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Some people will watch Monopoly, and ask themselves... what can I do about it?

Here is my answer.

For the Fire of Freedom

To all the citizens of my beloved country, let peace reign in your heart tonight.

I know that many of you are suffering tonight. Some are doing it the worse, and some are only just now falling under the shadow of darkness that is laying waste to our societies, our livelihoods, our health, our freedoms, and our aspirations.

What we are currently experiencing is nothing less than a full-out attack on the future of our country. If you think that it will stop with in other places, then I say to you, friends: “three weeks to flatten the curve”. Because that’s the lie.

If they had told us 18 months ago “we are going to put you in lockdown, again and again, and again, even when less than 0.1% of the population catches this disease, and even when less than 2% of those will die from it unless they are already close to death anyway, either severely ill or of an advanced age”, would we have agreed to follow their edicts and mandates? No. Never.

So if you haven’t understood this yet, understand this now. They are lying to us. They are only telling us what they think most of us will accept, and they are not, by any means, telling us of their true intentions. If you think that this is not the case, and that if you simply comply and ‘do the right thing’, then they will keep their promises and hand back to you your freedoms and your futures, you’re living in a pipe dream. You’re in denial. You’re hoping that its true because you haven’t found the courage or internal fortitude to face the reality, or even the prospect that, in fact, they may be lying to you.

Therefore, now is the time to look inside, and reflect, to see whether or not you’re telling yourself this, because there is no other realistic, reasonable or plausible explanation for why “three weeks to flatten the curve” became “endless lockdown unless you comply and sign up for a program of injections that you’ll need for the rest of your life”. Face it. Confront it. This is where we are now.

Likewise, any reasonable person observing the almost surreal nature of the tyrannical deprivations being imposed by ALL our governments right now, on supposedly ‘free’ citizens, for their own benefit, must consider that, in fact, just as (My State) was the original testing ground, likewise, ultimately, the same approach and the same objectives will be rolled out across the entire country.

“Do only enough that you can get away with, until the people are weakened, and then do a little more, and more, and more.” That’s the principle at play here.

It’s not nice, and it’s not pretty, but you have to realize this. Otherwise, you’re simply wishing it was different, and therefore are willing to believe that it is. But that does not help. In less serious circumstances, we would call this “wishful thinking”, but in the circumstances we face today, we all have to realize, this is denial, plain and simple.

So what to do?

First, take stock of yourself. You know the now common saying from air travel, in the case of a cabin pressure drop? “Put your own mask on first, then attend to the child or person next to you”. Likewise, you cannot turn your community around, your society around or your country around, until you’ve secured your own internal balance and your own internal direction.

Although it is something we should always do in our lives, it is particularly in the moments of crisis we need to reflect, humble ourselves, and seek out where we have been wrong in our hearts, what we have been denying, and what we have been making a priority in our lives, and if there are other things that should have been given greater priority. Get right with your maker, because all strength of character and capacity to persevere, and all wisdom needed for clear judgment, comes from that place deep inside every human heart where we look at ourselves and recognize our faults, our mistakes, our weaknesses, and then confront them.

For a Christian, we would call this the path of repentance, but the principle is the same, regardless of religion, faith, belief or disbelief: become humble, and in humility, find the courage to set yourself right.

Never forget this point, because all true and purposeful developments of human life and human society come on the basis of this. Without it, we are at risk of abusing those abilities, those resources, and those opportunities that come our way. Humble reflection and self-deprecation. That’s where true greatness starts.

Second, determine. Once you’ve begun the process of self-reflection and self-re-orientation to the things that really matter, search in yourself for that place of determination by reflecting on all the things you are fighting for. What really counts? Is it the comforts you’ve lost, or is the capacity to act freely? Is it the inconveniences of not having an easier life, or is it your future, and your children’s future? What really matters?

