BY RUSSELL TURNER
FADING FREEDOM
As I watch the news every day there seems to be a constant call to limit the freedoms that our nation was founded upon. Once a freedom is diminished it becomes very hard to regain that particular freedom. There was an old expression that comes to mind about losing one’s freedoms, it was called Fabian Fascism. The definition is simple; it refers to the gradual losing of freedom. We Americans have a bad habit of not getting involved if someone else’s freedom or livelihood is threatened, far too often we can only focus on our little corner of the world. Losing freedom has a cumulative effect, it has not been uncommon for people in the past to one day wake up and wonder where their freedoms went. They often find that they became a slave to the very government that was supposed to protect their rights.
In America one of our greatest strengths was the equality that our founders wrote into our constitution and founding documents. We were never intended to have a ruling class or a political class. Today I am seeing a trend that is unhealthy to our nation. We have too many people in political office that are intent on creating a political dynasty. It has become an elite club where only certain individuals are considered worthy to have a say in how our state and nation are run.
Back in December I wrote a column entitled “HAND WRITING ON THE WALL”, in the column I criticized the Oklahoma legislature for drastically increasing the filing fee for individuals who wish to run for public office. Instead of trying to get more people involved in the political process, the increasing of filing fees will have the opposite effect. Over the past several years it has become increasingly difficult for the people from the grassroots to get elected. Now they want to make it next to impossible to be successful with an initiative petition in Oklahoma. House Bill 1603 by Rep. John Enns, R-Enid,in my opinion, is just another step down the path to having a class of people in the legislature that, for all practical reasons, will rule over the rest of us. The initiative petition process is a safe guard against an out of control of government. If it had not been for the efforts of those of us who carried petitions for the passage of SQ640, all Oklahomans would be paying taxes on everything imaginable.
We have a group of lawmakers who don’t want to be bothered with the opinions of us average people and our ability to have some control over them. I urge everyone to call their legislators and tell them to not let House Bill 1603 see the light of day. For our nation to remain great we must cherish our freedoms and our ability to have a say in hour our nation is run, otherwise we will see our freedoms fade away like an old photograph.
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