Starting a Brush Fire for Freedom - An interview with US Rep. Ron Paul (Feb 9)

"Every individual has a responsibility to be informed..."

http://www.rutherford.org/articles/oldspeak-Ronpaul.asp

When asked what advice he would give to Americans concerned about the growing power of the federal government and the various threats to our liberties, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex.) quoted Samuel Adams: "Every individual has a responsibility to be informed, to know what is going on and to know the issues. As Samuel Adams once said, 'Go out and start a brush fire.' And you can do that with one individual or many. You can become a teacher or a writer or help somebody in politics. But you can only start a brush fire for freedom if you feel confident that you understand the issues and really can defend liberty as being the best system for all of us." (...) Since the 9/11 tragedy, Dr. Paul has been an outspoken critic of the USA Patriot Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which he believes are a threat to liberty and a sign that our country is becoming more like a police state. "The idea that search warrants could be granted so easily under the Patriot Act," says Dr. Paul. "with sneak and peak searches and going into libraries and other places to find out what people are doing is wrong. It's total surveillance." Dr. Paul has also been a strong critic of the war in Iraq, going so far as to call it "unconstitutional" because there was no formal declaration of war, and "immoral" because there was no direct attack on our country. "Iraq is a Third World Nation that couldn't defend itself," says Dr. Paul. "This has been proven to be correct. We had been bombing them, flying over their air space, intimidating them and controlling them for 12 years. They have been trying to shoot our airplanes down, and never have been able to. Iraq simply could not defend itself."