Welcome to Pride in America Month. Every day in the month of June and through Independence Day, we will highlight a figure who has demonstrated and defended American values. Consider it a healthy alternative to the Left's June celebration that has taken over the media and corporate America.
For many, Idaho serves as a place of refuge. For the Weaver family, it was a place for them to build their lives free of the ills of society, a place to find an escape.
The Weaver family left a troubled farming economy in Iowa for north Idaho in the 1980s. They lived in a quaint cabin built by Randy and his wife, Vicky, in the mountains near the town of Naples. There, they kept to themselves, raising their children and living as they believed God intended.
The Weaver family embraced the true Idaho way of life — independent, honest, and free. They didn’t need government or society to survive. Their children were homeschooled, they built what they had, and they didn’t rely on welfare to make ends meet. It was a lifestyle that our founders envisioned for all Americans. On a mountaintop in north Idaho, the Weaver family was able to live in a way that was so rooted in liberty that most Americans today could not even imagine.
Americans’ dependence on the government is proportional to its glut. Presently, the government controls your health care, your education, and even your business, to name a few. There is no safe haven from the tyranny of a government that has grown too large — not even in a place as remote as north Idaho.
Despite simply wanting to be left alone, the government sought to leverage Randy Weaver for its own purposes. When he refused to participate in the scheme, the government retorted with a demand for absolute submission. They were going to take the family’s home and, by extension, their way of life.
Officials maintain that they were serving justice but they killed two innocent parties in the process: Randy’s son, Sam, and his wife, Vicky — who was unarmed when she was shot in the head by an FBI sniper. Randy himself was ultimately acquitted of his charges, but the damage was already done.
In a documentary of the incident, U.S. Marshall Dave Hunt described a conversation he had with Randy about quarreling with the government. He said to Randy, “You don’t really understand what the full weight and power of this government is, and what it would really mean if you want a confrontation with it.” This served as an ominous warning for the Weaver family and continues to ring true for all Americans today.
As Idahoans, our duty is to keep the government small and our beautiful state as the last safe haven from tyranny. Many are fleeing our counterparts to the south and west of our borders to escape socialist policies. It is imperative that we don’t import these failing ideas as well.
For Idahoans, the Weaver family serves as both an inspiration and a warning. They inspire us to seek a life grounded in values — built on faith, free of government overreach and our modern dystopian society. Yet they serve as a warning of the cost of allowing the government to get too large, crushing liberty, the Idaho way, and anything else in its path.
Do you have a great American who deserves to be celebrated this month? Let us know!
