Dear Patriot,

In 1916, the Irish chose Easter as a time to rise up against British oppression and proclaimed themselves a republic – a daring move inspired by a desire for liberty.

This Easter in the United States of America, rather than an occupying one, we face a government that has grown more and more oppressive daily – through extraordinary abuses of the legal system, unprecedented assaults on the right to free speech, and the ongoing exploitation of the coronavirus crisis to push ill-tested drugs upon the population, destroy the fabric of family and community life, and further degrade our civil liberties.

Thomas Jefferson is often attributed for having said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” That does not only mean we should be prepared to defend against foreign invaders. Perhaps more importantly it means we must retain the lessons from the original American and Irish revolts and guard against a government that views the people as the enemy.

Just a few years ago, Americans were told they must not gather in groups and should stay home on Sunday. Churches and businesses were closed or faced capacity limitations because the government deemed them “non-essential.” Many were destroyed for good. Those who spoke out were smeared in the media, those who perpetrated these acts of tyranny were unpunished, and the legal machinery to do it again is still intact and ready to be revved back up.

One hundred years ago, a young writer Randolph Bourne said, “war is the health of the state,” and he lamented governments' success at taking authority and resources during conflict. But Bourne further explained, “if the State's chief function is war, then the State must suck out of the nation a large part of its energy for its purely sterile purposes of defense and aggression. It devotes to waste or to actual destruction as much as it can of the vitality of the nation.”

What we face today is not against foreign enemies, but rather against our own government as they seek more and more power, and as they suck out the vitality of our citizens.

The actions being taken benefit the special interests. They benefit the statists whose “expertise” is leading to disaster. They benefit the mainstream media. They benefit the wealthy.

The government is using every pretext – NATO’s war in Ukraine, the banking crises, threats of pandemics to come, and its own contrived “war on domestic terrorism” – to further gut our First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, AND Tenth Amendment rights. All under the guise of “keeping us safe” from the threat du jour.

The state uses their power to take away our freedoms. If we wish to survive as a free society, we must begin to exercise some of that “eternal vigilance” Jefferson spoke of against an ever more oppressive state – and that is exactly what we intend to do. If the people demand change, the politicians will listen.

These are truly somber times.

But please don’t forget this Easter and Passover holiday, like this time of year, is about renewal and freedom.

I hope you have a peaceful weekend and are able to spend some time with your loved ones.

For liberty,

Ron Paul