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Brian Hobbs, mayor of Newkirk, Ok; just wrote this letter to his town, fellow mayors, state leaders, & all Oklahomans.
Hobbs is deeply concerned that fundamental human rights are being taken by governments under the guise of saving us from ourselves. I will preface this statement with the fact that as an elected officer, I have encouraged everyone I know to stay home including my direct family my parents my wife’s parents as much as possible. I don’t want anyone to take this as encouragement to be irresponsible. I have asked everyone to practice good hygiene and social distancing. I have asked that people treat this corona virus as a real threat. I have prayed for people to be safe and that God’s will be done. I am not trying to convince anyone that the government is going to line people up in the street tomorrow and execute them. I am only pointing out that freedom has eroded gradually over time. There is a difference between suggesting something and ordering it, backed by the threat of violence. However, I ask myself with all of my countrymen begging for the government to institute a Nazi Germany, East Berlin type lockdown on its citizens. Why?? |
Mayor Brian Hobbs, Newkirk, OK
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Why would our people beg for the government to become exactly what so many have given their lives fighting to resist in many wars throughout our history? The only conclusion I can come to is fear.
I understand people are scared, I understand that fear is warranted to a degree. The men who charged the beaches of Normandy into almost certain death were scared. Every paratrooper who jumped out of a plane. Every pilot that died a fiery death, each sailor who died in a watery grave. Every man who boarded a plane headed for Vietnam. The millions of men who boarded ships to join the fight in WW1. The men who fought in Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as numerous other theaters across the world having raised their right hand and taken a sacred oath to defend the constitution of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic. I know this opinion is going to be unpopular in today’s age but it needs to be said. My life nor any of yours individually is more valuable than the millions who paid the price to keep our constitution in tact. As veterans we believe deeply in our sacred oaths to the constitution, as we knew one day it may lead to our deaths. Ronald Reagan once said in one of my favorite speeches, “You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin–just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn’t die in vain.” and “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.” We have an opportunity to remind the world why we will never be conquered, why we for hundreds of years have been seen as a light on a hill. We can still unite and say we will not answer to “papers please”, we will not fall off into the abyss sacrificing all that was bequeathed to us in a moment of fear. |
This is not who we are. Let us earn the privilege of the gift so many have fallen to give us.
Stand beside your neighbor. The government has no place shutting down private businesses or locking down cities. This truth is evident in the first amendment (the right to peaceably assemble)These rights were not penned for good times, they were penned for all times especially times of trial. These rights were not meant to be suspended at whatever point people become frightened. If these rights can be suspended, then they are not RIGHTS, but merely allowances from dictatorial powers. So I ask you to look into your soul, ask yourself what does America look like when this event is over? Are you ok with your government seizing this power? I need not remind you that the government isn’t known for giving power back after it’s seized. Next it maybe a particular group deemed a threat. Before you say it’ll never happen; remember the”burning of the Reichstag” and “night of the long knives” the Germans never thought it was possible under Hitler either. The same can be said for the Russian people under Lenin and Stalin, others under Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Mussolini, and the list goes on. It can happen and those who wrote our constitution knew these dangers all too well and risked life and treasure to ensure their posterity would not have to know these woes. I was told recently that no one cares about a piece of paper whether the Constitution or the Bible. I’m thankful no one told the men who gave their lives this idea before they went into battle. Why do we feel our generation has to sacrifice nothing, when so many have paid such a heavy price? Are we so entitled now we have forgotten why we have these freedoms? If we are not willing to stand together in this time of trial and still stand for the constitution, we have to ask ourselves whether we deserve it at all. Are we worthy of their sacrifices? What will we leave for our children? Just food for thought. -Godspeed, and God bless us all. Mayor Brian Hobbs |