This is important, because the strength and determination to fight onward and overcome setbacks will stem only from a clear realization of the value of what you are fighting for. True love becomes true determination, and the capacity to suffer, endure, and sacrifice stems from that. And we will need endurance. We will need the capacity to continue to fight and to sacrifice if and when necessary, to secure our freedoms and our futures. Nothing worth fighting for comes easy. If it did, for you, then that’s only because those who came before you already did the hard work, poured out their sweat, and made the sacrifices, and passed on to you the benefits.

Third, be grateful. Despite the terrible and daunting circumstances that we are now being confronted with, know that we have inherited so much from our forebears, whose collective effort over centuries have given us the freedoms we have so short-sightedly taken for granted. Know this, and feel a gratitude deep in your soul. To do otherwise is to be unworthy of their sacrifices, their pains, their endurance and their sufferings. And to do them honour, we must make ourselves worthy of the inheritance we have, and the inheritance that is worth fighting for.

Fourth, take responsibility. As someone once said “It’s not my fault, but it is my responsibility”. That is the heart of a true owner. That is the spirit of one who is worthy to inherit the foundation of love and freedom that we have all enjoyed, either individually, or as part of our society, one way or another. A true owner, a true patriot, and a true individual says: “I will be responsible, not because I am at fault, but because someone must.” To live is to engage, but what point living if our engagement is small-minded, selfish or shallow? Ultimately, regardless of how we got here, is it we, the People of (My Nation), who must now stand up and say “we will be responsible for this land, and for this nation, and for this part of the world.”

Not the politicians; they are truly servants, and nothing more. Not the corporations, for by and large, they are empty, dead bodies chasing after ever-increasing profit and power, usually at the cost of human dignity and life. Not the media, because our media has lost its way, if indeed it ever was honest. Not the ‘authorities’, not the courts, not the institutions, because the only real power they may have to uphold freedom and the future of our nation comes from we, the People, to start with. Government without the consent of the governed is tyranny. Likewise if a people refuses to stand up and be responsible for their own nation, their own society, their own governments, institutions, organs and organizations, then that nation will inevitably be stolen from them, and those institutions corrupted. This is historical fact.

So reflect, take stock of yourself. Determine, and be grateful for what those who came before us have secured for us so far. And then, be responsible. Put aside blame. Put aside feelings of revenge, feelings of being a victim. Learn to stand up, and be responsible for your fate. Then remember this: being responsible is about right heart and right action. It is not about being responsible for what others do, or what others choose. Rather, it is about being responsible for what I choose, and what I do. When you have determined to walk that way, then nothing, no despotic government, no lying tyrant, no ignorant society, no criminal corporation, can stop you or take away what you have now discovered: your true internal freedom.

This then, is the first step that each of us must take. We must find the true root of freedom that dwells within each one of us. Not in how we are treated, but in what we choose to do, what we choose to believe, and in how we choose to respond. The reason they have been able to take away so much of our freedom, including our freedom of movement, our freedom of speech, our freedom to make a living, our freedom to decide our own health, and the freedom to have sovereignty over our own bodies, is because we have, collectively, strayed from the real root of freedom that lies in within our hearts.

Perhaps we never knew it. Perhaps we knew, but forgot. Either way, rediscover the root of freedom and our nation has hope. Reignite that root, and the fire will spread. Nurture that seed, raise it up, and we each become a source of hope, determination, vision and strength for those around us who need it.

The light of truth and the fire of a heart that is dedicated, with determination and humility, to the noble preservation of the God-given freedoms that is the rightful inheritance of all men and women, cannot, and never will be, extinguished. That light and that fire was kindled long in our distance past and has burned brightly through the ages to reach us here, in (My Nation), today.

Therefore, beloved, precious countrymen, my long-suffering brothers and sisters in each state and each territory, let us each, tonight, put down our burdens and our labours, bring our wounded hearts and aching limbs to the altar of sacrificial love, and gently rekindle the flame again. Tomorrow is another day, and the Creator of the universe still loves us.