Michael Connelly
The English
version of the Russian newspaper Pravda, that once was the voice of the Soviet
Communist Party, has run an editorial saying essentially that the in reelecting
Obama, America has put someone back in office who is pushing the Communist Manifesto
on us without calling it what it is.
I offer an alternative. Thirty seven
years ago I was a young attorney and National Secretary of a Conservative
organization called Young Americans for Freedom. In 1975 I was asked to write something
relating to the upcoming Bicentennial to present to the YAF convention in
Chicago. When I read what I wrote to the convention it was greeted with a
prolonged standing ovation and adopted by YAF as the official Bicentennial
statement of the organization.
I present it
here exactly as I wrote it and as it was printed by YAF in pamphlet form. I
still believe everything in it and I believe there are many Americans who will
agree with it. I offer it as an American
Manifesto:
“On this, the eve of the 200th
anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of
the United States of America, we, the members of the Young Americans for
Freedom, as citizens of this great nation, do hereby reaffirm and pledge
ourselves to the following:
We reaffirm our belief in the
inalienable and divine rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We reaffirm our belief in the free
enterprise system of economics as the only system compatible with human
freedom.
We reaffirm our belief in the right
of all men to own individual property and use it as they see fit.
We reaffirm our belief that a
government is only legitimate as long as it serves its citizens and becomes
illegitimate when it compels its citizens to serve the government.
We reaffirm our belief that the
Constitution of the United States and its original Bill of Rights establish the
best form of government for the preservation of freedom.
We reaffirm our belief in the rights
of men to control their own individual destinies without interference by other
men or by government.
We reaffirm our own moral obligation
to fulfill those responsibilities incumbent upon the exercise of our rights by
never intentionally violating the sacred rights of others.
We reaffirm our belief that the
power to tax is the power to control and that such power should be restricted
to the one purpose of national security.
We reaffirm our belief that the
United States of America is not just territory, that it is a way of life and a
state of mind. It will live as long as there is one man who still believes in
human freedom, and as long as that one man lives, the spirit of the United
States will never be conquered.
Along with our reaffirmation of
these basic beliefs of free Americans, we pledge the following:
We pledge that we will never submit
to tyranny in any form and we issue the following warnings:
To those in other lands who would
destroy our freedom, be forewarned that there are still millions of us who
believe that liberty is worth fighting and dying for. Do not naively believe
that you can win just by forcing our government to surrender. If you plan to
occupy this nation come prepared to fight for every acre of ground, for every
building and for every hill and valley.
To our own government we say this:
Do not forget that you are only a government which exists at the pleasure of
the American people. We will not allow tyranny to be established from within
any more than we will allow it to invade from without. Only the republican
institutions created by our Constitution are sacred to us; the people who
occupy them are not.
We pledge never to surrender the
sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
We pledge, on behalf of generations
yet, unborn, to continue the struggle begun by our forefathers over two hundred
years ago to secure and maintain liberty and to defend that liberty against all
enemies domestic and foreign.
And, following their example, to
that end, the preservation of liberty, we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and
our sacred honor.”
Michael Connelly
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