In a day and age where freedoms and liberties teeter on the brink of obscurity, one has to wonder how tyranny regained a foothold in the nation that birthed the American Revolution.  The very Declaration that announced independence reads thus:

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

The signers rightly assessed that when a government is tyrannical, it is not only the right of the people to abolish such a government, but their duty as well.  John Hancock determined that resistance to tyranny is a "social duty" belonging to each individual.

Yet we have divorced ourselves from the custody of celestial articles like freedom and liberty.  How so?

Edward Everett, famed orator and the lesser known speaker at Gettysburg, said, "Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army," but I highly doubt anyone would consider the American public "educated," particularly in historical or philosophical matters.  Samuel Adams said, "No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved."  Therefore, people will readily forfeit their liberties without controversy when "knowledge" is not "diffused."

The tyrants didn't wrestle our liberties away; we handed them over.  We have reneged on our duties to retain the gifts purchased with the blood of our long-suffering forefathers.  Through our own passivity, we have become woefully uneducated, creating the scenario in which we currently find ourselves: as footstools for a whole host of tyrants.

However, there is a way out, and that is through education.  We don't need to throw off a tyrannical monarchy; we need to restore the Republic and abide by the Constitution.  In the words of Thomas Jefferson, "a well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny."

Now, it definitely won't be easy, but it will be worth it.  I'll leave you with one last quote from one of my favorite founders: "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."