February 6, 2013

Happiness

By Tammy Derouin

Happiness, it’s such a simple word, a word we take for granted.  The desire to be happy impacts our life every day.  Happiness is what drives us; it inspires us to take chances.  If your destination doesn’t include happiness, where are you going?  Many times we fail but we never give up.  We take chances financially, with our careers, in relationships, in our travels.  Our whole life is a risk.  We will willingly go through misery if the ultimate goal is to be happy. 

I was reminded of something my daughter, Maddie, asked me over the holidays.  We were at a holiday function when she surprised me with the question, “Do you want peace, love and happiness?”  I remember pausing.  Where did this question come from?  A minute ago she and her sister Caitlyn were busy shooting everything and everybody in sight with Nerf Guns.  It turned out she was attempting to be humorous.  She has picked up on my fondness of sarcastic humor and wanted to show me she could do it too.  The humorous part was supposedly in the follow-up, but I have yet to find it.  She now has a better understanding of sarcastic humor and she’s improving.

What a profound question.  Who doesn’t want peace, love and happiness in their life?  If those three words aren’t the motivating drive in anyone’s life, I don’t know what is.  Why would we put ourselves on a path of pain and misery if the ultimate goal wasn’t happiness?  We make decisions in life we know will cause us distress and heartache in the short term.  We will willingly sacrifice the “here and now” in the hopes that the “down the road” will be much happier. 

What meaning does life have if we aren’t happy or pursuing happiness?  In today’s high speed world, it’s still the goal but it tends to get overlooked.  Maybe we would feel guilty if we were to admit that a simpler life would make us happy.  Technology can be a wonderful thing but has it made our lives easier?  In many ways it’s only made life more complicated.  We have all been too busy to notice what is happening to us and our country. 

Our quality of life, our liberty and our happiness are all at stake.  Our founder’s knew the importance of happiness.  They included, “The pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.  They state, “…and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” in the Preamble of the Constitution.  If we don’t secure the blessings of liberty, there will no longer be life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.  Obama once made an offensive statement that certain people cling to their guns and their God.  We as a people must cling to our rights.  The people of the United States have a Constitution that ensures freedom but only if it’s followed.  The Constitution includes The Bill of Rights.  These are our God-given rights.  The government didn’t give us these rights, God did.  The government will however, be more than happy to eliminate them.  I guarantee once that happens, people will be clinging to the Constitution.  Sadly, it will no longer exist.  This will be the point when people will realize what an extraordinary document we had in our Constitution.

Without freedom and liberty, happiness doesn’t exist.  Our government is out of control.  The government has been and continues to over step the restrictions that were put in place by the Constitution.  We have an absolute ruler.  We have a spoiled child that thumbed his nose at the American way of life, yet somehow managed to fool the population to be elected not once but twice.  When he doesn’t get his way he holds his breath, blames others or simply does what he wants.  The pen is indeed mightier than the sword.  The sword is used to enforce the pen.  By disarming the population, the sword has a much easier job.

A senator has already claimed that Obama will make many more changes by executive order.  The ruler continues to make Congress obsolete.  The abuse of Executive Orders must end.  I’m curious, how many congressmen have actually read the Constitution?  If they have read it, why don’t they enforce it?  If they haven’t read it, why are they there?  They have the tool.  They lack knowledge or courage, probably both.  There are ways to stop the Executive Branch from over reaching; it’s called checks and balance.  The other branches must do their job or they and ultimately we, will become obsolete.  We must secure liberty not only for ourselves but for our posterity.  Will this be the generation that had it all and carelessly gave it all away?

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The Constitution: Amendment X