Allison Bricker

As our Republic continues to swerve recklessly away from its Constitutional founding, the opportunity for us to salvage what so many have died for, slides further away from our grasp. Just as Winter has begun to set in across the nation, our Liberties seem to have fallen away like leaves lost into the breeze. Whether it be legalized torture or the Department of Homeland Security suspending the Constitution along the border, the country I fell in love with as a child, looks less and less like the land of the free.

Many amongst us are pinning their hopes of a better tomorrow on yet another politician who promises “change” from the status-quo and business as usual in Washington. However, within hours of the election, his “transition” website, laid out his and his enforcer’s vision of mandatory unpaid servitude for the youth of our nation. Shortly thereafter upon echoing criticism ringing across the blogosphere, they whitewashed the website and scurried their indentured labor force back under the rug. The Obama transition team decided to replace the compulsory service text with toned down verbiage so as not to cause a scandal prior to his formal coronation.

In this Winter of our discontent, there are a few sparks which seek to reignite our lost sense of self. It has for a long time now been my opinion that the planets must have aligned to have allowed such an assembly of thinkers such a Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and the rest of the founding generation to have known to each other in order to be able to hammer out Independence and beat back tyranny. Perhaps, we may be so fortunate yet again, to recapture that spirit of ‘76 with a new gathering of minds dedicated to reason and human liberty. One such intellect where parallels can be drawn is Naomi Wolf. Her latest works, “The End of America” and “Give Me Liberty” are written with such a dedication and sound resolve towards the virtues of freedom that the pages in her books seem to echo the spirit and tenacity of Thomas Paine.

In support of the ideas presented in, “The End of America”, and to help spread the word virally in the internet age, Ms. Wolf has released an online video where she covers the ten steps taken time and again, by all would-be tyrants in a closing society. The movie is available free for online viewing and is a must see for those in tune with our current state of affairs. Her content and tone is so well reasoned and articulated, even those who refuse to acknowledge the danger, must at least pause to question, what our Republic will resemble in two, five, or ten years from now.

The video can be viewed here, and please if you find her presentation to be a powerful arguement as to why we need to restore, preserve and defend our American Republic, please consider passing it along via DiGG, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, etcetrera.

Mandy Hyndman

I was overjoyed the day my loquacious and homophobic Sophomore English teacher announced that he would be stepping down for the semester to make room for Ms. Harrison, our new student teacher. Until that point I had never experienced an English instructor who had not become long-winded and jaded by his or her many years in the public system. Ms. Harrison, on the other hand, from the first clearly held a passion for the world of literature that would benefit me throughout my life.

It was custom sophomore year for the class to read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (the story of a family living during the time of the Great Depression), and Ms. Harrison wasted no time handing copies out to the groaning, whining class. I, of course, was the nerd who loved the opportunity to read something with substance. Apparently Ms. Harrison was too, because she hushed the class immediately and began the first of what was to become a series of lectures that would be the only valuable literature discussion I would have in my early high school career with the words: “Remember, this book is truth. This book is telling a story about something that could easily happen again. Pay attention.” I did.

Through the ravages of dust from a thirsty and dead ground, and the danger of society made feral by desperation, the story of the Joad family serves ONE purpose: To remind us what could easily become of our world again if we aren’t careful.

I remember the way the other sixteen year-olds around me reacted when the character ‘Rosasharn’, a pregnant teenager, offers a starving stranger her breast milk for nourishment. They were disgusted, amused, appalled, stricken horrified by what seemed a taboo to them.

I had tears in my eyes. The beauty of such an unselfish act floored me and filled me with a sense of good beyond any I’d felt before. The people around me did not see it because they were caught in the idea that such a scenario could never play out in their lives. The battering poverty of the people in The Grapes of Wrath would never be a part of who these teenagers were. I saw the truth though. I saw that the book wasn’t just a story, but a warning–a parable.

Now, during a critical time in the history of our nation, before we take that final step into desperation I hope those same kids who laughed and groaned at how uncomfortable the idea of a pregnant teenager breast-feeding an old man made them, now remember the message that the story meant to send. We are not immune from misery. We have no shield against devastation. We only have each other when it comes. John Steinbeck knew this, Ms. Harrison knew this, and because of them I know it and hope to pass it along, because when the flood comes I plan to have my arms strongly linked with strong people.