The Midnight Ride of Ayn Rand

Listen, my children, and you shall learn

Of the personal liberty for which all people yearn,

Since the fourth of July, in Seventy-six;

It's been the core of our country's life and politics

Liberty is what people fight for 'til their very last breath

As Patrick Henry said, "Give me liberty or give me death!”

Fighters for freedom have forever sought

Individual freedom which can be neither sold nor bought.

By word and by deed the ruling class has tried

To diminish the rights for which our forefathers died.

As far back as the Pharaoh who enslaved the Jews

Mankind has strived to live and die as we choose.

And just as America rebelled to be free of the crown

Paul Revere made a midnight ride of renown.

In order to warn all the good local people

He had his friend place a lantern atop the town steeple

One lantern if the British came by land and two if by sea

Then he'd know which towns to warn with his horse riding plea.

Two lanterns went up on high and in time he did see

So off went Revere on his horse like a sprite on a spree.

Revere rode his horse many miles deep into the night

Warning patriots to get up  to get ready to fight.

"The British are coming to keep us all down

Wake up, wake up and defend home and town!""

They rose in defiance against the redcoats

Who'd come in the thousands by sea and in boats.

In Concord the Minutemen all stood their ground

And Americans were tested...more courage they found.

At last they gave the redcoats a resounding defeat

And became a free country and made the king's men retreat.

Then our Founders Jefferson, Adams and Madison wrote

That each citizen was entitled to a voice and to vote.

But the rights and liberties were not for all yet secured

For to make a new Union libertarians demurred.

After many contentious and angry debates,

They allowed slavery to persist in the southern states.

So, the goal of full freedom for all was then suspended:

Universal rights for all was still a mountain to be ascended.

Frederick Douglass, like Moses to Pharaoh, said "Let my people go!"

In response the slave owners said emphatically, “No!”

This conflict broke out in a great Civil War

To abolish slavery and open the door

To free all people no matter their race

And spread personal freedom all over the place.

But the journey for freedom was still not complete

For universal rights people marched in the street.

Led by suffragette women who took up the cause

To broaden the franchise and update the laws

So all women could be as free as all males

Because when freedom is denied to some, then democracy fails.

Susan B. Anthony was a leader who ended this sin,

Winning the right to vote for women, not just men.

A few years later another woman made a bold philosophical case

For why individual freedom is essential to the entire human race.

She fled from Soviet Russia where the state ruled in totality

And with personal liberty made a success that changed her life -- and all reality.

Ayn Rand earned her fame writing adventurous stories

In which heroes fought moochers to create their own glories.

In The Fountainhead novel she would forcefully proclaim

That compromising personal integrity is a crime and a shame.

Atlas Shrugged was a philosophical book of wondrous fiction

Celebrating achievement and individualism without government restriction.

Her writing ranged from the nature of reality to personal ethics

From epistemology, art, to politics and economics.

Her many writings continue to inspire and enthrall

With a theme that endures and runs through them all:

To thine own self be true in a rational way,

Be true in your actions and in what you say.

Treat people as fairly as justice deems true

Demand respect in the way everyone treats you.

Ayn Rand was the unique and the true founding mother

Of the liberty movement that fights contra Big Brother

Who promoted the moral foundation of capitalism

And exposed the pitfalls of all forms of socialism.

Rand’s message is diametrically opposed to big government and socialistic opinions

It’s anathema to Marx and all of his minions.

She shaped and inspired our best politicians

To shrink government as part of their larger ambitions.

By showing how ethical self-interest makes us each more empowered

And how this is so much better than being a victim or coward.

Why we must chase the goal for which our heart is yearning

And spend our energy and capital and focus in earning.

She explained how the deep state and its cronies are all in cahoots

And turn government into a bank that redistributes

From the people who create what others desire

And how this always turns an economy into a downbeat quagmire.

Because to do this they must make the state big and strong

And this is very inefficient and morally wrong.

Objectivism is her philosophy,

With five philosophic branches on the tree

While the movement now has a few different factions

With different approaches that sometimes constrain interactions.

Its ideas should be celebrated under a great big tent

Whose tent poles are grounded in Rand’s original intent:

*Rational self-interest between each person on earth;

*Rational people with their rights intact from their birth;

*Personal freedom that’s matched with accountability;

*Where each individual takes responsibility;

*Where we admire the creator who achieves excellence,

*Where pride is a virtue -- but so is benevolence;

*Where the government is limited and finite and small;

*And there is freedom and justice and liberty for all.