to protecting the unalienable, self-evident rights of the People. It was never intended to govern the people except when rights were threatened. Each individual is sovereign, meaning each individual and his rights is the rule of law, that the only interference may be when one threatens another’s rights.

Thus, no legislation may be produced affecting law-abiding citizens making decisions concerning their lives. Law-abiding is the key word. Law abiding means not interfering with the rights of others. Lawful behaviors are those in which an individual exercises his rights without interfering with the rights of others.

But, government in its ever expanding role, whether it be federal, State, or some political subdivision such as cities, now interfere with nearly every law, statute, ordinance, or edict made unconstitutionally into law. And, thus, because the People have little understanding of liberty and the full force of the united States Constitution, I spend most of my time fighting for my rights and, secondarily, the rights of all citizens of this once great nation.

1. If told by license whether you can get married or not, are you free?

2. If permitted by license to use your talents in an occupation, are you free?

3. If stopped on the street, whether driving or not, and asked to show your ID and answer questions about who you are, where you are going, and what you are going to do when you get there, are you free?

4. If your earnings, your fruits of labor, are taken, are you free? Currently, this amounts to half of your earnings. Thus who are you working for half the time?

5. When you buy an item, whether it be a car, truck, land, a house, and the State, county, and city tax your ownership produced through the fruits of your labor in order to dole it out to others, are you free?

6. When unconstitutional invasions on your private property are done by government agents, including law enforcement, are you free?

7. When government tells you what lawful business (any that do not interfere with the rights of others) you may start on your own property, are you free?

8. When government tells you whether you can build a shed on your property, are you free?

9. When government makes laws in direct contradiction to the Constitution of the united States of America, including arms and the God-given unalienable right of self-protection, are you free?

10. When the federal government is allowed to add on charges to a telephone company's equipment along with unlawful taxes which then are charged to its customers, is the company an unfettered private enterprise as it should be? Are you free to pay just for the company's service? Or are both in involuntary servitude to the government?

11. When government uses intimidation and coercion through threats of bodily harm, unlawful seizure of property, unlawful in-home invasions, heavily armed government trained troops (meaning any government employees trained to use firearms, unlawful stops, searches, seizures and make arrests using fraudulent or no evidence indicating wrong-doing), are you free?

12. When government tells you what lawful property (obtained through the fruits of your lawful labor) you can keep on your property, are you free?

13. When judges make rulings or force rulings from juries in direct contradiction to the Constitution, are you free?

14. When every government official, or nearly every government official, violates their Oaths of Office to protect your rights secured in the Constitution and make unlawful, unconstitutional statutes, ordinances and the like, are you free?

15. When your communiqués are monitored by the government, especially the federal government, are you free? (Yes, Folks, unlawful acts you see in the movies are true - the government monitors every form of communication looking for key words that ‘trigger’ them to take unlawful actions against law-abiding citizens. It is not fiction - it is fact.)

This list of questions could go on all day long but it would mean each would have to have a thorough understanding of the Constitution, the applicable State constitution, the Federalists Papers, many quotes by the founders of this nation, and the difference between "lawful" and "legal".

But, you see, the People don’t have an understanding and - why? Because public education is controlled by the government. What is taught is what the government wants taught, not what is true. It controls by threats of cutting of funding, or threats of IRS invasion, or threats of bodily harm. And, to top it off, education is outside an area of control permitted to the federal government - and any other level of government.

The People are the sovereigns in this nation, not any level of government, not the courts (read about jury nullification), not local law enforcement people who are as in the dark concerning the rights of Man as are most people, and certainly not any government bodies without jurisdiction or control over law-abiding citizens making up this nation.

This includes but is not limited to, IRS agents, DEA agents (by the way, all drug usage laws are unconstitutional just as was ruled with the control of alcohol), FBI, CIA, troops used against citizens of this nation (WACO, Ruby Ridge, Flight 800 investigators, gun owners and sellers, and many hundreds of others), and, yes, your local law enforcement agencies when conducting what are essentially acts of war against your rights.

One last question. Why do you behave as if you must pay unlawful income and property taxes, must wear a seatbelt, must get a driver’s license, must get a business license, must not build on your own property without a permit, must do as a school dictates, must cut your yard when a city tells you to or unlawfully invades your property charging you for cutting your grass, and so on to include the hundreds of thousands of unlawful (determined only by the Constitution of the united States, the Declaration of Independence, and common law maxims in existence for 6000 years) statutes and ordinances?

Is that Freedom - or - Oppression?

Ed Lewis is another welcome addition to KeepAndBearArms.com's growing team of Featured Writers. Mr. Lewis' archive can be found at http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com/Lewis.