IPFS
IT IS GOOD FOR ONE TO BE FREE - by Charles Goyette
Written by Ernest Hancock Subject: Revolutions, Rebellions & UprisingsIT IS GOOD
FOR ONE TO BE FREE
by
Charles
Goyette
Transcript of a speech by Charles
Goyette at the Ron Paul Revolution March, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., July 12, 2008
Video Pt 1 (2nd half) Video Pt 2
It is good for one to be free, and we
would cherish liberty even if she traveled alone, but she does not. Because Prosperity and Peace are both the companions
of Liberty.
War, on the other hand, the spirit of
destruction, is the destroyer of Prosperity and Liberty. Should any wonder, then, that Americans are
losing both their freedom and their well-being?
We gather together as the vanguard of
a movement to reclaim our Liberty,
Peace, and Prosperity. And we come here
to Washington
to be seen in a place the world watches.
Here surrounded by the monuments that
evoke a dim recollection of our beginnings, of the time our founding generation
was aflame with love of Liberty. One can almost still hear the now soft
whisper of their words that set our American freedom in motion:
“We
hold these truths to be self evident…”
“Life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
“…deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
These are the words that gave life to
our ideals; that set free a nation; that inspired mankind.
“Secure
the blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our posterity.”
“We
pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
But there is more to be seen in this
government city than the monuments of our noble past. For here, too, are the halls of the
power-seekers, the vote buyers and the permanent government made up of both
Republicans and Democrats that perpetuates itself with welfare and
warfare. These are the mausoleums of
waste and bankruptcy.
You marched passed such a monument,
the 1.6 million square feet of the Department of Energy building on Independence Avenue. Look back here on your right, and think back
to the roots of the present oil shock.
When we spoke, during the lead up to Bush’s elective war, about the fear
premium this adventure would put on the price of oil, about the massive
transfer of wealth from the American
people to the governments of Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chavez, and to the petroleum
sultans, sheiks, shahs, we received a two word answer: “NEVER MIND!”
And when we talked about the years of
saber rattling and the certainly of oil breaking $100, the two wings of the
Washington Party answered in one voice: “SHUT
UP,” they explained.
Now while you dig in your front pocket
to pay $4 a gallon or more to be here today, the Department of Energy you
passed on your march from the Washington
monument is taking 25 billion dollars a year from your back pocket. And what does it do with your billions? Does it explore the remote and dangerous
corners of the earth and discover any oil?
Does it take enormous risks and suffer substantial losses to locate
energy? Recover it, refine it, transport
it to your neighborhood? Just how much
gas does it put in your tank for its 25 billion dollars? Not a drop!
Now John McCain wants to give you a
gas tax break for your summer driving, a few cents a gallon to buy your votes
with your own money in November. But in
the meantime, he crosses the country, back and forth and to and fro, beating
his chest for another NeoCon war that will send oil to 400 or 500 dollars per
barrel. He’ll have you paying $15
dollars a gallon at the Superpumper… if they have any gas to sell… But you’ll
save pennies a gallon this summer.
This is the flim flammery we got from
George Bush, who bought his popularity with tax rebate checks of a couple
hundred dollars each. How cheaply the
people sold their affection. And how
many times over we have paid at the pump and at the grocery store, and in the value
of our savings, with the Bush dollar that has lost at least 40 per cent of its
buying power since the checks were put in the mail. Not to
mention that the money to cash those checks had to be borrowed from overseas,
so that your little children can be debt slaves to the Chinese when they grow
up!
Take
note of the overseers of this destruction of the dollar, as you pass the Federal
Reserve Building on your way back home. It
is a temple befitting the gods of antiquity.
There sit the enablers of the wars of empire, for without them those
wars would not be waged. Right down
there, ironically enough, on Constitution
Avenue.
All about us are the palaces of the permanent
party in Washington, the whited sepulchers of waste: they’ve destroyed the dollar and lied to you
about caring for the retirement money you’ve sent their way over a
lifetime. It is squandered. It’s gone.
These
are the halls and the homes and the haunts of the foreign meddlers, of foreign
aid and foreign wars.
At last count, the Pentagon had over 700 bases in 130
countries. 1.4 million people on active
duty; another 1.4 million in reserve capacities. Military spending of 1 trillion a year! Just the Department of Defense Budget of 623
billion dollars is more than all the rest of the world’s war spending combined! And Barack Obama wants to increase the
military.
During the Bush years we have invaded two countries; gave a
silent wink and a nod for the invasion of a third. And now we are on the brink of a yet another NeoCon
war, a new war without authorization from the people’s representatives. “I haven’t made up my mind,” Bush said on the
eve of the Iraq War. As though in America, the
people no longer rule? Does the
Constitution say anything about a “decidifyer” who gets to “decidify” these
things? It is time to say “No More!” The president consults with foreign heads of
state about future American wars, but has he consulted you? This President is spending $400 million to
foment war with Iran. Did your congressman tell you in a
newsletter, in a townhall, perhaps in the neighborhood, the grocery store? In church?
It is time to say “No More!”
The permanent party in the palaces of power, and the halls
of waste, is out of control. It is
though the household staff is in mutiny.
They are peeping toms, illegally spying ever more brazenly on their
masters; they waste the households wealth and savings. They know no boundaries, but run roughshod
hither and yon, alarming the neighbors.
The downstairs servants are stealing the silverware and the upstairs
help doesn’t report it because they share in the plunder. It’s time for the people to turn them all
out. Not to replace them with more of
the same, but to send them all packing.
The people must reclaim management of their own affairs: We must take charge again of our lives: of
our money and medicine and education. We
must reclaim our Liberty,
our peace and prosperity.
That means no more foreign wars, no more central banks to
finance those wars, no more central planners, no more bailouts and billions for
the bankers. No more worthless,
irredeemable paper money, no more foreign aid, no more foreign wars. No more telling the people how to live, or
looting us with lies about trust funds that don’t exist. No more stealing oil, which is cheaper to buy
anyway, no more indebting our children with trillions borrowed overseas, no more
telling our elderly where they can and cannot buy their medicine, and what the
can and cannot do to relieve their pain.
No more. No more.
No more. That is lesson from
their failures. “No more.” That is the message to take back home today. “It is time to say no more!”
Join me. And spread this Revolution in every city and
state in America
by saying: “No More!”
In every town and village in
the land we will shout: “No More!”
On every avenue, street, and cul
de sac, free people together with one voice:
“No More!”
And finally, a word to acknowledged our great debt to and
gratitude for Ron Paul! For his long
hard fight, for the years in Washington he was marginalized and ignored, for all
the times he was the lone vote in Congress, even while the leaders of the
Permanent Party were laughing at the Constitution and calling it an
anachronism. For not taking taxpayer paid
junkets or spending every office dime he could grab, and for not helping
himself to the Congressional pension plan.
For his integrity, decade after decade, in public life. For his uncommon respect for and knowledge of
the Constitution; for a grasp of economics that could have prevented the deluge
that approaches now, and that could see us through it and back on the road to
prosperity in short order, if only the people had understood. But most especially for his civility, his
tirelessness, and the inspiration he has been to us all here and millions of
others with us today in spirit, who, like us, love Liberty, and want to restore her and her
companions, Peace and Prosperity!
God bless Ron Paul!
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