While this is penned, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is conducting a filibuster on the vote for cloture on the House's Continuing Resolution that continues the FY09 budget yet cuts funding of Obamacare.
Reid's call for cloture is an effort to close all debate over the CR. It is a proposal to end any amendments except his single amendment to negate the provisions of the House's CR that cuts that funding. It is a call to avoid proper procedures in the Senate in order to, it seems, order the citizens of this country to obey Barack Obama as though he were a dictator.
Sen. Cruz says "no". His speech is an effort to incite US Senators to do their jobs and listen to their constituents.
During this now 18+ hour long speech, Sen. Cruz made several profound statements. Among them was one to the effect that his actions should not be sensationalized into headlines. He asked, instead, that the damage the PPACA does to the citizens of this country be the headline.
In short, the spirit of Cruz's filibuster is this: Non Sibi Sed Patriae... Not for self, but for Country.
Non Sibi Sed Patriae
It is a spirit that those of us who have made oaths to serve the people of this nation know well. Those who do not embrace this motto do no serve the citizens of this country. They serve their cabals. They serve their greed. They serve their lust for power. They do not serve the country.
Those who ascribe to Ayn Rand's egoism and objectivism may question "what's the difference?". If asking that question, they didn't understand Rand's philosophy.
It is this simple. Those who do not embrace the spirit of Non Sibi Sed Patriae are not really acting in their own self-interests. They are enslaved by their addictions to power. The policies they champion, such as the PPACA, do not serve them. They do not serve the people. They serve the leviathan. If these policies served them, they would, like Senator Rand Paul suggested, sign up for the programs. They would be first in line for the exchanges. However, they exempted themselves from it. That exemption is the true service to self. It is what is best for them, as individuals. It is what is best for their family members.
What is best for the one is what is best for all. That is the idea behind egoism and objectivism. Obamacare is not good for the individual. Even socialist/collectivist groups such as the Teamsters see the damage this bill causes. It is harming their individual members.
Non Sibi Sed Patriae
When a soldier goes to war, he does so with this spirit. He fights to win, to survive, to aid his buddy to his left, right, front, back, to win, to survive. Why? Because his survival and victory is America's. His self-interest IS the best interest of the country. Should he fall so his brother-in-arms live and achieve victory, it was for that brother. It was for that other "self". It was for country.
Non Sibi Sed Patriae becomes Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
The two are inseparable.
If something is so great it is worth keeping, it is worth fighting for. Our kids are worth fighting for. Our spouses are worth fighting for. Our land is worth fighting for. It's ours. We were blessed with it. We earned it. Nothing worth having is easy. That's the way the world works. It makes us appreciate what we earned.
If you want to keep it, you have to be prepared to defend it. To defend it, you have to be ready to fight. If others notice you are ready to fight, you become a hard target. They are less likely to try to take it from you, by force. They have to ask how hard they are willing to fight in order to steal it from you.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum
If you want peace, prepare for war.
Obamacare is an effort to take your inalienable, universal, individual rights away. It is an effort to place all of them under the whims of a government bureaucracy.
They will have permission to run your life for you. They will make the decisions on what healthcare you receive, form whom, and to what extent. No longer will you have the choice, the vote. You will not have the option to pay for better care or to forgo it. You will have to pay for services that you may not be allowed to use. This is your very life the bill seeks to control. You want to smoke? No... that's a fine. You want a beer? No, that is bad for you. You want to eat fried potatoes? No, too greasy. If you do, you won't be allowed an angioplasty, even if you could have afforded it on your own before Obamacare. The new taxes will make it no longer affordable. The IRS will choose what you are allowed to pay for.
They steal your liberty. You no longer have your choice of coverage. Many healthcare providers are leaving the industry, further reducing options. You are no longer free to choose what healthcare you want to afford.
It steals your pursuit of happiness. If you know where that phrase originates, you know that it refers to the right to work and create. It refers to the right to the fruits of your efforts and the consequences, be they gain or loss. It refers to, as John Locke phrased it, property. That property is your time. That property is your sweat. It is your intellectual effort. It is your physical effort. It is your intellectual creations. It is the physical products of your efforts or service. It is the fruits of commerce from trading or investing these properties. It is your right to earn, on your own merits, at fair market value.
Obamacare steals that by forcing you to buy a product. It does so by telling you what product/brand you have to buy. It does so by punishing you if you do not do what you are told. Next, the government will be telling kindergarteners "you must be a cariologist, and you a pediatrician, and you a nurse, and you a librarian, and you a urologist because Obamacare needs new doctors and specialists. No, you cannot be a fireman, a cowboy, a Solider, or an engineer."
Wake up. Obama and his cronies, like Harry Reid, have declared war on America. No, it isn't a war of bullets and bombs. It is a war of policy and economics. It is a war of ideology and power. If you love having power and control over your own decisions, your own life, your own choice, your own thoughts, and your own possessions (and your kids' future rights to theirs), then Obama has declared war on you.
If you want to keep them, you must defend them. You must defend them with your vote. You must defend them with your wallets (by keeping what is in there, in there). You must defend them by firing emails and phone calls to your Representatives and Senators telling them to end Obamacare. You must shoot your voice and make DC listen. That is their job. Your taxes pay them. You are their boss, not the other way around.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum. It's time to fight the war of information and wills. Fight.
Do so.
Non Sibi Sed Patriae
Not just for yourself, but for your kids, for your country, for our nation's future.
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