Don’t Tread on Jefferson!

During the American Revolutionary War, one of the common flags carried by the Continental Army was the famous Gadsden Flag depicting a coiled up snake prepared to strike with the famous motto “Don’t Tread on Me”. This motto was meant to imply if the British Army treads any further they will be bitten, HARD! When the Gadsden flag flew high alongside Washington’s Army many early Americans rallied to the cause and took up arms to fight the British off of America’s soil. The metaphor of a coiled snake was meant to represent the American people being constantly “pushed into a corner” by the oppressive tyrannical British Government. The motto served as one last warning to the British troops before the snake bites. The loyal colonialists lost faith in their government gradually when King George III imposed needless taxes and began to strip them of all their rights as Englishmen. After all the countless pleas to the king to address the grievances over the new imposed taxes and the stripping of basic rights; the colonists still remained loyal to their sovereign. After the Kings rejection to even read the Olive Branch Petition the colonial delegates knew that they had been pushed into a corner and had to act. They soon voted to declare the independence for the United States of America. This act was made to ensure their freedoms and rights would be restored and protected. For the first time the ideals of the individual were being realized and that a person’s rights and freedoms are not given to them by a king, emperor or president but by God.
Now the people residing in the Jefferson Territory find themselves at a cross roads themselves. They recognize that the States of Oregon and California will not protect their rights and freedoms for the states have lost their sovereignty as California and Oregon roll over to every demand and usurpation of power by the Federal government. These states along with the Federal Government strip property owners of their land and water rights, impose more taxes and restrictions while guaranteeing them less and less of their Liberty. Once their was an outcry of resistance in 1941 where the people of Jefferson stood up to these irresponsible governments and declared themselves an independent state that would ensure the rights and freedoms of all her citizens. Unfortunately World history caught up to the Jefferson Movement as the Bombing of Pearl Harbor put the resistance movement on hold. Now new trouble brews in Jefferson as they see more and more of their rights stripped away. We are pushed right back in the corner and prepared to strike, the old motto has returned “Double Crossed” again as the governments of Oregon and California have promised to address the grievances but in the end do not even take the time to read them just as King George had done. Look at Jefferson suffering needlessly in her economy by restrictions on logging and water usage for the farmers as the tyrannical governments prepare for a final blow and strip the dams away in the name of protecting the environment. While there are countless reasons that fuel the Jefferson Cause will the people of Jefferson rise to say “enough is enough”?
Let our words meet action as we begin to organize. I challenge you to find like minded Jeffersonians in you area and become involved in your community to spread the Jefferson Story of Individual Freedom and Personal Responsibility. Only uniting as one will strengthen our cause as we speak with one voice “Don’t’ Tread on Jefferson”. Be a part of the action and Contact the Jefferson Action Committee, for the more you delay the more you jeopardize your freedoms!

"When in the Course of Human Events"

We all remember these decisive words from our Declaration of Independence. “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” The necessary act of separation came to be known in the minds of the American Patriots as the only measure that would insure their Liberty and ultimately establish their Independence. I feel that the necessary act of separation came to realization gradually by smaller measures over time until finally the common man in the American Colonies had no resemblance to the common man in Great Britain. Different culture and traditions had erupted among the colonists and they no longer embraced their identity as Englishman. They began to attach their identity with the colony they were from. Thomas Jefferson the Virginian and Benjamin Franklin the Pennsylvanian were in fact shaped by the region in which they lived as any person on this earth has undoubtedly experienced by their home town. In fact you could say that their fundamental understanding of Liberty, Independence, and Freedom in some ways derived from their hometown and attributed the desire to secure it! They understood that the opening words of the Declaration of Independence would cast the die for every Independence movement from 1776 through eternity.
The Declaration of Independence plainly states that it becomes “Necessary” for separation during the “Course of Human Events”. People can grow apart overtime and the governments representing those people can grow apart from the people in which they represent. Disenfranchisement of the people is just as evident then as it is today; the exception being that at some points in history tyranny was challenged and put in its place. After the American Revolution the rights of man were secured unto the people as the U.S. Constitution took shape. Limits of power were put into place to ensure that government would be accountable to the people and properly restrained. This provided the solution and defined what the proper use of government should be, to protect Individual Freedom and Personal Liberty. This framework of the Federal government was contingent with the understanding that sovereign states of the union would protect their citizens by the same account and insure their rights as freemen.
But what to do when sovereign states stop protecting rights of their citizens and stop restraining Federal Governmental powers all for the guaranty of Federal Government funding? Simple, the people retain the right to alter or abolish it remember? So in perhaps the most freedom conscience place left in America, tyranny’s high water mark has crested upon the region known as Jefferson. This region made up of several rural counties of Northern California and Southern Oregon has observed time and time again that they bear little resemblance to the urban citizens of California and Oregon. And due to this constant disenfranchisement of the people in this region by both state governments as well as the Federal Government, it is becoming “necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…” It is self evident to understand that a independent sovereign State of Jefferson would be better off insuring the rights of its people better than the current states of California and Oregon would ever do, for the government of my home would be home and it would look after the best interests of its people. Just as Great Britain over extended herself with war for empire, the Federal government as well as the state governments of Oregon and California have over bloated their governmental powers and are now seeing the negative effects of a government out of control. The time to challenge tyranny is at hand and it has become now “necessary” to separate ourselves from the state governments that do not represent their people and create the only viable solution, a free and Independent State of Jefferson!