[520 words]

What is government but a collection of individuals working together to manage the affairs of a larger population? As individuals, each government worker has a choice. Will they recognize their equal status with every citizen of their country and work as servants to protect the sacred rights of all, or will they be corrupted by their power, as Lord Acton warned, and steer their government toward tyranny?

The American Founding Fathers knew well that every person must strive to be of good character and avoid the corruption of power. They also knew that ultimately no one can be trusted, since absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thus, they created a brilliant and unprecedented system of checks and balances to protect individual citizens from the ever-present danger of totalitarianism.

Their efforts were based on the self-evident truths that all humans were created equal with unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that were given to them by an Intelligent Creator, not by a government. To protect citizens against the tyranny of government, the Founders articulated and codified our unalienable rights in the US Constitution, most especially in the Bill of Rights.

The First Amendment’s protection of freedom of religion and freedom of speech must be guarded at all costs from both political and cultural totalitarianism. If we cannot talk about everything, no matter how much certain topics might offend others, we will inevitably slide into tyranny. How can a people be free with tape over their mouths?

It is only in free and open discussion that we will be able to resolve tremendously complex issues, such as the impact of individual freedom on the well-being of others. A person’s sacred freedom doesn’t give them a license to harm other adults or children in the pursuit of their happiness. Yet, what constitutes harm? The definition of harm can change based on a person’s religion or ideology. Thus, reaching solutions requires complete and absolute freedom of speech for all individuals.

The self-evident truth that human freedom is a sacred gift of the Creator of the universe is the ultimate borderline between free civilizations and empires of tyranny. Is a human being a Darwinian animal fighting for the survival of the fittest, or is a human a sacred, spiritual being who is quantumly connected to everything in the universe?

If governments are run by those who believe that humans are animals or slaves to be herded by overseers who “know what’s best for everyone,” then the world will have a bleak and tragic future. Individual rights of freedom will no longer exist. Even the overseers will be vulnerable to the merciless bureaucracy of tyranny.

Every human owes it to themselves, their families, and to the world to recognize that the primary role of government is to preserve and defend the sacred freedoms of all individuals.

With our recognition of these sacred freedoms, we will have a chance to fulfill Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg commitment “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”