To the Editor:

The Jackson County commissioners recently made a mistake — an honest, well-meaning, well-intentioned error, yet a mistake nonetheless. Imposing background checks on county volunteers is government intrusion and is wrong. These infringements to our freedoms are totally contrary to the natural rights principles codified by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, the other founders in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and, all the men (and a few women) who fought against and achieved victory over a tyrannical British king.

What took so long for American citizens to allow their government to violate us with airport strip searches, lock down whole cities for martial law exercises by the Department of Homeland Security and the military, conduct illegal searches of people and property in search of one lone alleged bomber (Boston, January 2013), use metal detectors against citizens lawfully entering public buildings, and, yes, forcing county volunteers to endure background checks in an assault on their persons and reputations? Apathy. 

We’re more interested in sports on big screen televisions, adult beverages in our refrigerators, and fast food hamburgers in our stomachs than holding our local, state, and federal representatives honest, open, accountable, and within the constitutional rule of law.

Collectivists (progressives) such as Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler used tools of oppression such as these before and we're seeing these Fascist, authoritarian tools of enslavement used here in America in the 21st century where our government has become the common enemy of us all.

Opposing this fascism are the forces of individual freedom, smaller government, fiscal sanity, and the constitutional rule of law. Numerous men and women in our communities haven't given up on politically restoring the Constitution and the republic, although peacefully accomplishing this is becoming less and less possible everyday.

Call, write and email the county commissioners and demand that they reverse their decision to impose background checks on law-abiding county volunteers. Even something as small as this will send a message to your representatives (those seats are yours and mine) that the Fascist tide must stop and begin to reverse here, now.

What you do here today will make a difference as to whether your children and grandchildren become slaves or whether we reestablish our Creator-given American freedoms.

Which side are you on?

Carl Iobst

Cullowhee