Did you celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence by renewing your vow to stand tall for self-government in support of the American dream? The state does not run the affairs of people in a free society. It upholds justice between people who conduct their own affairs. Our Founding documents are based on great spiritual principles. We are seekers of truth and justice, as are all liberty lovers worldwide. That spirit unites us. It is the Holy Spirit and our True North.

Our Declaration of Independence is the most important of all our documents. Along with the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, it is one of the three greatest documents of the English-speaking world. The fifty-six Signers mutually pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in the cause of liberty. The Declaration was inspired by a higher purpose for humanity. No other patriotic document has ever produced such successful, beneficial and far-reaching results.

"I had a vision of a way we could have no enemies ever again, if you're interested in this. Anybody interested in hearing this? It's kind of an interesting theory, and all we have to do is make one decisive act and we can rid the world of all our enemies at once. Here's what we do. You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense every year? Trillions of dollars. Instead, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded ... not one ... we could as one race explore inner and outer space together in peace, forever." - Bill Hicks, wherever truth, love and laughter abide, he is there in spirit.

Support a strong defense but DON'T support unnecessary wars. We're in more than 200 TIMES the danger of being killed in our own cars than by terrorists. When we resolve conflict diplomatically within the rule of law, we create peace and abundance. Do not escalate to war, good for absolutely nothing.

The best way to spread the freedom philosophy is by being a shining example not by intervention. Often those foreign regimes we support are just as bad or even more corrupt than those we help fight and this creates hard feelings inciting terrorist retaliation toward US.

The Venus Project promotes life in a resource-based economy. The Project suggests an exciting sustainable new social direction if we intelligently apply science and technology with environmental and human concern, we can build a future where war, poverty and hunger will be but a distant memory.

Last month Barney Frank and Ron Paul introduced legislation that would end federal prohibition of marijuana and would let the states decide whether it should be legal. Just six days after HB. 2306 was introduce, the Obama Administration broke an earlier promise and declared war on medical marijuana patients -- even in states where medical marijuana is legal.

“What I'm not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws.” Barack Obama, Oregon Mail Tribune, March 22, 2008. See me shaking my head in disbelief.

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said they will not take up the bipartisan legislation, effectively killing it by lack of action.

Many leaders are outright servants of tyranny; good at ignoring the rule of law, history and science while catering to the needs of special interests but awful bad at determining what is best or safer for the individual or society. A brilliant friend suggested all Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms just like NASCAR drivers, so we can have no doubt about their corporate sponsors.

“Instead of encouraging the use of marijuana, we should strengthen enforcement of federal drug laws to protect Americans from the devastating effects of drug use,” said Smith, R-San Antonio.

Stephen H. Frye M.D, retired medical school professor's book exposes facts related to our babies, teens especially, being collateral damage of this demented, violence triggering policy! "We Really Lost This War! Twenty-five Reasons to Legalize Drugs."

Rep. Smith and other drug warriors live in the state of denial and that's a lousy coping strategy. It is Un-American, overkill and morally bankrupt to arrest nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal/social drugs. Stop this tyranny in the guise of good intentions.

The devastating and deadly facts are our babies; especially teens have become collateral damage in this grossly failed war. Despite having six times the Netherlands adult incarceration rate, this insane policy has created an obscene teenage murder rate that's nineteen times higher than in the Netherlands, where drugs are regulated, controlled and taxed! The destruction of the sacred family unit is one of the worst consequences prohibition forces on children.

Brutal, bloody prohibition supports despicable people who sell drugs to children, recruit them to sell to their peers and arm them to kill the competition. Despite having six times the Netherlands adult incarceration rate, this insane policy has created an obscene teenage murder rate that's nineteen times higher than in the Netherlands, where drugs are regulated, controlled and taxed!

Only 50 percent of high school students graduate in our ten biggest cities and only 40 per cent graduate in NYC, Baltimore and Detroit. In the Netherlands 92 percent graduate; that's No Child Left Behind!

The war waged by Mexican drug cartels has resulted in 610 children deaths reports a study and 3,700 children have been left orphans as a result of the violence or execution of their parents. Many minors who are orphaned have been psychologically scarred after witnessing violent actions against their relatives.

The Mexican military reported that 420 children who had been recruited have died in the clashes between rival groups. There were many examples of adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 dying in fierce battles with the drug traffickers or being tortured and killed as paybacks between feuding clans.

