This week marked two significant events in history, one a technological landmark and the other was the beginning of the most critical event in our nation's history since the Revolution. Fifty years ago on April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into outer space completing an orbit of the Earth before returning back to our planet. Although he was considered to be the pioneer who completed the first manned flight, later documents revealed the Soviet Russians kept hidden the fact that Gagarin actually had to eject from his Vostok spacecraft about four miles above the ground as they had not perfected a way to slow the craft safely on its return to the ground. This does not change the milestone that contributed to fuelling the space race resulting in the United States Apollo 11 mission that landed on the moon a little over eight years later.

The Apollo 11 mission became one of the most brilliant inspiring moments in the history of this country bringing the world together to celebrate this significant event in which we actually set foot on our closest cosmic neighbor. It was a triumphant moment that paused the world for just a few moments as we watched what human ingenuity and perseverance brought to bear. Forty two years later though we really have not progressed with space travel apparently having been content to repeatedly orbit the Earth in the space shuttle and building the space stations rather than visiting the moon again. It's almost like we have lost our way leading me to the second event of the week.One hundred fifty years ago coincidentally on April 12th, Confederate General Pierre Bureaugard opened fire and laid siege to Fort Sumter, South Carolina officially beginning the American Civil War, a struggle in which over 600,000 men and some women laid down their lives to defend their ways of life and ultimately preserve the Union. Six hundred thousand Americans who fought and died for their beliefs. The Northern side fought to preserve the Union and keep the states intact on this continent. The Southern side fought to retain their ability to self-govern themselves and not be dictated to by the Federal government over what they can and cannot do in their individual states. Unfortunately the issue that fuelled the right to self-government was slavery, but it should not be overlooked that ultimately sovereign control was the South's goal.President Abraham Lincoln's goal was to preserve the union not necessarily free the slaves. Some argue that Lincoln intended to return them to Africa at the close of the war leading one to believe that the issue of slavery may have been a political tool used to isolate the South and subvert the idea that sovereignty was the major issue. I suspect the North's victory did prevent atrocities from occurring in that if the Southerners were able to enter the Industrial Revolution with slaves they may have destroyed them once they were no longer needed. This may have created a genocide rivaling the Nazis' "Final Solution" one of the worst atrocities in the modern history of the human race and one which we put an end to by destroying that fascist regime.The problem is our destiny as a country shifted five years later in 1865 when General Robert E. Lee lay down his arms and surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox. That event signaled the end of the bloodshed and a victory to the North preserving the Union and setting the now sad precedent that gave the Federal government carte blanche to lord over the states. In the one hundred and forty five years since that moment, the government has deteriorated to the point where they are a shadow of what our founding fathers intended their "grand experiment" to be.I do not know what it will take for the American public to realize that we are surrendering our country to tyranny run by corporations, greed and career politicians who have cleverly disguised their lust for power by creating two sides to divide the people and keep them from demanding their birthright. They have spent us so deep into a hole that there is almost no way out of the mess we are in. These five hundred plus politicians from the Congress to the President spend what they don't have, hide what they don't want us to know and keep us fighting so that we remain blind to the true enemy, the corrupted government of this country.We send people to Washington with the best of intentions but they are repeatedly subverted and eventually sucked into a system of corruption and spit out jaded. Consider this. Why would these people pay millions of dollars for a job that only pays a few hundred thousand? How do most of them leave this service position wealthier than when they started?We need to face the truth. Career politicians have divided this country and sold us a bill of goods. They have made the government what it was not intended to be, a nanny who takes care of us whether we want it or not. A government that has overregulated us to death and stolen our freedom. Wake up America! You have bureaucrats pawing and molesting you when you try to travel on airplanes. They listen to your every conversation. They have sold the soul of this nation to foreign interests and have indebted us to the point that makes it impossible to be independent.This is no way to honor the patriots who died for us. No one can "opt" out of this country anymore unless you want to be under the thumb of these tyrants. We all need to take a stand.