WHAT I BELIEVE III

I included the video to add to my further reflections on my personal beliefs. I have spent the past couple of weeks looking into what I believe. I needed to take stock of what it is that guides my personal philosophy. When I was in college we had to write a paper in a philosophy class I was taking that set out our personal philosophy. My paper rambled on for 22 pages about everything I felt went into my thinking concerning my values, beliefs and generally what in my life had led me to what I felt were my personal truths.

The professor wrote a rather lengthy critique on my paper the gist of which was that he was surprised how conservative my beliefs were. Up to that point I never really took stock of these things and I certainly never thought about what I should call my beliefs. They were just values that were inculcated in me during my life from my childhood on. I had voted mostly for Republicans because I agreed with what they said. I didn't consider myself to be a hard core member of any party, in fact I had prided myself on voting for the individual not the party. That I usually came down on the Republican side was coincidental to me.

I have voted for a few Democrats in my day, but as I look back it was because they were good old fashioned midwestern conservative Democrats. Party designation was usually not so important. More, it was what they espoused and how it matched with my belief system that made me vote for them. The fact that I'm a conservative is more of a product of my life than it is a conscious decision arrived at after long careful study. I happen to agree with most everything conservatives espouse to be.

You'll notice I did not say Republicans. I feel the Republican party has left me and I am waiting to see if someone in the party will come to their senses and lead us back to the days of Reagan. I admired Reagan as a man who was comfortable in his own skin. He didn't feel the need to talk one way and act another. He came into office with an agenda based on his personal belief system and stuck to it as well as he was able for eight years.

My personal life experiences have in no way changed any of my beliefs. They are held so deeply that they are a part of my DNA. I have a set of beliefs and values that are as much a part of me as my heartbeat and breathing. In other words, I couldn't live without them.

I have always felt a strong need to protect. It moved me to join the military and become a police officer. In both jobs I was so strongly engaged in what I felt I had to do, I signed a contract with my life as collateral. That may sound dramatic, but those are the facts.

I received this video from my retired police union. The story of this lady is obviously moving. It should have shamed Schumer and the rest of his leftist/statist comrades, but I doubt if it did. Our government has become a menace to its own citizens. As John Locke said, we all have natural rights given to us by our creator and government exists solely to protect the rights of it citizens. It exists for no other reason. As Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence we "are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed." Further "that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government..." She ends this video with a perfect reminder for the legislators that the Second Amendment is meant to protect we citizens from our government.

We should not have to justify exercising our rights. The government should be made to explain its actions to us. Not the other way around. As we continue to spend money that doesn't exist, pump more money into the economy thereby devaluing it and bringing on rampant inflation, we need to demand an explanation as to why this course is being thrust upon us by our government. The government owes us an explanation for mortgaging our future. The government is spending wealth that hasn't even been created yet. WE NEED TO MAKE THEM STOP! As the lady in the video said, we need to protect ourselves from this unprecedented power grab that is going on now before it gets more out of hand.

I know what I believe and now I'm going to get involved in trying to bring a stop to this. There are many "tea parties" throughout the country, one in my vicinity. What I have spent my life believing is being mortgaged away by our government. I'm going to hold them accountable for protecting my rights. They are going to explain it to me.