A crazy story just broke in the last few days…..about a squirrel!....you heard me, a crazy story about a squirrel…..I’m about to tell you a story of Squirrels and Men……his name was Peanut and he was an internet sensation….a guy named Mark Longo lives in New York State…..he adopted Peanut the Squirrel when he found him orphaned as a baby and raised him as a pet for the past seven years….seven years!….Peanut was trained and happy and living in Mark’s house…..they had a constant presence on social media with hundreds of thousands of followers…..and then the State of New York decided that Peanut had to go…..on an anonymous tip law enforcement officials from the State Dept. of Conservation got a Judge to sign a warrant….they raided Longo’s house and detained he and his wife….they seized their pet squirrel and a pet raccoon named Fred….and they euthanized them…..let that sink in…..illegal immigrants, Drag Queen Story Hours, street crimes, urban decay….but the State of New York was able to convince a Judge that a happy squirrel was a threat to law and order so they seized him and they killed him…..the outrage has gone viral….

“Peanut was the best thing that ever happened to us,” Longo told TMZ in an interview over the weekend…..He said, “It not only tears my family apart, but Peanut was the cornerstone of our non-profit animal rescue,” he added. “And ten to twelve DEC officers raided my house as if I was a drug dealer. I sat outside my house for five hours. I had to get a police escort to my bathroom. I wasn’t even allowed to feed my rescue horses ….. I sat there like a criminal after they interrogated my wife to check her immigration status.”

The Department of Conservation was asked what sparked the raid on Longo’s house…..they merely replied that anonymous reports had indicated that wildlife was potentially at risk and being kept illegally…..it was a rescue farm! Where they cared for abandoned and mistreated animals!....with a website and a huge social media following that clearly showed animals that were loving life with people that loved them back…..In fact, the business name was P’nuts Freedom Farm and ove time they have rescued over 350 animals and nursed them back to health….Long said, that he is very concerned now about the future viability of the rescue farm because P’nut’s social media followers were a big part of the revenue they relied on to run the facility……Mark Longo, in a separate interview with the AP said, “Honestly, this still kind of feels surreal, that the state that I live in actually targeted me and took two of the most beloved animals on this planet away, didn’t even quarantine them. They took them from my house and just killed them,”

Peanut the Squirrel has become the rallying cry for people who believe that government has run amok…..for people who believe that government does what government does and we are supposed to just sit there and be quiet…..well, how about no……how about good folks need to stand up…..push back…..because the story of P’nut the Squirrel is about two things….it is the human interest story about a guy who had his beloved pet taken from him….it is also about a big government run by big government bureaucrats whose priorities are no longer about serving the people who pay taxes to support the big government…..Thomas Jefferson once said, “the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground”….meaning that as government gets bigger the citizens get smaller…..liberties begin to take second place to government’s desire to prove its own self worth and reasons for existence…..

A famous quote, attributed to multiple speakers over time, including Ronald Reagan, says that “a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything you have”…..well said….and now we know that this can be applied to your pets….no matter how much you love them, care for them, and rely on them….if big government has a concern then big government believes that it has the right to your pets…..

Look, I’ve said before that I am not one of those who believes that all government is bad….I know that government serves a purpose…. But when government gets so big that it becomes more of an impediment to progress, more of an impediment to quality of life, then you have to ask whether big government means little citizens…..When we find ourselves fully dependent on govt then there is little incentive….little drive….little fulfillment….there is only expectationand a sense that we are entitled….with entitlement, all we do is demand…..we no longer create….we are required then to exist off of the revenues collected by government…..

And for those who still try to produce….to thrive….or to create….the government must have more from you….while also creating more regulations to tell you how, when and where you will provide for the govt so that the govt can give to those entitled individuals who have chosen the govt as their first resort…..

One of my favorite authors, Oswald Sanders, in a work that was actually designed for Christian leadership, but applies in any category, Sanders said this:

“The spirit of the welfare state does not produce leaders. If a [person] is not willing to rise early and work late, to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired.”

I don’t want the US to be a mediocre country….I don’t want Alabama to be a mediocre state….We should never desire to be a nation of low level producers who reach out to govt for the next stimulus check, the next handout, the next excuse why I don’t have to go to work…..a nation where productivity is stymied by so many regulations that folks just give up trying….where taxation becomes so onerous that people choose not to produce just to avoid govt reaching into their wallets again…..a nation where anonymous miscreants can call the state and claim that your beloved pet is a threat to the well ordered society and then come and seize it,….and kill it.

If we get to the point that people cannot exist without the government….it will only be because we have forgotten that government actually cannot survive without the people….then we are just like that proverbial self-licking ice cream cone….just existing for the never ending loop of mediocrity …..living off what the government gives us while in turn feeding an ever-growing government.

So I’m a conservative for a number of reasons…..one of which is limited government. I don’t balk at govt existing…..I don’t rail against the machine and believe that all elected officials are corrupt…..but I do believe that too much government is never best….For us to win as a nation we must have the “will of the people” not the “will of the govt”……Govt should exist solely to ensure that liberty survives…..to free-up the private citizen to build the better mousetrap….to set the parameters for national growth…..to make options available …..not mandates…..

Liberal progressives believe that the American spirit is a myth…that government knows best….that you exist for the benefit of government and not the other way around….liberal progressives believe govt should always be the first resort when you face a personal hardship…..not your family, your church, your community, and certainly not your own self-determination……

For the past few years we have lived under more government regulation and interaction with our personal lives than perhaps ever in the history of our nation…..and recent developments indicate that big govt advocates have no intention of slowing that roll……

But like so many of you listening…..I am a conservative….I believe in limited government…..a government that is responsive to be sure….but one that is not in the way….I am a conservative so I believe in a limited government that allows freedom of movement….one that sets the stage for success….and then steps back and applauds when the private sector knocks another home run out of the park……

I am a conservative…….I believe in the satisfaction that comes from enduring….from creating….from achieving….from trying, failing, trying again, and succeeding through effort, real effort, not big government entitlements or stifling regulations.

Limited government…….just one reason I choose to be a conservative.

And that’s a wrap for the Rightside Way!