The open rebellion!

Tuesday – August 23, 2011

The open rebellion!

On today’s date, in 1775, King George III proclaimed the colonies to be in open rebellion.

This was the preverbal slap in the face to the American colonies and to all Americans who had gotten behind the Olive Branch Petition that was sent to the King as a petition for peace. The petition assured the King that the Americans would remain loyal subjects and had no desire for independence, as long as their grievances were satisfactorily addressed. The Americans were represented by Richard Penn and Arthur Lee who had presented the petition to the Secretary of State for the American Colonies, Lord Dartmouth. It was two days later that King George issued his most famous proclamation. This is one of the last actions that persuaded many wavering American colonists that the King was actively seeking to destroy their God – given rights, which ultimately led to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence that was presented to the King the next year.

As I read about the Olive Branch petition and have related in past months important pieces of the history behind the Declaration, it dawned on me that we are still fighting for Independence and our God-given rights today.

It dawned on me that our government is calling for support from all sides to demonize the Tea Party and anybody who seems to be an extremist for the side of liberty. Yesterday, I wrote about Maxine Waters who said of the Tea Party, "As far as I'm concerned, the Tea Party can go straight to hell." Who was she addressing? For the most part, she was addressing some Americans who seem to think that their God- given rights entitle them to be the recipients of the redistributive policies that Ms. Waters supports.

Just as the early patriots were considered extremists, the patriots today should be proud and should be vocal in what they believe. Members of Congress, like Maxine, have been around far too long. I am sure that their intentions were noble when they first got into the game, but their intentions now are far from noble. The old style politician like Maxine does not and cannot represent the concerns of the majority of Americans who now understand just what is at stake.

Representatives who continue to call the modern day patriots extremists and who intimate that they are in open rebellion are no worse than the proclamation that King George issued 236 years ago.

The debate today is about ideas. The King’s ideas were far different than that of the patriots who wanted peace, through satisfaction of their grievances. The Tea Party members, the social conservatives, the fiscal conservatives, everyone who wants to reign in the government footprint and to reduce government spending, are communicating their ideas. Their ideas are not so far from the ideas that the early colonists asked King George to listen to and to act upon.

To differentiate the tax and spend group from the reduce tax and reduce spending group you must look at who the groups are represented by and what promises have been made.

You must also realize that many of the promises that have been made have not been delivered by representatives like Maxine Waters. Her quest has been to fight against those who have the wealth. Her quest has been to take the wealth from that group and give the wealth to the group she represents. The dirty little secret is Maxine has acquired wealth, as a result of the power she has been able to build over the years. Her supporters will never admit that, because their goal is to rob from the future to pay those in the present and pretend Maxine’s wealth does not exist.

It’s not a sophisticated idea to take wealth and redistribute it. However, it is sophisticated to use government for the services government should provide, and let private industry and private sponsorship develop the answers to the needs of the local community. The thoughts of the patriots were sophisticated because they knew the value of what limited government could provide. They knew that with limited government wealth could be generated and wealth would be passed down because of the independence they had.

Today the groups that believe they are entitled to the wealth of the nation don’t know what independence means, because some in government have prevented the idea of independence to take root. When this happens the essential values of America have been purposely lost for political value and political expediency.

You have heard the term “the seeds of freedom”. We cannot grow those seeds while subsidizing the liberty and independence that if let alone would grow freedom by itself. I believe that this was the true meaning behind the open rebellion that the patriots fortunately were accused of.

Today it’s okay to be accused of the same things that those who wrote the Olive Branch petition were accused of. If history repeats itself, representatives like Maxine Waters will in the end be defeated like King George III was. When this happens independence will give the light to the seeds of freedom. The quest for freedom spawned the tree of liberty that we knew would never die.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: I am pleased to think that I am in open rebellion, I speak what I think and I believe in what the early patriots fought for. To me that is a badge and a label to be proud of.