Our Threatened Freedom

Are We Enemies of Initiative

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 76-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 076

Dictation Name: Vol. F - Part 11- Are We Enemies of Initiative

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] Are we enemies of initiative? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

Every now and then, a news item catches my eye. A brief notice, and nothing more appears, and I am left wondering how the incident turned out.

One such item that I keep looking at over and over again appeared in November 1976. It read, and I quote, “The Ohio division of Wildlife recently used as many as 5 agents, including 2 undercover men, to investigate and prosecute an 11 year old boy for selling fishing worm and crayfish in his parent’s front yard. In 2 weeks his stand sold 4 dollars 50 cents worth of bait, including that sold to the undercover agents. State regulations in Ohio require a permit to sell bait.” Unquote. This is not an unusual story; I have run across several like it. I keep wondering, however, what happened. How could grown men make such an arrest without being somewhat embarrassed? Were they not ashamed to be involved in such a case? Did the state of Ohio do anything to alter its laws? Talk about juvenile delinquency.

Legislators who pass such a law, and bureaucrats and agents who enforce it are worse than delinquents.

Long ago, the Psalmist spoke of the throne of iniquity, framing mischief by a law. That is, using the pretense of law to be oppressive. I submit that our lawmakers today are too often framing mischief by law.

At the same time the children are arrested for showing initiative and a desire to earn some money, our wise fathers in the state capitols and Washington D.C. are whittling away at parental powers and the function and freedom of children on their own, and our courts are taking over parental powers.

Let’s get back to the boy in Ohio. When civil government uses 5 agents to entrap and arrest an 11 year old boy for selling fishing worms, something is radically wrong with the country. If they are ready to go after an 11 year old with such passion, what will they not do to us, when they so choose?

I said that I have often wondered how that story, and others like it, ended. However, in a very important sense, the story will not end, until we do something about it. This means, at the very least, clipping the wings of the power state. It means valuing freedom more highly than statist regulations. It means, moreover, regarding all state and federal officials who are involved in such cases as the moral lepers they are.

What was wrong with selling fishing worms? Is it possible to sell inferior or defective fishing worms? Why is a permit necessary to sell bait? Is the state trying to prove to us that we have no freedom to do anything unless they give us a permit?

This has been R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.