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The American Dream

Lady Amythyst and Lord Taliesin

All citizens of the United States of America are equal in the eyes of the law. All citizens are required to adhere to laws of the nation or the individual states as created by the legislature, interpreted by the judiciary, and enforced by the police as agents of the executive branch. In return, all citizens and inhabitants of the United States are protected by these same laws from the imposition of any other's unlawful desires to deprive them of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is the essential core of the American Dream. The realization that the liberty of the individual is the essential building block of our culture is what makes our fair nation a beacon to other peoples throughout the world.

When well-meaning people attack such liberties, then it is required of all to remind others of the social contracts established through sacrifice of life's blood by our forebears. Our unique culture was created as a grand experiment by which it might be determined if the common people had the ability to govern themselves. For more than two hundred years, through travails and hardships, the people of the United States of America have proven their ability to govern themselves rightly and justly. Moreover, they have done so without suborning their rights to any other establishment except that of their elected representatives.

Recently, certain elements of Christianity have attempted to promote the Judaic code of Moses known as the Ten Commandments as a cornerstone of our judicial system. Moreover, they have attempted to rewrite our shared history in order to establish these Commandments (and by association their own religious beliefs) as fundamental to the laws of our fair nation. Inasmuch as the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America states that the "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...", it is patently clear that such religious laws have no place within the judiciary, especially in a privileged or unique position exclusive of any other religious laws of equal or greater historical validity.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of all free people to make their opinions known, that such an abridgment of the shared liberty of all cannot be allowed to continue. If such were allowed, then soon any other religion that did not agree with the whole of the Ten Commandments would be considered to be inferior to those who did, and by this means the liberty of all the citizens of the United States of America would be greatly diminished.

The initial passage from liberty to totalitarian servitude is often not marked by military coups, or by the secret arrests of dissenting voices. It is most often marked by the establishment of certain societal 'norms' that through the power of the majority become de-facto laws in and of themselves. We stand at the edge of a precipice beyond which we dare not tread. The power of the majority has always had the ability to quash the desires of the minority. It is only because of our cherished Constitution that such abuses of power have been deflected in the past.

Without the will of the people to uphold the protections afforded us all by our Constitution, we are in peril of losing those personal liberties that make this fair nation the wonderful place that it is. I, therefore, urge every citizen of conscience to demand of their representatives the removal of any and all monuments or displays that threaten our shared liberties. In a republic, it is the citizenry who must protect their own freedoms, and it is long past time for the citizens of the United States of America to remember their own personal responsibilities to themselves and to their descendants. If not now, then when? If not us, then who?

This article was sent to several newspapers in December of 2003, when the controversy surrounding the Ten Commandments was swirling around the body politic. Curiously, no newspaper found this article to be appropriate for their editorial pages. The controversy has died down in the past six months, not because the threat has diminished, but because the American media has a very short attention span when it comes to matters of significance. As Wendell Phillips said in 1852, "Eternal vigilance if the price of liberty." We should all heed these words.