Despairingly, these Mexican drug war numbers have grown since these reports were filed.

"Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse" by Annette Fuentes explores the effect of "Zero Tolerance" policies on public education.. Abstinence may be the safest policy for both drugs and sex but few will choose it even on a dare.

Addiction does not respond well to punitive laws. Preventive medicine is the key to ending drug abuse and most health issues. Incarceration costs seven times treatment. Less than 1% of US are actually addicted to anything illegal.

"Illegal" means turning over control and distribution of product to criminals. Consumers go unprotected because nothing insures the quality, potency or purity of the drugs. Obscene black market profits assure illicit cartels put out of business are quickly replaced.

The most addictive, most deadly drug we know, tobacco is the only drug to have decreased in use during the drug war. Around 65% of American adults smoked tobacco when marijuana, one of the one of the safest, therapeutically active plants known to man, was made illegal. Since then anti-smoking campaigns, using entirely nonviolent, non-coercive, non-punitive methods, have reduced that number to about 20%.

Hudspeth County judge Becky Dean-Walter has overruled Willie Nelson's plea bargain for his November 2010 pot bust in West Texas, six ounces of marijuana was found on his tour bus. Walter told The New York Times she believes prosecutor Kit Bramblett's fondness for Nelson's music influenced his willingness to lighten Nelson's possible punishment. If this case goes to court it may get nullified by the jury. The people believe in self-government and self-medication.

It is a scientifically verified fact that marijuana users are safer drivers than teetotalers.

Most experts agree cannabis is safer with motorists than alcohol and many prescription drugs. Responsible cannabis consumers, like all responsible drug users, never operate motor vehicles in an impaired condition. The prevalence of illicit drug use among US drivers is far less than the prevalence of alcohol among this same population. Both a Canadian and French studies noted that overall few traffic accidents appeared to be attributed to driver’s operating a vehicle while impaired by cannabis.

Actually scientific surveys prove that pot smokers are the safest drivers on the road. The Drugs and Accident Risk in Fatally-Injured Drivers study concluded that marijuana has a "negative risk factor" for fatal highway accidents. A "negative risk factor" means that pot smokers have a lower accident rate than teetotalers.

Several other on-road driving studies funded by the US Department of Transportation prove that marijuana smokers are safer drivers than teetotalers. "The THC-only drivers had [an accident] responsibility rate BELOW that of the drug-free drivers, as was found previously by Williams and colleagues (1986)." "There was no indication that cannabis by itself was a cause of fatal crashes." (Incidence and Role of Drugs in Fatally Injured Drivers K W Terhune, 1992 p. 100)

When cops talk about increasing numbers of marijuana positive driver fatalities, be sure to ask how many of the pot smokers were responsible for the accidents that killed them. In almost every case it will be found that the driver over medicated with alcohol, prescribed drugs, other illicit drugs, a potent mix of alcohol and other drugs or a distracted driver, not the marijuana user caused the accident.

"The "war on drugs" has been well lost, and should never have been waged. I can think of no political right more fundamental than the right to peacefully steward the contents of one's own consciousness. The fact that we pointlessly ruin the lives of nonviolent drug users by incarcerating them, at enormous expense, constitutes one of the great moral failures of our time. "- Sam Harris, Neuroscientist

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently released a report on human trafficking.

Mira Sorvino asked fellow discussion panelist Luis CdeBaca "how much the government spends on human trafficking compared with war on drugs." "The equivalent of about three weeks of spending on the drug war," said CdeBaca, President Barack Obama’s ambassador-at-large to coordinate US government efforts against modern forms of slavery.

“Every month, we spend twice the TIP [Trafficking in Persons] budget on military marching bands,” observed Sorvino, whose role in “Human Trafficking” portrays a NYPD detective who becomes an immigration agent to fight the crime.

The web is the fastest growing communications medium in the history of the world. A powerful tool, a window of opportunity, in our war of good over evil; the Internet continues to revolutionize the way we communicate and has enormous potential for reshaping the political process.

"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." - MLK

Save lives instead of ruining them. Join LEAP, COP and DownsizeDC!

Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!

Track your Senators' and Representative's votes by e-mail.

Changing who's in charge will not affect much. The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on down-sizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for future generations and ourselves.

Compiled and written by Colleen McCool