TWO EDITORIALS in the Rome News-Tribune caught my attention. The first was on June 5 and was titled: “Mayor Bloomberg vs. The Big Gulp.’ In it was this statement: “Almost everything government does restricts the freedom of the governed in some way.”

The second was on July 2 and was titled: “Big Government Wins”. It contained this statement: “If there is any mode of behavior that Congress doesn’t like...Congress can now tax you for it, thanks to the decision laid out by the Supreme Court on Thursday.”

Both editorials are pointing to more government intrusion into the lives of Americans.

This leads to what I understand to be the most basic principle of government, expressed by Thomas Jefferson in his famous dictum that government is best which governs least.

Our Founding Fathers understood that the greatest enemy of man has always been government. And the larger, the more extensive that government, the greater the enemy.

The Constitution has all sorts of checks and balances in it for the federal government. In fact, in order for the Constitution to be ratified the states demanded that it included the Bill of Rights to make sure the freedom of the governed was preserved by restricting the federal government.

In the beginning the United States was the greatest beneficiary from a restricted Federal Government that the world has ever known, but our leaders have turned their backs on the Constitution.

A good start on turning things around would be 1) the citizens of our nation standing together in the defense of the Constitution. James Madison declared our state legislators to be the “sure guardians of our liberty.” This means that when the federal government attempts to use its unconstitutional power, the states must have the courage to say, “We will not comply”.

And never forget that “we the people” can replace our members of the House and Senate with true constitutionally-minded patriots.