236 years ago, yesterday, a nation rose from tyranny and oppression. A people, with unalienable rights endowed by the Creator, had had enough of Imperial rule and said so boldly, courageously and with the knowledge that they had a choice.

Patrick Henry understood that choice.

In a speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses, on March 23, 1775, Henry swung the vote convincing his Colony to send troops to the Revolutionary War when he proclaimed, “What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 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!”

12 years earlier, Patrick Henry, a bar keeper turned attorney had argued in a case that the King was but “a tyrant who forfeits the allegiance of his subjects.”

In 1765, a law student and guest in the House of Burgesses, Thomas Jefferson, listened while, regarding the Stamp Act, Henry offered resolutions to nullify them. Henry, at that time, was met with fierce opposition and his resolutions were termed as treasonous to the King. What Patrick Henry said in response, lit the fire in Jefferson that would lead him to be elected to the House of Burgesses 6 years later.

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While many of us persist to focus on the plankton–the incidental consequences–of issue after issue, we tend to ignore the provenance of waters which run deep. Okay, so maybe I’m not making much sense to you so far, but allow me a moment of your time to expound on a document I circulated a few weeks ago regarding the constitutionality of drug-testing welfare recipients. Although the points to counter my argument were compelling, sometimes poignant, it seems that a substantial amount of the counter-pointers live within ideologically fraught parameters. To a degree, the parameters encase a discombobulated “take” which may even, at times, include sub-parameters which cancel each other out. And yet, there they are, coexisting side-by-side with a crooked grin.

Okay, I’m still not making much sense. I understand…

So, I’ll just dive right in.

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