As “March for Our Lives” protesters rally against gun rights, we are now witnessing the new America: where young Americans protest for less rights, not more. The younger generation, having not been taught about the constitution or innumerable rights in school, has been easily baited into campaigning against their own interests and the interests of all Americans.
America is No Longer a Free Country
On November 8th, 2016, Donald Trump won the presidency on the promise to “Make America Great Again.” His opponent, Hillary Clinton, rallied against him by claiming that “America is great because it is good” (whatever that means). However, I beg to differ; America is great because it is free, or at least it was.
But what most people don’t realize is that we are living in a country very different from the one the founding fathers had envisioned or what we’re repeatedly told is the “land of the free, home of the brave” where no matter how many of your rights are infringed upon, you will always be free because no matter what the government will have your best interest at heart.
However, we now live in a time where police officers can conduct roadside cavity searches on innocent civilians without a warrant, blatantly violating the fourth amendment of the constitution to be “secure in their persons” against unreasonable searches and seizure.
We live in a time, in what is supposed to be the freest country on earth, where possessing a firearm can get you searched, pulled over, arrested, shot at, and even killed. Some are even killed by police while completely unarmed and defenseless.
Citizens have been fined and arrested for activities such as growing vegetables in their front yard, raising chickens in their backyard, installing solar panels on their roof, attempting to live off the grid, and allowing their children to walk to a park ½ mile from their house; running lemonade stands without a license and feeding the homeless without a permit are also liable to get you fined or arrested by the emerging police state.
As described in Battlefield America: The War on The American People by constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, perhaps a book the “March for Our Lives” protesters should read, you can try to place government in between the people and their problems, but by doing so, you’re ultimately putting government between the people and their rights.
“If government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, damage your furnishings, and terrorize your family, your property is no longer private and secure – it belongs to the government. Likewise, if police can forcefully draw your blood, strip search you, and probe you intimately, your body is no longer your own, either.” – John W. Whitehead
Government Schools Are a Breeding Ground for Indoctrinated Big Government Leftists
For all intense and purposes, the public school system is becoming less and less about education and more about indoctrinating the youth into a lifetime of servitude to a state intent on surveilling, subjugating, and controlling the population. The education system is in effect a microcosm of the police state which if the citizens don’t reject, could emerge as a nearly unstoppable force, as unchecked governments have throughout history.
To draw a dark parallel, Hitler had clearly recognized that indoctrinating young people into a certain understanding of and acclimation to the world is invaluable to any despotic regime. When Hitler was told by his opponents “I will never come to your side,” he responded by saying “your child belongs to me already. A people lives forever. What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants however now stand in the new camp. In a short time, they will know nothing else but this new community.”
This “new community,” in modern day, is the reality that your rights are slowly eroding and government is granting itself more authority over how you act in your day-to-day life.
Although the U.S. government invests roughly $8,000 per child each year, America ranks only 27th in the world for academic achievement. It’s no surprise that in this environment of surveillance, censorship, political correctness and conformity that young people have all but accepted the attitude that this is the way life is and if we’re going to be slaves, we might as well be safe slaves, rather than free humans.
This attitude has seeped its way so far into the psyches of the youth, that even criticizing the far-left (and I would argue anti-freedom) political views of the victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, can get you unfriended on Facebook and labeled as a bully by politically correct thinkers on the left.
American Journalist Henry Mencken said in April 1924 that “[the aim of public education is not] to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence… Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.”
Indeed, it’s no surprise that the students who spent their lives in a system where pointing your fingers like a gun or shooting a pretend arrow at a classmate with nothing but your arms and your imagination can get your suspended from school, are adamantly opposed to anything that may violate their “safe space,” even if that includes the constitution.
Make Public Schools Free Again
To put the numbers into perspective, less than 50 students die each year to school shootings; that’s less than from pool accidents. A gun control policy (gun free zone) enabled the situation where the staff was helpless to defend itself and its students and the police didn’t even respond correctly. “Gun control” is the last thing that is going to keep anyone safe. The idea that well-trained, capable teachers who are responsible enough to carry a firearm at school could save the lives of students in another similar incident is more realistic and liberating.
In order to “Make America Great Again,” we have to first make the coming generation of citizens free again. Instead of transparent backpacks, metal detectors, or police officers, which only result in more students being charged with crimes for simple nonviolent teenage behavior, drug-sniffing dogs in classrooms, surveillance cameras and gun-free zones, what these students need is an understanding of the constitution, confidence in their ability to speak freely without the hammer of the school board coming down on them for egregious and often draconian “anti-bullying” and “anti-harassment” policies (such as using the wrong pronoun or calling a teacher “cute”,) and a true understanding of the atrocities of history so they can continue living in a free country, rather than advocating for policies which every dictator in history has enacted to control their respective populations.
The founding fathers made it clear that any restriction on access to firearms is a violation of our natural rights as citizens. If the students of today understood the real meaning of freedom, they would be celebrating it, not fighting to curtail the liberty that our forefathers fought and died for us to have.
Watch Fleccas Talks discuss gun control with protesters at March For Our Lives LA:
This article (Florida Students Rally for Less Rights; What They Really Need is More Freedom) was originally published by Phillip Schneider and may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author credit, and this copyright statement.
