Are you ready to celebrate the Fourth of July?

Are you really?

Do you know what Independence Day is all about?

Yes, you say. It’s about America winning independence from Great Britain. Do you know what that means? We gained our freedom from British tyranny.

But what is tyranny?

Tyranny is government oppression. Tyranny is a government only interested in promoting and strengthening itself, and its citizens are tools it uses to do just that.

So if you are free, what does that mean?

Can you commit murder, rape, theft, fraud and a million others things? No, that is not freedom. Freedom is a government that has little or no influence in your pursuit of happiness, and is a servant of the people of Main Street and not Wall Street.

Tyranny is constantly fighting for itself, and many times takes complete control like in Russia, China, Cuba, etc.

So how does a country go from a free society to tyranny? It’s done a little at a time. The citizens are lulled into thinking that what the government is doing is the right thing to do.

Let’s say a neighbor’s house burns down. They need help. They need clothes, food and a place to stay. Let’s get the government to help them out. Sounds like the right thing to do doesn’t it, but we have gone from that scenario, a little bit at a time, to giving our hard-earned money to big corporations and foreign banks.

But tyranny does not stop fighting to grow, so even this is not enough for the Wall Street bankers. No matter how much Main Street gives and sacrifices, they want more. They don’t want us to be just economic slaves, they want the real thing.

Tyranny always fights for itself, but freedom-loving people have a tendency to sit back and let someone else do the fighting. They say things like “I’m too old to go off to war.” Or “I have a family to take care of.”

When someone says that we have to fight to keep our freedom, don’t let them make you think that it’s about a war overseas. Main Street does not keep its freedom by fighting in Iraq, Kosovo, Vietnam or Korea. Main Street only suffers from these wars while Wall Street makes huge profits from these wars.

Freedom is about fighting our own government and its eternal efforts to gain more power. We will continue to have freedom, if we fight for it first in the city council meetings, and school board meetings and county commission meetings, and then move on to the state level, and only after that can we affect what goes on in Washington. We have to elect officials who are servants of the people and not those who think that the people are the servants, and we must go to these meetings to ensure that they continue to serve the people.

On the third of July at Seminole State Park, Seminole County will have its second Tea Party to protest how Washington is giving away our hard-earned money.

Decatur County will have one on the fourth at the Cheney Griffin Park.

If you believe that the government should take care of you from the cradle to the grave, don’t go to these Tea Parties.

If you want to live in a country like Russia, China or Cuba, don’t go to these Tea Parties.

If you think that we are not giving enough money to our government, don’t go to these Tea Parties.

If you want taxpayers to bailout Wall Street and give money to foreign banks, don’t go to these Tea Parties.

Freedom is not automatic. Just as tyranny is constantly fighting for itself, so must we continuously fight for our freedom. Politicians long before Obama promised change if they were elected. You know it ain’t gonna happen. Change has to come from Main Street.

So go to a Tea Party, and make a commitment to change the way Wall Street runs our government.

Respectfully,David BrookinsSeminole County