I’m sorry, mom, but there is no better way to say it.

The jackboots outlawed books, “for the children.”
They outlawed handcrafted toys and clothing, “for the children.”
They’re trying to shut down small farmers and farmer’s markets, “for the children.”

I would like to whack them upside the head with a two-by-four, “for the children.”

(What? That’s a presidential response. Andrew Jackson did it to someone who stepped on his toe and this is much worse than that!)

In his TED talk, Mike Rowe makes the provocative suggestion that “Safety First” is wrong.

This is heresy what I’m about to say, but what if it’s really safety third? I mean, really. What I mean to say is I value my safety on these crazy jobs as much as the people that I’m working with. But the ones who really get it done, they’re not out there talking safety first. They know that other things come first, the business of doing the work comes first, the business of getting it done.

. . .

The idea that we create this . . . sense of complacency when all we do is talk about someone else’s responsibility as though it’s our own and vice-versa.

Think about it: Would this nation, would any people anywhere survive if we were wimpy little “Safety First” weasels? Would they have boarded leaky ships? Journeyed west into a land where all that was certain was hardship? Would they have gone out into a dangerous environment to hunt food for their family? “Ah, but they had no choice. It was risk or die.”

The process starts by placing the pillow under the receiver’s hips to make them rise, free viagra prescription and the knees are placed in stirrups. Why supplement with a probiotic if there are already thousands of species of microorganisms in the gut? Many of viagra sans prescription these microorganisms are transient, and must be replaced on a regular basis. It may be tempting viagra 100 mg to try higher dosage when small dosage fails, but it can turn fatal. That’s why activity is so order cialis important for joint health and preventing osteoarthritis. Do you think that we can survive forever in this cocoon if we don’t risk? The economy is tanking, we’ve got to risk. The globe is convulsing, we’ve got to risk. And I don’t mean the government and its multi-trillion dollars “risks” it’s taking with our children’s future. That’s blowing a wad over a lost weekend in Vegas. I’m talking about you and I taking risks, telling the government nannies, “Thanks for your help the last 50 years, but we’re grown up now and we’ll wipe our own butts.” For starters, I’m talking about the risk of *gasp* buying bread from the local farmer’s market that doesn’t have FDA certified on it. Then go to the library and steal all the books they’ve dumped in the trash because the government said so. Exercise that decision muscle, and you’ll find more and more use for it.

Like making the decision of how to best protect your family. Because it is your responsibility, not the governments. Making the decision on how much to save, how much to give, and what to buy. And then accepting the consequences if those decisions prove to be poor ones. The decision of when and how to speak out against injustice and the willingness to take the consequences, because it is government of the people, by the people and for the people. And you, my friend, are the people.

We play it safe. We trust the “experts” and the “leaders” to make our decisions for us. We’re no longer adults, we’re no longer free men and women. We’re children.

This is true: in everything the government provides for you, it controls you.

“[T]he heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.” Galatians 4:1

I don’t like being under the thumb of “managers” who think I need to be protected from myself. I do not need a guardian. Our forefathers started out as free risk-takers. Why would we surrender that? And now that we have, those muscles have long since atrophied and we believe the stupidity of the statement, “If it saves one child, it’s worth it.”

No. A thousand times no. My liberty, my children’s liberty, is not worth this gilded cage. And it’s pointless, you can’t legislate away every threat. Death comes to us all, some sooner than later. But the nannies would have us live as fat, placid children sucking on the government teat instead of strong, bold men and women actually living the lives we’ve been given by God.

It takes a little bit of crazy to risk, especially in a culture that doesn’t value it, that legislates against it, that doesn’t see the necessity of it. Because critical to risk is failure. That’s why it’s risk, because if you don’t win, it hurts. Even if you do win, it can hurts. You can get scars that will stay with you forever.

But I’d rather be free and scarred than remain under the thumbs of the guardians.