Dear Editor:

If you are a citizen of the United States, you are free and sovereign. It’s the governments and their employees who are chained and restricted.

First there was God. God created man and gave him dominion over earth.

Man then created state government, which created federal government.

These governments were created by writing contracts precisely defining the limited authority of these governments. These contracts are the federal Constitution and the state constitutions.

These contracts severely restrict governments, not us. We retain the infinite other authorities we have not delegated to governments. As the authors, we are superior to the governments chained by these contracts.

These contracts also list individual, citizen rights. Not because governments grant them (they don’t, God does), but to remind governments that they cannot infringe on any of these God-given rights.

Government employees work under the thumb of citizens. Citizens do not work under the thumb of government.

Government employees MUST obey the contract. They must stay within the limited authority defined by these contracts, or their actions, orders and “laws” are unlawful, null and void.

We do not need lawyers or courts to define a violation. Normal citizens have the authority and the intelligence to read and evaluate the contracts ourselves. We can then directly call out government employees who are violating their limits of authority and ignore their orders.

As for government enforcers — such as police, soldiers, health officials, tax collectors and department heads — they too must stay within the limited authorities delegated to them in the federal and state constitutions. These enforcers are often misused by rogue leaders who order them to enforce unconstitutional (unlawful) orders. It is at this point where these enforcers must choose to either refuse or obey.

If they refuse to enforce an unlawful order, they remain a moral, lawful, public servant. If they obey, they become an immoral, unlawful, henchman. They may justify their behavior by saying, “I am just following orders,” even though they know those orders are wrong. Or instead, they can protect themselves (and citizens) by recalling that it is eternally better to lose their job than lose their soul. The rogue leaders won’t be around to defend enforcers from judgment when they meet their maker.

Governments also cannot cavalierly charge citizens with unconstitutional “crimes.” When they do, other citizens can protect them.

To charge a citizen with a federal crime, the federal government must seek approval of a grand jury of citizens. Up to 23 are seated and it takes 12 yes votes to OK advancing to a trial. Then a jury of six to 12 citizens are seated for a trial.

States typically skip the grand jury process and take an accused citizen directly to trial by a jury of citizens.

Only one not guilty vote will hang a jury trial. Citizens can overrule government overreach by voting not guilty when seated on juries.

In the USA, law-abiding citizens are superior to government. But only if we hold them to account.

Mike Johnson

Wapiti