OPINION — I’ve long admired the yearly tradition of the late Charley Reese, a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, who would provide his readers with an annual disclosure of who he was and where he stood.
His reasoning was that if an opinion columnist is going to write all year about the passing scene, we deserve to have a clear understanding of exactly where he or she stands.
That seems fair to me.
For better or worse, here’s who I am and where I stand.
I’m a Salt Lake City native who has spent nearly 20 years in Southern Idaho, two years in Oklahoma, 22 years in Southern Utah and now resides in Utah County.
I am registered as a Republican and have served as a delegate at the precinct, county and state level. That is about as pragmatic as I’ll get and I do so as a matter of civic duty rather than a pathway to power.
I despise partisan politics and only participate in them to the degree that I can use my personal influence to support the principles of proper limited government.
To my understanding, legitimate government is created by the governed for the express purpose of securing and protecting our natural, inherent rights. That means the rights of the individual are to be protected from the predations of the collective.
It also means that man’s laws are secondary to natural laws, which exist before and in the absence of man-made government. If an act would be considered morally reprehensible for an individual to do, it will not become a moral act when performed by government at any level.
This is why I also believe that good government is necessarily checked by a competing moral authority. Otherwise, the relativistic nature of man can justify nearly any atrocity out of “necessity.”
For this reason, I cannot support the initiation of aggressive force against another person. We have a natural right to defend our lives, property and self-determination. We have no right to use personal or collective force against peaceful individuals to bend them to our will.
The most life-changing discovery I have ever made was not that God exists but rather when I began to notice evidence of His hand in the smallest details of my own life.
This realization has added depth of purpose and a dimension of gratitude to my life that defines my priorities. It also informs and guides how I choose to use the skills and abilities I’ve spent a lifetime developing.
I make my living by providing written and spoken commentary and content for a number of podcasts, broadcasts and nonprofit organizations. I do this as a private contractor through my company With One Voice LLC.
The name of my company doesn’t refer to my own voice. It alludes to the goal of informing and inspiring others to rally “with one voice” around the time-tested ideas and principles that lift and bless mankind.
Though it’s often an uphill battle, to put it mildly, it’s humbling to help repay the debt I owe to those who paved the way before me.
Somewhere, back in my 40s, I likely crossed the statistical “hump day” of my life expectancy and the years ahead of me became shorter than the years behind me. Since that time, I’ve made time to conduct a yearly personal accounting of sorts.
More than compiling a tally sheet of accomplishments and acquirements, I try instead to ascertain my current position as well as where my life’s trajectory is leading me.
My goal is not to keep up with the Joneses.
It is to use whatever time and influence I may have as wisely as possible. Impact and purpose matter more than fleeting conditions like fame or fortune.
That is who I am and where I stand.
On a completely unrelated note, today marks the realization of a long-term dream to be able to speak the truth from a national media platform.
The Loving Liberty Radio Network officially launches today and represents a needed alternative for the truth-seekers who are experiencing a crisis of credibility in much of our mass media. These are the people who recognize the priceless value of individual liberty, freedom of conscience, private property rights and the principles that make them possible.
In today’s over-politicized climate, too much of the crucial information about the world around us is tainted by red team vs. blue team melodrama. The Loving Liberty Radio Network brings together a diverse team of national hosts who fluently speak the language of liberty without bogging down in partisan outrage.
The free streaming app is available on Google Play as well as through the iTunes App Store.
Time alone will tell if it is a success or not. Either way, it has been a privilege to help with building this platform.
Bryan Hyde is an opinion columnist specializing in current events and liberty viewed through what he calls the lens of common sense. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @youcancallmebry
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.
Excellent article! That is the very reason I can’t align with the democratic party, as I believe in freedom. I don’t believe in subjecting other people to being forced to conform to my personal beliefs and convictions. Once you start doing that, it’s not freedom anymore.
Democrats believe in freedom too. Do you always make ridiculous assumptions?
And if you don’t think Republicans expect people to conform to their “personal beliefs and convictions” *cough… bs* you aren’t paying attention to what’s happening in the Utah legislature. Thwarting the will of voters??? Democrats don’t pull crap like that. The Republican-controlled [see LDS Church controlled] lawmakers think every single voter in Utah should conform to their beliefs. Whether they like it or not. If you call that freedom, you have a very warped and twisted view of just what freedom is.
