I Remember When…

by Brent Johnson

I am 52 years old as I write this commentary.  I have lived all over the united States of America.  I have also lived in a number of foreign countries.

For over 15 years, I have been teaching people who genuinely desire to learn, how the American people have been defrauded of their birthright and inheritance by a federal government entirely staffed with criminals (i.e. people who do not obey the Law of the Land, which is the Constitution).

Over that period of time and due to my commitment, like Patriot Patrick Henry before me, to see the truth, the worst of it, and prepare for it, it has become apparent that modern America looks and acts nothing like the country in which I grew up, or the Republic founded on individual freedom that was established over 231 years ago.

As I reflect upon the differences between what I see in modern America, what I experienced in my youth, and what history tells me about the origins of my country and the principles on which it was founded, I grieve for all that appears to have been lost to all Americans.  There was so much good in our society, and today it seems that it is all gone.

I remember when…

• You could hear the sound of children laughing and playing together in the outdoors, sometimes “rough-housing” with each other, always in the spirit of having fun; today, our children are prohibited from engaging in activities in which they even touch each other, lest some parent or child takes offense, files a complaint, or threatens a lawsuit.
• Public schools taught civics, helping students to understand the proper roles of both government and the citizen; today, the education of our children has become nothing more than a government indoctrination program, designed to prepare them as workers in a two-class society that considers them to be nothing more than commoners.
• You could leave your front and back doors unlocked without concern that someone might break in to your house, or leave your car doors unlocked without concern that someone might steal your vehicle or its contents; today, it has become a way of life in America for people to steal from each other, in total disregard of the Seventh Commandment.
• Family members stayed together throughout their lives, parents apprenticed their children in their respective trades, and most people remained relatively close in distance to their families; today, children seek at the earliest opportunity possible, to travel as far away from their parents as they can, ostensibly in order to receive an education at some particular university or to work for some company.
• The ideals of liberty and self-determination really meant something to the American people, so that they would do whatever was necessary to preserve and maintain those unalienable gifts with which they were endowed by their Creator; today, God has been removed from American life by unelected bureaucrats who call themselves “judges”, and done so with the tacit blessings of the American people, who have failed or refused to take any steps whatsoever to resist such un-American activities.
• A free country housed a population of free people who did not fear to speak their minds and express their opinions on matters concerning their temporal salvation; today, the once brave American people live in abject fear that by saying anything against the government or status quo they will be labeled a radical, extremist, terrorist, or called any number of unflattering and derogatory names, and so this once proud people have been reduced to little more than unthinking sycophants.
• The principles of God-given rights to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness were sufficient justification for our forefathers to risk their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to fight the dark scourge of tyranny and oppression; today, principles have been relegated to the level of unimportant and unnecessary intellectual discourse, while the pursuit of money, convenience, power and position have become the dominant features of modern America and her general population.

As I consider the unfortunate reality that today is the United States, I wonder if perhaps it has all been a dream.  Is it possible that those things I remember never really happened?  Could the vision of such principled statesmen as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Paine, to name just a few, have been nothing more than a fervent hope, a dream of something that could never really last?

If so, it is a good dream, a worthy dream, a dream that we can and should embrace, pursue, and actualize.


How about you?  Are you a Dreamer?  What will you Dream?