Tonight I took a few moments to watch a great video clip of some of America's most renowned actors reading the Declaration of Independence on YouTube. Along the right side of the screen were other videos which had been grouped together with this one for their similar styles. Almost every single one was some kind of a conspiracy video. I didn't waste my time. For a long time I have heard from a number of different people and a number of different sources talk of government or other conspiracies. They never really mention their goals in these conspiracies but claim nonetheless their reality and potency.

Some of the conspiracies I have heard of would be the government's involvement in 9/11, the Federal Reserve system, the founding of this great nation, rigged elections by the Skull & Bone's Society, Pearl Harbor, UFOs, the man on the moon and a host of others...

I'm not convinced.

Certainly there are conspiring individuals seeking for money and power. There always have been and there always will be. However, I don't feel our current set of problems were created by some master conspirator nor do I believe that we owe all of the problems in our government, world and lives to the conspiracies of some unknown group or person.

The notion of conspiracy is a great way to feel helpless about the situation and a tool that can be used to keep the people who can do something from doing anything because they feel the solution is out of their control. However, it's not.

We have the tools and the capabilities to make a difference in this world and they start with the proper exercise of agency – actually doing something. We have a lot more power than we think. Not only can we do something; it is our right and our obligation to make this world a better place.

Here are some ways:

1. Believing you can make a difference
2. Becoming educated about issues facing your community, state, country and world
3. Voting for and supporting good leaders
4. Serving your community by donating your time, ideas, money and talents for the benefit of those around you and those far away
5. Helping to ignite hope for change and action in others

Nelson Mandela said in his 1994 inaugural speech:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we un-consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we feel liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

“Who am I to do anything?” you ask. It is only you that can do something. If not you, then who?

Thanks for reading.

Thus penned Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and unanimously signed by the Continental Congress in 1776. These are the words that have transformed history, nations, kingdoms and our whole world. Prior to this, there was not a governor on the earth who believed, together with his people, that he received his power from the governed. Power to governwas a right – divinely bestowed and often ruthlessly used on the ruling family’s subjects.

Jefferson and the other members of Congress recognized that government was to be the servant of the people and not the other way around. They recognized therefore that the government could only possess those powers that the people were willing and able to bestow upon it.

The powers the people willfully bestowed were the powers to make laws for a just society, enforce those laws for peace and tranquility and defend the people from insurrections within and wars from without. These were powers the people themselves possessed. They possessed the ability to defend themselves, their families and their property and together with others to establish laws with consequences whereby there might be civil and peaceful living, interactions and transactions. These truths were held to be self evident.

The signers recognized that it was not possible for the people to give to the government powers that they themselves did not possess as individuals. A group of individuals cannot possess any more rights to act than an individual within that group could by themselves. Not all of the things government does presently could an individual do by themselves in the absence of government. For example, do I have the right, self evident or otherwise, to force my neighbor to go to church on my day of worship? The answer is as obvious to us today as it was to the pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock – the right to worship God or not toworship God was their choice and privilege but it was not something that could in any way be compelled upon another even if the whole society would benefit from good, moral teachings that all religions provide.

Do I have the right take from my neighbor any money? The answer if obvious there as well. I have the right to ask and they have the right to give but no one possesses the right, even in dire situations, to rob their neighbor and not be punished by the law.

We hold these truths to be self evident… and a violation of these truths is a violation of natural law and our natural rights as part of the human family.

Even well intentioned practices by, at best, a well intentioned government infringing upon the rights of its citizens is unjust and immoral and completely contra the principles of these United States. The well wish of universal healthcare provided by the government is benevolent in thought but unlawful and immoral in deed as are the practices of government welfare in almost all shapes and forms when it is done by compulsion. I don’t have the power to take anything from you to help pay for my neighbors healthcare. I don’t – and there is no way around it. There is no philosophy, no dogma, no doctrine that justifies robbing from those who have to give to those that have not – for whatever the reason. I have the right to ask you, but if I demand it and take it regardless of your will, I am breaking the law – not just U.S. Code, but natural and self evident law.

It is so obvious it is almost unbelievable.

Rather than push for more unlawful, well intentioned welfare, we should strive to have government relinquish these self proclaimed powers and have individuals love their neighbor and out of the benevolence of their own hearts, give to those in need, succor the weary, clothe the naked and feed the hungry. The government can only derive its powers from those it governs and “We the People” don’t possess the power to take away by force from anyone – but especially the good, law-abiding citizens of our nation just the same as “I a Person” don’t. Caring for those in need is one of the greatest works we could ever engage in. It doesn’t come from a government office – it comes from family caring for family, frined caring for friend, churches caring for their members and neighbors caring for one another.

It comes down to agency - the proper use of our liberty - and the usurption of this power by the government (although well intentioned) limits our ability to do what only we can do and fails to truly meet the needs of those who so badly need us.