As most of the country chows down on turkey, ham, lamb and sits down to watch football or various Thanksgiving parades, I feel sad and I’m not in the celebratory mood. I find myself on this day that celebrates capitalism and individual liberty reflecting about how far our country has gone from the ideals our Founding Fathers laid out for us.
For example, I think Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and James Madison are rolling in their graves about the coming higher wage controls that will be imposed by the new majority in Congress.
I don’t think they would be too pleased either with the outrageous national debt and the unfair and burdensome tax code that we have now.
I don’t think they would be pleased that our universities have become centers for the suppression of the freedom of free speech and freedom of thought.
They would not be pleased at the corruption that infests Congress.
They would be irate about a 92 year old woman named Kathryn Johnson who was killed by plain clothes policemen who broke down her door. The handicapped ramp should have been a clue this probably wasn’t a crackhouse and there were innocent people inside. But no, instead the three pigs decided they wanted to be heroes and they decided to conduct a no knock raid on the house. The woman, who had a legally licensed handgun for protection because she lived in a high-crime neighborhood, thought that these three men in plain clothes were impersonating police officers and trying to break in. She reacted as many other honest and law abiding people would in this situation, she defended herself and her property. She shot all three pigs, unfortunately, they’ll live and they’ll probably be hailed as heroes. They cops returned fire, killing her.
This Thanksgiving while most Americans stuff themselves, the Johnson family will be making funeral arrangements to bury the latest victim of our War on (some) Drugs and the militarized police forces. The Johnsons have lost an aunt, a grandmother, and I’m sure a woman that was beloved by all who knew her. A woman that should be in the prime of her life, instead lost her life in one of the most brutal ways possible. Justice for Kathryn would be the three policemen facing at the very least a hearing and possibly criminal charges for their actions; but it looks like we’ll have to settle for getting rid of no-knock raids.
This Thanksgiving, we need to rededicate ourselves to fighting, through political activism and reporting on their misdeeds, these wannabe tyrants whether they rule from Washington D.C. or own the local level and fight to restore our lost liberties. We need to pressure the media to give this story the proper attention it deserves. The media is reporting that police politely knocked on Kathryn Johnson’s door and just started firing and the cops were defending theirselves. In fact, the supposedly conservative Fox News Channel had a panel discussion on today’s Live Desk where all five panelists, including the supposedly objective reporter Julie Banderas, called for a ban on keeping privately owned firearms inside homes and sited this shooting as a reason.
So have a Happy Thanksgiving and remember to be on guard for liberty, for its enemies are numerous and powerful.
I’m one of the original co-founders of The Liberty Papers all the way back in 2005. Since then, I wound up doing this blogging thing professionally. Now I’m running the site now. You can find my other work at The Hayride.com and Rare. You can also find me over at the R Street Institute.
