Kevin Patrick for House of Delegates

"When the government fears the people, there is liberty; when the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
                                                                            --- Thomas Jefferson

"If Tyranny and Oppression Come to this Land, it Will be in the Guise of Fighting a Foreign Enemy."
                                                                                                           --- James Madison

    I took honors and advanced placement course in a public high school.  I went through private schooling in three states.  Through my tour of the educational system, I never once remember being tested on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  We talked about these in some of my classes, but I know that we did not sit down and read them in class. I do know that I never read the West Virginia Constitution until I decided to do so on my own; and I had two West Virginia history courses.

    "So what?" you may ask. Well, if one does not know his or her rights, then they do not have any. 

    The Constitution does not give us any rights, it simply delineates those which it explicitly forbids the government from infringing upon.  This is an important and crucial piece of information.  It means that no matter what laws are passed, if they infringe upon our rights, the laws are illegal, and therefore it is immoral for us to recognize them as true and binding law. 

    How many of us could answer the question, "What is the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution?"  Do you know?  How do you know then, that this right of yours is not being abused?  You would not, and therefore could not protect against that abuse.  We do not all have to be lawyers and scholars, but we do need to know what we need to be wary of, and for what we need to watch out.

    Since the attacks in 2001, the Federal Government has infringed upon and violated our civil liberties.  Privacy is a very thin illusion for most people, if it exists at all.  Habeas Corpus has been dismissed; it is the legal fact that evidence has to be had and proven for your imprisonment to be legal.  Posse Comitatus has also been been dismissed; it keeps the military from acting as a police force inside the US borders except in cases allowed by Congress and the US Constitution, (HR5122 also known as the John Warner Defense Authorization Act was signed by the president on Oct 17, 2006 and was a major factor in this).  Without it, there is a very real possibility of armed soldiers on your street corners saying, "Papers please, citizen."  That is not an uplifting thought.

    So, what does this mean for us?  It means we have a lot of hard work to do to restore the Republic we once knew.  However, we have done hard things before, and we will do them again.  It is within our power and ability to do this.  We need to care, and we need to believe that things can, and will, be better.  We need you, your friends and relatives; we need everyone to express the most basic right we have, the right to say, "No!"

    So say 'no.'  Stand up, vote, be a part of your government.  We all know what has to be done, and it will not be easy or fast.  But we have nothing to lose and everything to gain; so let us take back what is ours, and Restore the Republic.