David Jeffers

Defending Liberty
October 25, 2010

On September 18, 2010 my family and friends commemorated the life of my son Sergeant Eddie Jeffers at the 3rd Annual Hope Rides Alone Family Reunion Banquet. The name of the banquet comes from the famous New Media Journal article Eddie wrote titled "Hope Rides Alone.” This year’s keynote speaker was Debbie Lee, Gold Star Mom and president of America’s Mighty Warriors. Debbie’s son Marc was the first Navy Seal killed in Iraq.

At the banquet we spoke about my son Eddie and Debbie’s mighty warrior Marc. We recognized three active duty members and all the veterans in attendance. The audience thanked all of them for their service to God and country.

Then I asked a question for all in attendance and I ask you readers the same question: are you worth them? I’m talking about my son and Marc Alan Lee and all who are and have served in the armed forces. Are you worth them? Are you as a citizen of the United States of America worth their sacrifice?

As a citizen of the United States of America what is required of you? I can answer that in two words: defend liberty.

If our requirement is to defend liberty then it bears reason to identify the source of that liberty. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...”

Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

From where does the US government receive the consent of the governed and how is that government instituted? From the US Constitution! When my wife Karen and I visited the archives two years ago I stood and silently cried looking at the original Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. I was overcome with so many emotions by the personal cost to me in defense of those documents. Now when you look at the Constitution you can’t help but notice the first three words.

Now if this document had been written in modern days by say me, you could chalk up the huge font to my being once again slain by the Microsoft Word font beast, but Jacob Shallus, under the guidance of the Committee of Style, wrote the Preamble purposefully.

Now many of us here might still be able to recite the Preamble but most of us would be at a loss to explain the three questions answered in it. The first question answered, and the most important one is: Who? Answer: We the People of the United States.

The second question is: Why? Answer: in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

The third question is: What? Answer: do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. The second definition found in the Random House Dictionary defines ordain: to enact or establish by law, edict, etc. The example given is to ordain a new government.

So the United States of America was enacted and established by We the People. What does that mean to us? Look at the first three articles of the Constitution: Article 1 establishes the legislative branch; Article 2 establishes the executive branch; and Article 3 establishes the judicial branch.

How many believe that these three branches are listed in the Constitution by some random order and not having to do with any importance or precedence in the minds of the 39 signatories? If you believe that it is apparent you not only went to a government school but also possibly to a liberal college.

So how is the legislative branch established? The lower house, known as the House of Representatives was and still is elected by direct vote of the people living in established congressional districts. The upper house, known as the Senate, today is also elected by direct vote of the people of the represented state, but that was not always the case. That dastardly deed came about on April 8, 1913 by the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. Why is that dastardly? Because the Seventeenth Amendment has made the Tenth Amendment toothless, but that is another class for another time.

So why the history lesson? Because We the People have been asleep at the wheel for far too long and have neglected the single most powerful weapon we have in defending liberty: the ballot.

Voter turnout in the 2010 Florida primary was 27.8%...barely 1 out of 4 registered Floridian voters unsheathed their sword of liberty last month. In Northwest Florida where I live, which is the most conservative region in Florida voter turnout in the six counties was: Okaloosa County—29.2%; Walton County—27.5%; Escambia County—25.1%; Holmes County—37.2%; Washington County—38.7%; Santa Rosa County—22.8%.

Wow! Way to go Holmes and Washington County!!! Really? We’ve come to the point that we congratulate a county on its voter turnout when less than 4 out of 10 registered voters cast a ballot? And in the most conservative US congressional district in Florida and one of the most conservative in America we could only muster up 30% of registered voters!

In Santa Rosa County we reelected two school board members who sided with the evil and atheistic American Civil Liberties Union in the school prayer issue. The third board member up for reelection did not run but something tells me he probably would have been reelected.

This is a disgrace! Too often we complain about having to hold our noses and vote for the lesser of two evils in the general election and yet 3 out of 4 registered, not eligible, but registered Floridians failed to vote.

Through Eddie’s letter and subsequent death I have become close friends with Mark Levin and I emailed him the night before the banquet and told him I would be speaking on defending liberty and imploring the people to vote so that Marc Alan Lee, Eddie, and others’ deaths would not be in vain. I asked Mark if he had any words of wisdom to share with the crowd and this is what he sent me:

Your son gave his life NOT so others would sit on their back-sides and watch this nation fail, watch their own liberty and private property wrenched from them before their own eyes, and watch as their children's futures are destroyed. If these folks don't act now, then they never will. If they don't insist that their family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers make the minimal effort in November to vote, then they are willingly surrendering our society, which your son died to protect, to those who seek to abuse their power in order to control us and abuse us.

"...if these folks don’t act now, then they never will.” I fear that is where we might be heading because anything less 65-70% voter turnout on November 2nd is in my humble opinion a failure of our republic.

Yes winning back the legislature is of the utmost importance but without the undercurrent of a massive voter turnout then the tidal wave pundits are predicting will not wash away the soft tyranny we are currently under.

The closing line of my son’s second NMJ article "Freedom Feels Good” reads:

The Iraqis are capable of free government but we cannot call it quits because we think they aren't. Someone has to believe in them, someone has to help them out; someone has to provide the example. We are showing it to them. Some have taken it, many haven't, but it will spread...because freedom feels good.

So many people do not vote because they don’t think their vote will count. That should never be our concern; rather we should be concerned that our vote be counted!

As citizens of the United States we have the same charge that the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence assigned themselves:

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Let these words of Eddie’s permeate the depths of our souls:

Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn't.

A dark pall of failure has begun spreading across this nation; socialism and soft tyranny are the products of evil. I for one will not stand for it; I will not dishonor the life of my son, of Marc Alan Lee, and the rest of the precious blood spilled for liberty these last 234 years. We have to vote in vast, vast numbers. If you are a registered voter then I plead with you to vote to help reverse the disastrous course that Washington DC has set this country upon.

And so in support of our troops, our nation’s birth certificate the Declaration of Independence, our nation’s covenant document the US Constitution, with a firm reliance of divine Providence, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, I mutually pledge my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor to these United States of America. I invite you to join me. May Almighty God bless us all and rescue our nation.