The true meaning of the immortal words of Benjamin Franklin regarding liberty and security has been debated since he put quill to paper in 1775.

“Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety,” the founding father wrote, “deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

While historians and scholars have rarely come to agreement as to whether Franklin was referring to the actual suspension of civil liberties in the interest of protecting against potential invasions, or simply to taxes levied in order to fund defense against French and Indian attacks, the quote has taken on a universally accepted meaning in modern times: Our Constitutional rights must never be surrendered in the interest of protecting against threats, real or imagined.

We at Citizens for Free Speech are extremely distressed by the precedent-setting acceptance of a nationwide assault on the Bill of Rights by local and state governments, all in the name of protecting Americans from the pandemic Coronavirus.

While we are sensitive to the realities of the health threat this pandemic has posed to all nations since its inception in People’s Republic of China, we are concerned by the near-total submission of free citizens when it comes to their First, Second, and Fourth Amendments. Americans have been asked, and have agreed, to abdicate their rights because government officials, guided by a medical community that has admittedly never seen anything like the COVID-19 virus before, have deemed it necessary to expand their power to levels previously unseen by inciting panic and hysteria among an already frightened population.

As detailed in the petition we are now circulating, it is up to us, as Constitutionally protected citizens, to become outspoken defenders of our rights to free assembly, freedom of religion, freedom to bear arms, and freedom against unjust governmental search and seizure. It is our duty as Americans to protect against more than just a pandemic that, statistically speaking, has turned out to be a far cry from the insidious threat it was made out to be. It is our duty to protect against governmental overreach that, when the health “crisis” has passed, may prove to be impossible to restore to its Constitutionally-mandate level.

Please join us in this movement. We are asking you to sign the petition on our home page, and to share it with everyone on your contact list, through email or social media. Help us send a powerful message to government executives at all levels that we will not surrender our rights in fear of any enemy, foreign or domestic, whether that enemy invades by ground forces, or by contaminated air.