Saturday Sounds

On this day in 1865, the Army of Northern Virginia was compelled to yield to the formidable numbers and equipment of the Army of the Potomac.

As we watch today's army of politicians on the Potomac bicker over every scrap of plunder today's Federal Government extracts from the nation--and then some, keep in mind they were never intended to have so much sway. The nation should not be holding its breath wondering if the money will continue to radiate outward from an engorged Leviathan whose legions of bureaucratic underlings now overrun the very northern Virginia from which Lee's legendary army drew its name.

The Federal Government should have so little direct impact on the average individual American that D.C. could disappear and it would take days if not weeks for anyone to notice. That is the essence of self-sufficiency. Of freedom. Of independence. Instead, we are wed to a monstrosity that perversely wraps itself in the auspices of the very Constitution that was intended to chain it down.

Maybe 1865 was the last waltz for Dixie. I can only hope that the spirit of independence and defiance of overbearing government that failed to carry the day back then is not fully vanquished. Otherwise, the answer to the last line of our national anthem--does the Star Spangled Banner yet wave o'er the land of the FREE and the home of the BRAVE...

... is "no."