By Scott Tibbs, May 26, 2009
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." -- John 15:13
Yesterday was Memorial Day, when we honor all those who have fallen in defense of our country. From the men who pledged their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor" to allow the nation to secede from England to the "doughboys" sent to Europe to "make the world safe for democracy" to the soldiers who died fighting the brutal regimes of Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, men have fought and died with honor for more than two centuries to defend our liberty. This Memorial Day, how best can we honor the memories of those who have fallen in defense of liberty?
The answer is easy. The best way to honor those who have fallen in defense of liberty is to carefully guard our liberty against any attempt to take that liberty away. We have seen government grow, take away more of our liberty, regulate more of our lives and take more of the money we earn. The excuses for this vary, and include increased government surveillance powers in the name of national security, increased regulation of our vehicles and businesses to protect us from ourselves, restrictions on property rights in the came of protecting community character, and restrictions on First Amendment rights (including regulating the content of political speech) in the name of "clean" campaigns.
All of this shows great disrespect for the men who died defending our liberty, whether to secure independence, or defeat evil in the form of Nazis and Communists. When we give up our liberty voluntarily, the sacrifices of those who died defending liberty become meaningless. What is the point of sending soldiers to defend liberty when we are going to give it up so easily? If we're serious about honoring our fallen on Memorial Day then we need to aggressively seek to roll back government power, giving the American people more ability to run our own lives free of government interference.
