“Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.”

Gret but conider this. also by Cicero A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague. Think about it - Major Hasan springs to mind but there are many others...their name is Legion, for they are many

Great but conider this: also by Cicero "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague. Think about it - Major Hasan springs to mind but there are many others...their name is Legion, for they are many -- Christopher J Ward, Hobart. Tasmania AU

I bet that when one is released from one of Fidel's prisons or is lucky enough to get out of North Korea, they really appreciate freedom. We were headed down the Socialist road but made a detour on Tuesday but the fight is not over.

Look to the former USSR, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Pol Pot,s Cambodia, The Holocaust, The Polgrom. Now look to Washington DC....and ask, What are all those FEMA Detainment camps for and why are they trying so hard to disarm us? Kids aren't being taught about any of this anymore either...wonder why.

We the People have grown complacent of liberty, having never been without it.

J Carlton, you often speak of what kids are being taught. Our public schools should put more focus on teaching children the text and meaning of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The first step in preserving rights, is to know what they are. Our children are taught the history and culture of peoples all over the world, in places that most of them will never go. But rarely any can recite the Preamble of the Constitution, the most famous section of the Declaration, or know any of the Bill of Rights. It puzzles me how we, as a society, are more interested in the history and cultures that our forefathers fled from, than the history they lived and the culture they created.

Publius - Couldn't agree more. Not just the principles as written word..but as concepts and values to be cherished and defended.

The sacred knowledge of liberty and freedom and the core fundimentals upon which we stand are oppressed because they are not conducive to a new world order led of the old world order. In the rock upon which our republic rest the first use of the word liberty has to do with the fifty year release granted to its children and citizens. this is to assure heritage. This line of knowledge and guiding thirteen points of lending practice between the lender and barrower of said people and nation oppress the greed that so rampantly rule the nation and world. that is why they oppress the knowledge ( the whole truth ) of our doctrines of liberty and freedom for our children !

This quote is so rich in meaning! All the comments are excellent this morning. The one thing I might add is that We the People, having never been in servitude, cannot appreciate the full import of this pearl of wisdom contained in just eleven short words. It brings home ever more strongly how we must protect what freedoms we have and diligently work to regain those already lost. Our Constitution should be a part of the curriculum in our schools all through the primary and secondary levels. I agree with Carlton that the emphasis should be on our own history and culture. Progressive and communist teachers must also be purged to insure our children are not being influenced by their personal ideology. This will be an ongoing effort for the foreseeable future. This insidious erosion in our education system has taken place over many generations and has been so subtle and incremental as to be almost undetectable. We have narrowly missed the "Road to Serfdom." The author of the book just mentioned: F. A. Hayek.

Like cold freedom is not definable other than by comparison to slavery. Freedom then is the absence of something just as cold is the absence of heat. Education as we have known it is the Prussian Model, (c.1880) which teaches to score in multiple choice questions but never is the student expected to express oneself. Education is bereft of economic content so that none realize the underlying fraud of Fractional Reserve Banking, first installed by the Bank of England in 1692 and cloned by the same families in the FED 1913. There will never be an acceptable society until we redesign the world wide economic architecture on the basis of HONEST MONEY. Regards, Peter.

A brilliant man, it's a great pity we don;t have his kind anymore.

We The current People have never been without slavering in Amerika. Can anyone remember a time when you were able; to own property (allodium, not just hold a mere title), marry with out State privilege (title of nobility) bing required, live as an individual sovereign, enjoy individual inalienable rights that are recognized by any branch of government, to live with out the fruits of your labor being stolen by the state, etc., etc.,, etc. Amerika is not the most oppressed nation on the planet but, how many have been liberated sufficiently that they recognize the slavery.

I myself have not had to go through those kind of hardships and I hope I never will. But I am afraid of that kind of hardship has started to become us loosing our freedoms, our Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, our History is no longer being taught to our children to learn from so the same mistakes are not made. All this coming from our Representatives who want to lead us into a Global One World Order under the United Nations with one Nationalized Bank. Check out bilderberg!