A Yearning For Slavery

A Yearning for Slavery
(In the Land of the Free)

by Tom Woodard

In the days prior to the War Between the States, those in America who lived in slavery yearned for freedom. Some even risked their lives in order to obtain it. The blood of over 600,000 souls was the cost of their liberation.

Now, one hundred forty-five years later, we in America are essentially divided into two parts: those who love Liberty and those who have bought in to the lie of Socialism. That anyone in this land of liberty, personal initiative, free enterprise, and the prospect of upward mobility, among other great blessings of this 'beacon shining on a hill' called America, would wish to give all of these blessings up for the false promises of Socialism is incomprehensible to me, and to many others who love this Country for all that it stands for. How much more would this empty, foolhardy mind-set astound the slaves of the Old South?

I have contemplated the mystery of this for decade upon decade, but it was not until I was sitting in Church recently, listening to a sermon derived from the Book of Exodus, that the answer was revealed to me. The sermon was not on the text which was brought to mind, and which brought to me full realization of the answer to this mystery, but somehow the sermon opened a door of realization for me of which I had, for a long time, been partially aware, but not clearly, as it is now.

The Scripture upon which the answer to this embracing of the lie of Socialism is founded is Exodus 16:3. You will recall the story of how the Lord chose Moses to lead his chosen people, the Israelites, out of bondage in Egypt and to the Promised Land of Canaan, and how Moses led them through the parted waters of the Red Sea into the desert of Sinai. There, in spite of all, the Lord, through Moses, had done for them and all of the mighty miracles they witnessed, and in spite of the fact that they were now free, the people said "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." And in spite of the fact that the Lord continued to perform miracles and provide for the people all their needs, they continued to grumble and complain for forty years. And for this reason, only Joshua and Caleb, out of the entire people who originally fled Egypt, were allowed to enter the Promised Land. Some may find this story strange, but to me it epitomizes the bulk of the human race. And it is now being relived in America, and has been so, remarkably, for about forty-five years.

The great bulk of this strange phenomenon began in the black race in America, brought on in great part by the 'Great Society' of Lyndon Johnson, which massively increased welfare in this Country, and imposed policies which led to the destruction of the basic family unit in the black culture, but it has now spread far beyond the black race, and is embraced by the ignorant of all races - least of all the Asians - and widely in the white and Hispanic races. All the blame, of course, does not fall on the shoulders of Lyndon Johnson. Much of it must be laid upon the policies born in the Great Depression, and even earlier, in the Progressive Movement of Woodrow Wilson in the early Twentieth Century.

It is this ignorant embrace of Socialism, and of the loss of Liberty which of necessity goes with Socialism, which has brought us to the shameful point in our history where those who seek an education and who aspire to make something of themselves and their lives and families are denigrated and scorned, a culture where millions of people, black, white, and Hispanic, take false pride in their ignorance and lack of self-motivation, and of their degraded dependence on the almighty State - the federal government - for existence. Thus we see those who aspire to mediocrity calling those who aspire to achieve the dream spoken of by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to equal opportunity to 'the pursuit of happiness' Uncle Toms and Oreos. How strange to see black people who have surrendered to the slavery of the federal government's pathetic handouts, who have no right to claim self-dignity or self-respect, attack and demean those who aspire to and achieve that great dream. And how strange to see this philosophy of ignorance and slavery spread to the white race, and to the Hispanic!

Who are the Uncle Toms? It is the very ones who are hurling that epithet upon those who have picked themselves up by their own bootstraps and made something meaningful of their lives! What a twisted travesty to see people who are abysmally ignorant of what Martin Luther King stood for 'celebrate' his holiday by calling for more welfare bread, thereby surrendering more and more of what little, pathetic 'freedom' they have left. They forsake their freedoms, and the very means of making their lives worth living, such as education and independent thinking, for the sake of the government's handouts. They have become inmates on Uncle Sam's great Plantation - the modern slaves of America. And their lives are even less meaningful than those who dwelt in slavery in ante-bellum days, who worked and earned the bread they ate, and who had a dignity which the modern servitude cannot claim. There they are, black, white, Hispanic, forbidden by their own pagan 'religion' of socialist/fascist/communist indoctrination from actually using logic or common sense in looking at what the government is doing - and has already done - to them! They call for Massa Obama to take care of all their needs and wants, and by doing so they sell themselves and their posterity into bondage and irrelevance.

