This is not the first time I have addressed this issue.
If I hear one more reasonable, nice person tell me that we need to compromise on issues of freedom, I may have to become a hermit. Seriously, living in the woods with all its hardships, sounds so much better than dealing with those who want to do a great Neville Chamberlain impression.
You see, freedom cannot be compromised, especially when it is freedom of your fundamental rights, speech, religion, association, protest, own a gun, etc. It was clearly defined in the Constitution and it has worked pretty well in this country for over 200 years.
Compromise is for other things, where we go to dinner, how much we spend on a car, or whether or not to vacation in the mountains or at the beach. It is not for freedom.
Compromise is also something that can be done with reasonable other parties who wish to enjoy the same rights and freedoms we do. It is not for tyrants who wish to tell you where you can and cannot go, what you can and cannot say, and which religion you can practice or not practice.
You see, tyrants are tyrants for a reason. They want to control EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. Tyrants are the global equivalence of a Home Owner’s Association on steroids, even more invasive, if you can imagine.
Be clear, they don’t start out big. They start out small, taking away “small” things to test the waters. And usually, the compromise people say, “Oh, it’s just running this little piece of my life.”
We have some tyrants in the little town where I live. Some of them are called Town Commissioners and they want everyone to follow their rules for what we do in our homes and on our property. Not all of them are tyrants, but some of them think it’s up to them to tell other people what to do .I don’t know why. Maybe they are just so bothered by what other people’s yards look like that they just can’t live another day without telling us all what to do with them, how high our grass can be, which flowers to grow, and how many signs we can have there, what those signs can say and how long we can have those signs in our yard.
I said it before and I will say it again. Our town is not a junk heap of campaign signs, realtor signs, yard service signs, etc. I don’t see them piled up and destroying the view of the water, the trees, or anything else. But, because some little guy who got elected Commissioner by 400 people is bothered that someone may have one more sign in the yard than he likes, he needs to get that under town control. Funny, because he doesn’t seem to care about other things like how many ugly mask mandate posters have peppered the walls and utility poles all over town for at least a year. Or the ugly stand up ” social distancing ” signs in the Town Park and on the beach. Those are just fine.
But that isn’t the real reason for this. The real reason is that someone doesn’t like what some of the signs say. They don’t agree with them. They find them offensive because they support one side of an issue regarding the history of our county. You know what?
Too bad. I see lots of signs that are “offensive” to me personally, but those people have a right to have those signs on their property.
Now, maybe the guy is not a tyrant. Maybe he’s just a man with too much time on his hands who is worried his half million dollar property will only get sold for $499,000 because someone has a sign in their yard. Or maybe he just doesn’t like political speech. Either way, I don’t want to compromise with him.
And I won’t. Seriously, I won’t. I guess they will fine me, send the town crew to take the sign down, or have the police give me a citation. I really don’t care. My husband and I have owned this home for over 40 years. And, when we bought it, we didn’t agree to have someone tell us what we can and cannot do in our yard. We didn’t agree to give up our freedom of speech. We keep our property fairly clean. It’s not the nicest house in Oxford, but we don’t bother anyone. Our neighbors don’t seem concerned about our signs, so I don’t know why some guy on the other side of town does.
I’m going to make some people mad with this post. I may hurt some feelings and even lose some friends. I guess that is what standing up for your freedom can do.
Maybe that’s why Mitch and Lindsey and the rest of the Republicans in Congress don’t stand up for us. They don’t want to lose their friends. And look where that has gotten us. We have an Alzheimers Patient in the White House who is destroying our country.
Bottom line is, no matter what, I won’t give up my freedoms, even if it is just a “little” compromise. I know history and I know that “little” compromises on freedom can lead to some pretty terrible events.
Look it up. You will see how total tyranny ALWAYS starts.
