From Bondage to Bondage

Today on Glenn Beck's show he discussed the thoughts contained in the concepts here.

I went online to seek out this same set of thoughts Glenn used to find out the origin and background of the statements. There is a certainty on the internet that some version of this was credited to a few different people. But this particular set of statements in this order I found in its entirety in a Snope's expose. The expose' was not about the statements contained so much as the email under discussion's extrapolation from the sentiment. I thought how about filling in the blanks...what if we each look over the single sentences and answer where in our lives we believe each of these statements became true.

I am not sure if the first two statements have application to a specific time. In my life, I can point to a couple of waves of spiritual freedoms and my life began mid 20th century. However, from Courage to Abundance, I believe that began its assent after the Korean War. It was the last war for a full decade America was involved in and right after that time America and by extension, many nations, began to experience 'abundance'.

From the abundance, complacency. I remember in the 1970's a joke that circulated as a commentary on just how complacent American's had drifted to. The abundance hit a snag in the 70's with a break down of our confidence with the initialization of OPEC's pricing and oil rationing. The economy tanked.

The mid 80's we rebounded and this time we wound up moving from complacency to apathy. A new generation growing up with technology, Hollywood, double income families and less and less 'family' time; a transference of authority over the family from the family to educators and social professionals. The 80's wound up defining all sorts of 'ism's' arising as people manifest behavioral actions which became alarming.

In the 90's we wound up moving from apathy to dependence! Co-dependence, inter-dependence explanations for people's behavior. Independence became a 'bad' notion. If you are independent you are not a Team player, you are not sensitive to the fragility of the universe which manifests 'inter-dependence' on a monumental level. If you express an independent, non conformist opinion, you are considered rebellious, stubborn, and bigoted. Yet, was it not 'independence' that dominated the 'cause' of the founding fathers who founded our LIBERTY through the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE? Were they not diligent in moving America of the day, the 13 colonies, from Bondage to Spiritual Faith.

If we follow the logic of the sentiment above, where are we, in your opinion? How close are we to the final condition, "From dependence back to bondage"? Perhaps closer than you think. We are not completely dependent yet. We still have government health care and everything that is inherent in the various bills they are coalescing into 'free health care'. We still have Cap and Tax, we still have attacks upon the various FREEDOMS we are so dependent upon, SPEECH! If our speech is squelched so is our right to our own religious beliefs and press and the right to stand up for our family, property, beliefs, ourselves!

I believe we teeter dangerously close to the edge of the precipice leading only to bondage if we do not move back to courage and liberty! With a reassertion of liberty and courage we will realize abundance. Abundance -- not necessarily of a material nature. Abundance may be freedom to SPEAK your mind; speak up for another or for a cause you believe in, or simply to hold an unpopular opinion and not be censured for it. Abundance of freedoms from being labeled because you hold a strong opinion, for instance, in civility, in appropriate deportment as allowed by our Constitution.

Liberty has been fanned back to life after smoldering for the past 3 decades. Liberty is manifesting itself in the courage of many Americans who have donned the unpleasant but patriotic notion of confronting their elected officials inquiring of them why they do not respect their constituency. Courage manifesting itself in people like the couple who went on the road at their own peril to expose the truth about some employees working for ACORN, on our tax dollars! With this demonstration of courage and liberty comes more pressure from the government to squelch the 'discontent'. The administration has moved from calling you and I names for our stand for liberty to calling anyone who reports the notions being moved forward -- in some intention to transform the country -- 'the opposition'. Color me an opposer if transforming my country to anything -- other than what it was transformed to in 1791 -- is the goal!

FROM COURAGE TO LIBERTY; will you join the movement back from dependence to INDEPENDENCE? to LIBERTY? Away from BONDAGE? Step back to independence; step away from the edge of the precipice with bondage as ground zero.

That's my opinion. What's yours?