When the people fear their government

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

Thomas Jefferson

Whatever you think about Adam Kokesh, he was arrested and detained in a federal detention facility for resisting address even though there is video showing him at a peaceful demonstration in Philadelphia.  This may be the beginning of something that will become much bigger.  When the Government seizes and detains someone for expressing speech – while suspending their civil rights, there is tyranny.  The felony charges have been dropped and he has been issued citations. 

This is far from the first time Kokesh, 31, has gotten himself in trouble during protests. He was thrown out of the 2008 Republican National Convention for heckling John McCain and was arrested for dancing at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., during a protest of a court decision that banned dancing at the site.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Patrick Henry

After hearing about this and doing some research, I came across his statement.  So much for the non-violent path:

When a government has repeatedly and deliberately failed to follow its own laws, violated the fundamental human rights of its citizens, threatened the sanctity of a free press, created institutions intended to eliminate privacy of communication, waged war at the behest of special interest that threatens the public safety, killed hundreds of children with drone strikes, imprisoned and destroyed the lives of countless individuals for victimless crimes, stifled economic opportunity to maintain the dominance of the financial elite, stolen from the people through an absurd system of taxation and inflation, sold future generations into debt slavery, and abused it’s power to suppress political opposition, it is unfit to exist and it becomes the duty of the people to alter or abolish that government by whatever means necessary to secure liberty and ensure peace. A new American revolution is long overdue.

This revolution has been brewing in the hearts and minds of the people for many years, but this independence day, it shall take a new form as the American Revolutionary Army will march on each state capital to demand that the governors of these 50 states immediately initiate the process of an orderly dissolution of the federal government through secession and reclamation of federally held property. Should one whole year from this July 4th while the crimes of this government are allowed to continue, we may have passed the point at which non-violent revolution becomes impossible. The time to sit idly by has passed. To remain neutral is to be complicit, just doing your job is not an excuse, and the line in the sand has been drawn between the people, and the criminals in Washington, D.C. while some timid souls will say that it is too early, the we can solve this problem through democratic means provided by government, that current levels of taxation are reasonable for the services provided, and that the crimes of this government are merely a tolerable nuisance, it may already be too late. While there is risk in drastic action, the greater danger lies in allowing this government to continue unchallenged.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/urban-game-changer/2013/may/24/adam-kokesh-breaks-free-philadelphia-jail/.

Looks like the sticks, stones, torches, and pitchforks will surface with Mr. Kokesh.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin