By: T.F. Stern | Self-Educated American

This morning while glancing over Facebook with its variety of politically charged events, menu items for the home grillers, birthday wishes for friends and the never-ending photographs of cute kittens and puppies…a poster of Kermit the Frog got my attention.  That’s right, Kermit gazing out a window in deep thought got me to chuckle.

“Sometimes I wonder…What Happened To The People Who Asked Me For Directions”

I was immediately reminded of when I was a police officer working in downtown Houston.  An English fellow approached and asked, in an overpowering British accent, “Officer, could you direct me to Milam Street?”, except instead of it sounding as we pronounce it, My-lam (as in lamb with a silent ‘b’), he asked for Mill-um Street.

I hesitated, momentarily, as the sound of his British accent brought a smile to my face.  It gave me a chance to properly respond in such a way as to be pleasing to his own ears.

“That’s easy, just go one street past Smythe and you’re there”.  We don’t actually have a Smythe Street in Houston; we call it Smith Street.  You can see that being a police officer caused no end of challenges to my supervisors.

But that’s not why I’m writing today, no, not by a long shot.

There’s a dog and pony show going on in Washington as the confirmation process for a Supreme Court Justice is presented as if it were a legitimate extension of government.  Considerable effort is being exerted from every side of the political spectrum attempting to ensure that “our way of life” isn’t destroyed through and by a shift in the balance of powers within that panel of black robed jurists.

Getting back to Kermit the Frog and his question; more precisely, what direction are we headed or, as we are continually lumped and categorized, what is “our way of life”?  What is America?

Are we a group of rouged individuals who accept the Author of Liberty as our King, that same Being who assisted our Founding Fathers in putting to paper the ideas of our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights defining and limiting the powers of government?

Or… have we taken a different path, one which grants unlimited powers to a Federal government with the hope that this monstrosity of bureaucrats will provide security in exchange for individual liberties at every turn while deserving neither security nor liberty?  Wasn’t that the admonition from Ben Franklin?

Is that too simplistic?

I did get to listen in on the hearings, words between Senator Feinstein (D) California, and the presumptive next member of the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, as pertain to the 2nd Amendment and various gun control measures that affect how individuals may or may not own and bear arms.

The Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Not being the only one watching, there was an excellent piece written by Corey Berman and Eugene Kiely, Kavanaugh Files: Second Amendment , which accurately summarized the positions of both Senator Feinstein and Justice Kavanaugh.

“What Democrats are saying: “I’m left with the fact that your reasoning is far outside the mainstream of legal thought and that it surpasses the views of Justice Scalia, who was clearly a pro-gun justice,” Feinstein said at the Sept. 4 hearing. “Even Scalia understood that weapons that are like M-16 rifles or weapons that are most useful in military service can in fact be regulated.”

Similarly, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut tweeted on July 9: “Brett Kavanaugh is a true Second Amendment radical. He believes assault weapon bans are unconstitutional, a position way out of the judicial mainstream, far to the right of even late Justice Scalia.”’

From this short paragraph it becomes clear those on the left have a real fear associated with the very individuals who elect them to office; preferring to restrict, in violation of the 2nd Amendment’s clear wording that “shall not be infringed”.

There was one line I heard while watching this portion of the confirmation process, a line which was in the transcription supplied in the article referred to here, that caused a red flag to be raised.

“Kavanaugh said, as a longtime resident of the District, he is aware of the gun violence and “greatly respect[s] the motivation behind the D.C. gun laws at issue in this case.” But he said his job is to follow the precedents of the Supreme Court, not decide what is “the best policy.”’

Let me highlight that concern, “…But he said his job is to follow the precedents of the Supreme Court, not decide what is “the best policy.”

I would have much preferred Kavanaugh’s response had he said he’d follow the original wording of the Constitution, it being the contract which binds our government to the will of the people, rather than leaping over that document and going forward on rulings and interpretations of the Supreme Court.

If you hadn’t figured it out yet, Kermit the Frog represents our Founding Fathers and they’d like to know if we’ve been following their directions, directions which safeguard individual rights while restricting the powers of government, powers which ultimately lead to tyranny and loss of liberty.

So, what direction are we headed as a nation?