[hint: that’s NOT freedom]
You’re just looking at the limited scope of Utah. I have lived both inside and outside of Utah, so I see the bigger picture. Your suggestion that democrats believe in freedom is laughable, at best. They vote to take away our freedoms. Republicans as a whole defend our freedoms. Trump protects our freedom, and will continue to do so in 2020. Drain the swamp, and build that wall!
An oversimplification, but there is a general thread of truth: Democrats, in general, want to maximize your personal freedoms (e.g., abortion rights, voting rights, workplace rights) while reigning in your economic freedoms (higher taxes, more regulation); Republicans, in general, want to maximize your economic freedoms (lower taxes, less regulation) while reigning in your personal freedoms (legislating their version of morality). Libertarians (and anarchists) want to maximize both personal and economic freedoms.
^this
One of the best generalizations of the modern parties I have seen in a while.
Keep your tinfoil hat on. Your statement is false. Democrats are the ones who want to regulate things, which = less freedom. Myself and many others can’t align with a party that supports unnecessary abortions. It is murder, and protecting the lives of unborn children sounds like more freedom to me! Ignorance is bliss though right?
My comment to the red bud got axed so I’ll try to post a sweeter, nicer version of it in a short time.
Are you much of a reader, redbud? Extreme black and white thinking is what got us creatures like Hitler and similar throughout history. No one is faultless and neither party is completely good or completely bad. Your logic of D=pure evil vs R=faultless angels is actually dangerous. You’ve boiled politics down to seeing everything in terms of bad guy vs. good guy, like a child’s comic book or something. I hope you can snap out of this and and realize that this is not how the world works.
Hitler had no problem murdering innocent people, so by your logic, Hitler=murder=democrats=abortion=more murder. So if you want to talk about Hitler, make sure you remember that the democratic party more closely aligns with hilter than anything. Ouch, truth hurts don’t it?
“Trump protects our freedom, and will continue to do so in 2020. Drain the swamp, and build that wall!”
This statement right here is precisely why the Republican party is doomed.
Trump protects Trump and he’s an international embarrassment. He will be lucky… LUCKY, if he even makes it to 2020.
Kind of hard to drain the swamp when he and his ilk are the very muck at the bottom of the swamp, clogging the drain.
That wall is not going to happen. Never. Ever.
Have a great day! 😉
Iceplant, Stormy Daniels was just ordered to pay almost $300,000 for defaming President Trump. Just goes to show that people like you exist to make baseless claims against Trump just because you don’t like him. Fake news deserves karma, it came Stormy’s way, and the rest is to come! Sit back and enjoy the show, Trump 2020!
LOL… I can’t stop laughing at this: “Just goes to show that people like you exist to make baseless claims against Trump just because you don’t like him.”
Yeah, because that’s MY sole purpose for existing. To make baseless claims against Trump. Did you even look at that comment before you posted it? What a ridiculous assertion. And Stormy Daniels? REALLY? I don’t give one single rip about Stormy, her relationship with Trump(which obviously happened), or any of that tabloid-style drama that your precious president seems to wrap himself in like a warm blanket on a cold day. You clearly do, though.
Tell me something, genius. What do you think of Individual 1’s personal attorney getting sentenced to three years in federal prison? Are you gonna ignore the fact that he’s going to prison because he LIED about what he did on Individual 1’s behalf? Does that even matter to you? Does truth matter to you? Because I don’t get the impression that it really does. The only truth that seems to matter to you is your own version of it. Or Trump’s version.
And I agree. Trump 2020 all the way baby!!!
20 years for obstruction and 20 years for treason. YES! 😀
Is this Bryan’s resignation from stgnews? How will he have time to write for some small-time obscure local news outlet when he’s off to the big leagues of hosting a national radio platform?(!!!) Who knows, he might become the next Alex Jones(!!!).
“…a diverse team of national hosts who fluently speak the language of liberty”
well… ok then. Am I safe to assume “the language of liberty” isn’t Chinese or something? I’m too old and tired to learn a new language.
😉
Well Mr Hyde, nice to know who you are and where you stand. Funny thing we are not that far apart, and very much alike in regards to core values and spiritual experiences. The exception, not mentioned in the article are mere political preferences. Those preferences would make us appear miles apart and in opposite corners. Yet in truth it only appears that way due to the 100x magnification of partisan politics as manifested by this current era of polarization. Good luck on the Loving Radio Network. Hope it works out.
Kilroy, are you a member of The Lord’s Church as well?