To the Last Shot

This past summer while visiting Washington DC I toured the World War II Memorial.

As I was standing there looking at the Announcement Stone,

HERE IN THE PRESENCE OF WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN,
ONE THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FATHER AND THE OTHER THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY PRESERVER OF OUR NATION, WE HONOR
THOSE TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICANS WHO TOOK UP THE STRUGGLE
DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND MADE THE SACRIFICES TO
PERPETUATE THE GIFT OUR FOREFATHERS ENTRUSTED TO US:

I was moved as I considered  the immense sacrifice made by those men and all those gone before them to preserve our form of government and I could not help but feel my responsibility to maintain it.

I am also a student of history and judicial philosophy so I knew what once had been no longer is. As I heavily sat down thinking, the words of that wise writer long ago echoed in my mind, "he that increases knowledge increases sorrow" (Ecclesiastes 1:18).

The Madisonian system of government that so brilliantly had dispersed the power of government in order to prevent tyranny had been slowly eroding. Though decades in the making our current state of affairs unfortunately came as no surprise.  The list of current abuses of the Constitution filled me:

• The government has a massive surveillance program in which every citizen has had telephonic and email data captured by the government.
• Every citizen has been warned that the president may kill them on his own authority without a charge, let alone a conviction. 
• We have a secret court that approves thousands of secret searches every year
• We have a new Obama-era law, the National Defense Authorization Act, that allows for the indefinite detention of people by the government and, while exempted from mandatory detention, allows for such detention of citizens.
• The government has attempted to influence the freedom of the press
• The executive has obstructed Congress

The list unfortunately goes on. The government would later even barricade the very same World War II Memorial I was sitting in.

As I considered the sad state of modern America I wondered: What can a single American do in the face of the enormous power that is the United States government? How can I make a difference? I knew the sad truth was probably nothing. I am just too small.

I rose again and walked around reading the inscriptions,

OUR DEBT TO THE HEROIC MEN AND VALIANT WOMEN IN THE SERVICE
OF OUR COUNTRY CAN NEVER BE REPAID. THEY HAVE EARNED OUR
UNDYING GRATITUDE. AMERICA WILL NEVER FORGET THEIR SACRIFICES.

HERE WE MARK THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

THEY FOUGHT TOGETHER AS BROTHERS-IN-ARMS.
THEY DIED TOGETHER AND NOW THEY SLEEP SIDE BY SIDE.
TO THEM WE HAVE A SOLEMN OBLIGATION. 

As I once again sat down with head in hands, I decided that even if my efforts were puny, even if all I had to offer were small words in a dark corner, even if my efforts were to be in vain as I was swallowed up by the immensity of the forces slowly pushing America away from its founding, I didn't care. Sometimes you fight, well, because it's just the right thing to do.