A TIME FOR DRAWING THE LINE!

As a youngster, my admiration and fancy were captured by  the heroes of the Texas Revolution. Names such as Houston, Travis, Seguin, Crockett, Bowie, Navarro and Lamar were indelibly and permanently inscribed in my consciousness; and, until this day, I am in awe of men who were willing to risk their all for the cause of liberty, freedom and justice against a brutal dictatorship, which had trampled the Mexican Federal Constitution of 1824.

The example of William Barrett Travis still resonates strongly in Texas; and, considering the state of America in 2013, Travis's paradigm might serve us well, as concerned Americans devote themselves to the preservation of their beleaguered Republic.

It seems almost daily that executive power embarks on another effort to aggregate power in Washington, D.C. What, in another era, would have been considered shocking behavior for a presidential administration has now become commonplace.  The litany of abuse has grown longer and longer almost daily, with the IRS and the Department of Justice taking the leading roles in extra-constitutional actions.  Shall we sit back and simply watch as those of a conservative bent are simply run roughshod over by an out-of-control taxing authority?  Do we do nothing as First Amendment freedoms are cavalierly ignored?  Shall we be content to see our legislative branch passed over with more and more executive decrees?  Will it eventually be acceptable for the Department of Justice to discard lawful decisions of state courts and to establish precedents for an all-powerful centralized system of justice?  Will we be content to see our borders remain unprotected, eventually allowing an "amnesty" to flood the general population with millions of individuals who would have no idea of the great sacrifices and the constitutional government that have made America an exceptional nation?  Shall we sit back idly and do nothing as unbridled "progressivism" eventually converts the United States into a Third World country?  And, will we allow misbegotten schemes such as Obamacare to drive us into more and more debt?

It is high time that we draw the line of no compromise.  We must expect that our elected representatives will do the right thing, not the politically expedient thing.  If, for example, in the effort to defund Obamacare we go to the brink of shutting down the government, then so be it!  At the same time, we must constantly, boldly and articulately enunciate the case for such action based on the constitutional ideals of liberty, freedom and justice.  If not now, when?  There can be no better time than the present  And there can be no better example than that of William Barrett Travis.  Liberals, progressives and socialists deserve no quarter in the legislative arena. Let us draw a hard and fast line!