“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” How does this statement, spoken 245 years ago, apply today during the government shutdown being forced upon millions of Americans?

This famous line is the conclusion of a speech given by Patrick Henry at the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775. His goal was to persuade the convention to deploy Virginian troops to fight in the revolutionary war.

Our founding fathers were tired of British tyranny. They wanted freedom at any cost. Unfortunately, we are experiencing modern tyranny, not from Britain but from our own American officials, the very officials who swore to uphold the law and the constitution.

I live in Kentucky, and my governor swore to uphold the constitution, and there was no pandemic qualifier. He, along with local officials across the country, have blatantly broken their oath of office (a legitimate impeachable offense) for the sake of their own, liberal, self satisfying, and socialist agendas (No matter what anyone says or thinks, they care very little about the health and safety of their constituents; their efforts are solely for the advancement of their political agendas). Unfortunately, some are letting them get away with this because they’re still getting a paycheck. While others keep holding to the hope that their stimulus check or unemployment checks will soon be here, then they’ll be perfectly happy to sit at home and binge watch “Tiger King.” We want liberty, but we’re willing to sacrifice it as long as the government gives us a check, like a kid who stops screaming when his mother gives him a candy bar.

My governor, Andy Beshear, has stripped our rights away. Though he insists he hasn’t. He tries to tell us that he has not taken our freedom of religion, and says there are lots of ways to worship, via online. Well, my religious liberty has been stripped away, because my Bible tells me, “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do,” (Hebrews 10:25, NLT). He has stripped away our right to assemble. He has stripped away “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” from hard working Americans who have given their lives to pursue the “American dream”, and are now helplessly watching that dream collapse. (But he probably didn’t take the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence into consideration when making these “laws” [which are not really laws, but that’s another discussion].) But why should he care? He’s still getting paid. Our governor, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, has stolen the livelihood of at least 400,000 Kentuckians. He, and governors across the country, are not legislating people out of their freedoms, they are bullying them out of their freedoms. And we all feel powerless to stop them. Well, it’s time to put a stop to governmental bullying. We do not allow it on the playgrounds; we do not allow it on social media, and we should not allow it in our state capitols.

We would do well to remember the conclusion of Patrick Henry’s famous speech when they were facing the British bullies, and do well to mirror his patriotism. I believe, if he were alive today, he would unlock the doors of his business, open the doors of his church, invite friends and family to his home, or stand in the ocean with a sign that says “Land of the Free,” and look his governor square in the eye, and say, “Bring it!”