It is ignorance and sloth which are the greatest enemies of Liberty, of democracy, of our Sacred Constitution. It is learning, individual initiative, and free thought which will preserve it. The government is a cruel master, requiring a man or woman to sell their soul in return for its paltry rations. And what a malarial turn of events to see those who decry slavery in the Old South so willingly surrender to slavery in the Twenty-first Century. Uncle Sam, too, is not unlike most of the old slave masters of yesteryear, who had a paternal love for their slaves - paternalism in this case being a demeaning relationship, demanding, as of course, that the master look down upon the slave as an inferior and ignorant being who must be cared for. It never ceases to amaze me that those 'on the bottom' who embrace liberal socialism look upon those in government who espouse this movement toward totalitarianism as their friends. They do not know the cruel truth that these people who claim such concern and care for the poor are actually their worst enemies. In effect, they are the overseers on Uncle Sam's Plantation, and as such they want to keep the 'slaves' fully dependent upon, and therefore brainwashed by, themselves. This is abundantly discernable in the hierarchy of ACORN and the SEIU, where the poor and ignorant are used as pawns to further the self-serving and corrupt motives of those few who run, and reap great material benefits from, these organizations.

Why do they think that these so-called friends and 'helpers' make sure that the education offered to their children is of such a poor and inadequate quality? Why is it that their promises are never fulfilled? Why is it that those who have bought into the Socialist lie remain where they are - on the bottom of society? Wake up, you slaves, and demand your freedom! Throw off your liberal overseers and break the yoke of slavery with which Uncle Sam has burdened you! Learn, read, listen with your hearts and minds, and not just your ears, so that you can discern and reject the lies you have been fed for the last half-century! Study Logic, and embrace it. Return to the tried and true common sense which was the byword of your ancestors, regardless of what race or ethnicity you sprang from. Think! Go beyond and behind the rhetoric and discover the truth! These socialist/fascist/communist haters of America who inhabit the halls of government in Washington are no friends to any of you. They are enemies of free speech, freedom of worship, freedom of the press, the rule of law, and of free enterprise, and as such they are your enemies - your worst, and most dangerous, enemies.

Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of and fought for the fulfillment of the dream of all people being equal under law, so that they could all engage in the pursuit of happiness spoken of in the Declaration of Independence, through education and by the sweat of their brow, thereby to achieve success and standing in their communities and in their Nation. And he spoke, over and over and over again, of freedom. He understood freedom, and he fought and bled and died so that all Americans could be truly free. Now, many of those for whose freedom he died call him, too, an Uncle Tom, and use the hatred and bitterness he warned against as an excuse to fail to pursue education, and to pursue that happiness which all Americans should, as a part of their natural rights, pursue. Instead, in their ignorance and hatred, they pursue a life on Uncle Sam's great plantation, doing the bidding of their overseers - those who claim to be their friends but have as their real goal the enslavement of all Americans by taking away the freedoms our forefathers fought so hard to establish and preserve.

Freedom is not free. Those who fail to defend it and fight to preserve it will lose it. And if enough Americans fall for the lies of socialism/fascism/communism, we will all lose those sacred and God-given liberties which we as Americans have enjoyed for more than two centuries. If we are to remain a free and independent people, we must rediscover the principles and rights given us by God, through natural law, and established in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We must return to the essential principle that when the people are fearful of the government, there is tyranny, but when the government is fearful of the people, there is Liberty. I pray that those who now, in ignorance, are embracing enslavement by their own government will awaken, denounce enslavement by the government, and again embrace Liberty and the Constitution. Therein lies our salvation. Freedom is not free. Never has been; never will be. Preserving it rests not upon the government, the nature of which is to threaten liberty. No, preserving it rests upon the shoulders of 'We the People' of these United States. Let us awaken. Let us rediscover the blessings of liberty, and preserve them for ourselves and our posterity!

NOTE: Those who truly wish to discover or rediscover the foundation stones of our democratic Republic should read, and re-read, and study, "The Five Thousand Year Leap", by W. Cleon Skousen. It will open your eyes to the richness of our heritage and the divine inspiration that brought about the birth of our Republic. God bless America!