The fighting isn’t hand-to-hand with pitchforks and farm tools.
Soldiers aren’t hidden behind trees waiting to see the whites of the enemy’s eyes before firing their muskets, and neither are they charging the battlefield behind a new flag of red, white and blue.
But, little by little, the fight for freedom that began some 245 years ago is resurfacing.
One after another, the United States Department of Justice is defending churches that have been targeted with fines and threats for not obeying various government restrictions in connection with the coronavirus issue.
A federal judge put the brakes on a plan by a mayor to target worshipers defying orders not to assemble and to stay at home.
Such scenarios have played out in Mississippi, Florida, Kentucky and Virginia.
Michigan is as close to a battlefield as any state.
In Demorest, a small Georgia town just across the mountain in Habersham County, residents were determined to gather and be heard.
Government mandated guidelines regarding social distancing and gatherings were still in place, but citizens showed up – lots of citizens – to a city council meeting. The police chief had been fired by the city manager and they wanted him reinstated.
The citizens piled inside the Demorest courtroom – no masks and no six feet apart.
No one tried to stop them. This was government by the people.
Right here at home, Steve Crump, the district attorney for Tennessee’s Tenth Judicial Circuit, says his office will not prosecute business owners in defiance of Governor Bill Lee’s order to stay closed. Crump calls the closing orders unconstitutional.
Crump’s office serves Polk County.
In countless towns all across America, business owners are saying enough is enough and opening their doors.
They say government does not have the right to take away their freedom to earn a living.
Arresting preachers and threatening church congregations for meeting goes against the very core of America’s foundation. Read the First Amendment.
Saying no more than ten people can be together is a slap in the face to the right of peaceful assembly, guaranteed in that same amendment.
Telling people they cannot come to their own property violates the Fifth Amendment.
And demanding citizens subject to tests and having their temperatures taken, under some circumstances, constitutes an illegal search – a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Government, from the federal all the way down to cities, has been allowed to do all these things under the disguise of protecting the publics’ health. That success or failure will be debated for a very long time and at least through the November election.
But there will be no real, concrete answer.
But no matter, the document designed to hold this country together says “Congress shall make no law” abridging Americans’ freedom.
Yet government has made many rules and has gotten away with it. But now Americans are saying enough is enough.
Health is a serious issue and right now COVID-19 has captured the top spot among such issues. But health cannot be dictated. Personal responsibility, following common sense practices, is the biggest asset in staying healthy no matter the situation.
Throwing money at an issue will certainly not cure it the same as printing stimulus checks won’t.
The real, long term danger is to realize freedoms can be taken away, and government has proven it is willing to do just that. Americans have a duty not to let that happen.
Glenn Harbison is publisher/editor of The News Observer. He can be reached at 706-632-2019 or by email at glenn@thenewsobserver.com.