The Haunting Words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn “We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterwards.” Solzhenitsyn was a loyal Communist and decorated Soviet soldier of WWII. However, he became troubled by some of the things Stalin was doing. Finally, Solzhenitsyn put his doubts in print. Soon he was in a camp for political prisoners. There he reflected on events and the abrupt turn of his personal fortunes. In hindsight, he saw how his once great and powerful Russian people became enslaved without much more than a whimper. It had been the same in Germany, and in so many great nations that crumble from within. Pondering events with his fellow prisoners, they realized they should have resisted while they still had a chance…but they didn’t. As a result, an entire nation was taken captive and millions of citizens died…maybe more than 10 million. Russia has never recovered. Why didn’t Russians resist while they had a chance? Solzhenitsyn realized the Russian people simply did not love freedom enough. They were more concerned about their “things” and their “life”, than they were about the end of freedom. They realized only too late that without freedom you don’t have “things”, and you may not even have “life”. Russia found out too late that a life of oppression and fear isn’t really life, is it just being alive. "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Benjamin Franklin Pondering all of these things in captivity lead Solzhenitsyn to state, “We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterwards.” A people, a nation, a society, that isn’t willing to take a stand for freedom, purely and simply deserves oppression. I look around our nation at what is going on. We still have an opportunity to resist evil before it overwhelms us. I talk to my neighbors and friends about what has to happen to keep us free, and they largely agree. Yet, there is a vast disconnect between realizing we have a serious problem, and the next step of actually taking decisive action to stop it. FEAR… Fear is what immobilizes and stifles the “American Spirit” that birthed our nation and has kept it free for 237 years. Fear of reprisal, fear of the IRS, fear of our Federal Government, fear of losing our homes, fear of losing our jobs, fear of imprisonment, fear of death…all of these are valid fears that should give us pause to reflect on our actions. Fear is “faith” that bad things that haven’t happened yet will happen. We can also put our faith in a hope good things will happen, then work to make them happen. We must keep in mind, as we ponder our actions, the outcome of inaction as well. Solzhenitsyn has already explained to us the price of inaction. History is teaming with examples of what happens when a nation or society does not take a stand against oppression. We only need to take out “Russia”, or “Germany”, or “China”, and insert “United States”. We only need to take out “Stalin” and put in “Obama”, “Bush”, “Romney”, or “Clinton”. When a people do not take a stand for their freedoms, no matter what the events, no matter who the players, the result is almost ALWAYS oppression. The founding of the United States 237 years ago stands alone as the grand example breaking the mold. And, it can happen again. But WE have to MAKE it happen…it is up to US. As a society, as a people, as a nation, Americans must make a stand in unison! Benjamin Franklin, at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4th, 1776, said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” Likewise, it is essential to our Liberty and Freedom that we lay down our fear, and join the founders in pledging to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor. Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their selflessness granted generations Liberty and Freedom. Are we now to let it go because we are afraid? We have an opportunity to pledge our oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic and save our Republic. It starts with an oath focusing our intent and resolve. We follow that resolve with action. Our first action should be to defund the enemies of our Constitution by denying them access to our incomes. Like the Boston Tea Party, this is non-violence directed against an unjust concept, not individuals. If orchestrated on a large enough scale, oppressive retaliation by agencies and agents will be ineffective. Immediately, it will withhold revenue being used for unconstitutional actions. Ideally, all revenue generators would participate, while all recipients would continue to suck unconstitutional funding dry. The wheels of oppression would quickly grind to a halt. I will leave you with the musings of Solzhenitsyn, who also found TRUTH in his imprisonment. “And how we burned in our camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?...The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation….We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterwards.” Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn Citizen’s Oath to the United States Constitution constitutionalstatesofamerica/
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 15:35:06 +0000