Do you consent?
Or have you a new sense of urgency?
by Glenn R. Jackson
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
We have reached a strikingly dark moment in American history. Two arrows have been let fly at the heart of the nation, one domestic and one foreign in origin. Either will kill this great nation forever, and both are being aided – no – propelled by the maneuverings, policies and cowardice of our elected national leaders.
Domestically over the past few weeks we have seen displayed in broad view that which many of us intuitively knew to be true, that the United States of America is being overrun by people who have evaded the laws of our nation for proper entry. By the tens of thousands illegal aliens have taken to the streets in our largest cities blatantly announcing their presence, and directly demanding of your elected representatives that they be given special dispensation from oath or pledge to the United States, their only loyalty being to the almighty dollar. In response our leaders quiver and maneuver.
On the foreign front an increasing number of warnings are being issued regarding the madness surrounding our un-American plunge into “preventive warfare.” Without direct provocation the Bush administration is increasing the pressure for war against Iran. As they did with Iraq, reasons for a war with Iran are being made to seem critical to our nation’s safety. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Crazy the Iranians may appear to our way of thinking, but crazier people in the world have “the bomb” and apparently some of them are in charge of our nation’s war planning.
Both of these issues, open and illegal migration over porous borders, as well as aggressive and unprovoked war making, are destructive of every ideal we as a nation were founded upon.
That said it is important for every American to focus on the quote from the Declaration of Independence that started this missive. And in particular bring special attention to one word – “consent.”
For in this one word – consent - we as citizens of this great nation lose all excuse for what happens next. In the just view of history we will all be condemn for the outcomes of the next short seconds of historical measure. Whether we dissolve because of our silent consent to being overrun by uncaring and unknowing usurpers of our American foundations, or whether we consent to become a rightful pariah among nations for becoming a 21st Century “Rome” to be hated, feared and…eliminated, a single word holds us all accountable.
For it will be true that our founding national principles, our own founding national words declare our individual intentions. “Consent” is a harsh and brutal word as envisioned by our Founding Fathers. It is a word that offers no escape or excuse. In silence you consent. In focusing on your daily grind you consent. In participating in the joys of your hard won retirements you consent. In the word “consent” it really is true, you are either for or against, there is no soft, safe, easy ground on which to stand.
Consent demands to be heard, there is no escaping its accountability. In the long view of history we see clearly the result of accountability. Nations rise and fall, and our judgments of their fitness rest on our view of the individuals involved and their consent to those final historic moments on the stage.
Consent cannot be stopped; once a people have consented to a course of action –either by commission or omission – the outcome becomes hard as stone. Consent cannot be “fixed” at a later date, for the path becomes set and history’s price must be paid.
In a very simple phrase – “the consent of the governed” – and in the simplest of words – consent – have our Founders penned us forever to the harsh judgment of history. What they do in Washington D.C. is done in our names.
Do you consent? Or have you a new sense of urgency?
Glenn Jackson is Chairman of the American Reformation Project and Board Member of Hire American Citizens. Glenn was an organizer of American Jobs Coalition (organizations fighting against the American Worker Replacement Program). Glenn is also a former State Chairman for Buchanan 2000 Presidential campaign, and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party. Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
© Glenn R. Jackson