Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
It’s nice when pain goes away on its own after a few days or weeks, but often it sticks around longer.
We’ve had clients who started working with us shortly after their pain began. The longer they wait, the likelier it is that the pain will start taking control over their their lives. They don’t want their body to become a prison of sorts, where they can’t sleep well or have to hold back on the things they want or need to do.
And we’ve also met people who have been pushing through pain for years, even decades. It’s taken such a toll on their health and body, that it would take much longer to fully rehab and reverse the damage. In extreme cases, they’ve actually needed surgery.
Maintaining freedom from pain and injuries requires vigilance, dedication, and action. The longer we wait-and-see or accept its oppression as the new normal, the more harmful to our health and body, and the costlier to come back from it.
Maintaining freedom from tyranny is similar. The founders declared independence and fought for it. Since then, countless people have worked, served, and sacrificed to shape and maintain the vision of a “more perfect Union,” imperfect as it may be.
The founders were very aware of how susceptible to tyranny every form of government is. That’s why they distributed power between the Constitution, president, two chambers of congress, supreme court, and the states.
And they knew that when all else fails, it would be up to We the People of the United States, not the whims of one man, to uphold the integrity of the Constitution and republic. It’s up to each and every one of us, and the longer that despotic behavior is tolerated, even accepted, the more harm done to the republic, liberties, and society. The longer it goes on, the costlier to come back from it.
Eternal vigilance, dedication, and action are the price of liberty from pain and tyranny.
May we all know liberty: from within and without.
Quotes for Thought
A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
But, if I may even flatter myself that they [his counsels] may be productive of some partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
The people — the people — are the rightful masters of both Congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.
