What’s It Going to be, Fear or Freedom?

June 30, 2024

June 2024

Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Really? The best our nation can put up for election to the highest office in the land are these two elderly men?

How did we get here politically? Fear. I believe that, for decades, we’ve all been the unwitting participants in a social experiment that has crept into most levels of government. Think about the timeline of your life to this point. How many times have you handed over some kind of freedom in return for a promise that the government will protect us from a fearful circumstance that they are touting? Such protections always bloat the government and are rarely paid for, but instead increase spending and put more burden on taxpayers while often not delivering on their original promises.

Here’s a national example. After 9/11, we had good reason to fear terrorism. One of the government’s answers was to take the freedom of transportation across our country and turn it into a nightmare with the institution of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This agency basically projects the attitude that we need to fear each other. When you travel on a plane, you are now treated as though you are a criminal until proven innocent by a myriad of obstacles including removing certain clothing, shoes and full body scans. After that, you are allowed to travel. The fear of the infinitesimally small risk of an incident on an airplane has caused us to hand over our freedom. We could go on about the Patriot Act and other results of 9/11, but there is only so much room for this column.

During the great recession of 2008, we were fed the fear of economic collapse. If the government did not help the auto industry, we’d be sent back to the dark ages. So they opened the checkbook and helped selected giant private industries while turning a blind eye to small businesses who were also struggling. Did that promise end up mattering to those who lost their livelihoods and financial freedoms when GM shuttered their Janesville Assembly Plant anyway? At a national level, to be fair, most of those loans were paid back by the automakers. But since when does a government decide which industry is too big to fail and then still allow them to throw people out of work while using taxpayer dollars?

Covid-19. In Wisconsin and even in Rock County, all power to impact commerce, leisure and religion was placed in the hands of unelected health officials and administrators who were following “guidance” from more unelected Federal officials, the CDC. What happened is unelected government officials, with lack of meaningful oversight by local elected
representatives, took over all aspects of your work, worship, public discourse and even health care. This is not how this is supposed to work.

Rock County residents are forced to endure ever-increasing taxes foisted on us by public officials, many of whom offer you only the fear of what bad things will happen if they don’t get the money from your pockets that they feel they need, more than you. To change the trajectory, we need to face the (sometimes) irrational fears we’re presented with and take back our freedom to vote, not just for the most polished and well-known candidates, but for those who will actually seek to protect our financial and personal freedoms. Fear or freedom. It’s your choice.

Announcing a NEW video from RCF!
If you are interested in the advice of someone who has experienced the tyranny of North Korea, and now the perilous freedom and liberty in the United States, please listen to our interview of Ms. Yeonmi Park earlier this year. Go HERE to listen to her amazing story and advice to all Americans. You will not likely forget her story, nor how important your freedoms are, if you take a few minutes to listen. Please share this video with others who you feel may benefit.

Other Articles From Our Blog

Unity and Educational Outcomes

Unity and Educational Outcomes

What is public education and how we should pay for it are questions every resident should be asking themselves. The debate on education funding rages on, fueled by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling that the Governor’s ‘veto’, which created additional funding of $325 per student annually through property taxes or state aid until the year 2425, is lawful. Yet support for public education in its current form is far from solid. A recent study shows that 68% of likely Wisconsin voters support school choice programs. It is a mathematical certainty that two systems will cost more to maintain than one. It is far past time that instead of just talking about dollars, a conversation is had about the erosion of support of public education.
YDF Grant Encourages Greater Civic Engagement by Local Youth

YDF Grant Encourages Greater Civic Engagement by Local Youth

On April 7th, the RCF Youth Development Fund awarded a grant to the Milton High School civics class. The grant assisted with the cost of transporting high school students to the WI State Capitol where they were able to learn more about their Capitol and state government; as well as, hear directly from state legislators explain the importance of civic engagement. In the grant approval letter, the RCF board included the following: "The objective of the RCF Youth Development Fund is to encourage and help facilitate Rock County students to actively engage in American citizenship by focusing on local civics. We achieve this objective by working and collaborating with student councils and/or Social Studies/Government education classes in K-12 schools across Rock County; along with local business leaders and local elected officials."
Why Local Leadership in K-12 Education Matters

Why Local Leadership in K-12 Education Matters

Why Local Leadership in K-12 Education Matters February 2025 The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recently released “The Nation's Report Card”, which measures student performance in math and reading. The key findings according to NAEP in the Fewer than a third of students nationwide are working at the NAEP Proficient level in reading at both grades. Scoring at the NAEP Proficient level means consistently understanding written text and interpreting its meaning. 42% of eighth-graders report high confidence in mathematics, not significantly different from 2022, a decline from 49% in 2019