Independence

It’s Independence Day evening, and I’m sitting here drinking a Yeungling and watching the dazzling lights of the fire truck on the next block over (is it really a fireworks show if the FD doesn’t show up) while reflecting on independence. It’s a really a big idea that goes nicely with preparedness. It’s even in the Ultimate Tactical Handbook:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

When those men affixed their signature to the Declaration, they were leaving behind a government that had promised them safety, security, and a stable system in exchange for limits on their freedom. They did so because these men believed it was their own responsibility to protect and provide for their people and not some distant, nameless body’s. Independence begins with the individual.

Being independent means not depending on anyone else. It doesn’t mean shunning all contact, it means taking responsibility for yourself, your family, and your people or tribe. It means not expecting a government to feed you at community expense. It means being responsible for your own safety and security. Aren’t these the same ideals we espouse in preparedness? No one is coming to save you.

Independence begins with the ability to obtain food and water without relying on any other entity. If you live in a city, they require you to get if from them, but are you able to source it without them? That’s independence. Having knowledge of where fresh water can be found is a good start. So is growing your own food. They regulate it, and try to limit it (try raising chickens where zoning laws exist).

I have a friend who runs a homestead. In fact, we’re going there for one of our regular dinners this weekend. When he moved there, it was rural and folks didn’t try to limit each other’s lifestyles. Over the years, more and more suburbanites have moved out there and are driving around, filing complaints with the township because one place has too many cows, another too many chickens, another a building between the house and the road. Now, democracy is these people being able to force their will on the original residents because so many have moved out there, but INDEPENDENCE is fighting back, and saying that our Founding Fathers would be against zoning laws and demanding that folks not be allowed to limit what one man may do with his own property. Mind your own business, so to speak.

Mike moved out there to enable him to provide for his family. He raises chickens for eggs and meat, goats and pigs. He grows vegetables. What is he doing as suburbanites are standing up zoning laws and boards trying to impose their will on him and his neighbors? He’s running for the township board on a Constitutional platform, with several others. Their intent: If it’s not in the Constitution, it’s not law or ordinance in our township. In other words, he’s protecting his rights and the rights of everyone in the township. They’re not ABOLISHING government, they are returning it to the limited influence that our Founding Fathers envisioned.

What does this have to do with preparedness? EVERYTHING.

All across America, townships and municipalities have enacted laws that go directly against independence and preparedness. Laws limiting the raising of livestock or the numbers thereof, banning or limiting the collection of rainwater, regulations restricting aquifer access or demanding curtailment of use of water on your own property (we’re looking at you Idaho), and on the ability to plant and store food. As people into preparedness, we need to get involved. Go to board meetings. Be vocal.

To be truly independent, we need to remember our heritage as the militant farmer. Men and women able to protect, secure, and feed our own families, without relying on handouts or (more importantly) allowing others to dictate what we are allowed to do with our own property. On the frontier, families helped and defended each other, knowing that the government wouldn’t be able to do it as well; they’re not as invested in the outcome as the local families were.

Friends, we need to return a simpler time. That return may be forced on us by our own over-reliance on electricity and a failing electrical grid (helped by Chinese Cyber attacks). Rather than demanding more laws, we need less laws restricting our everyday activity. The overturn of Chevron was a start, but just today I saw a video of Michigan Agriculture officials ordering raw milk products destroyed “for your protection”, because modified and adulterated substances are “better for you”.

I’m not advocating for anything here, just thinking out loud. We’ve allowed too much of our independence to be stolen, and we need to claw it back wherever we can. My friend Mike, running for his township board, has the right idea. We can’t wait for someone else to fix it, we have to do it ourselves and that starts with local offices.

My thoughts are summed up in the closing statement of the Declaration:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Declaration of Independence

Anyway, start building independence in your life again. Put the phone down more. Get out and meet face to face instead of in the group chat. Find local farmers to buy direct from. Get involved locally. Develop the ability to live independently. Be free.

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Be free, friends.

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