Ottawa Values Freedom, Faith, & Family
Elected leaders should speak boldly for virtuous governance and stand firm against government that oversteps its authority.
Community leaders posted the following open letter in early 2020:
We challenge passive leadership and elected leaders who refuse to speak out against coercive government overreach that offends the Constitution and tramples the rights of individuals and families.
We hold that all people have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others.
Ottawa County has remained a comfortable, peaceful place to live since it was established in 1837. Unfortunately, peace and comfort has led to complacency and unpreparedness.
In 2020, petty tyrants exercised unimaginable power and coercion over law-abiding citizens by forcing them to stay their homes, shutting down businesses and schools, and threatening to use force against anyone that would disobey the government’s ambiguous rules and ever-changing edicts.
We deny the right of the government to do these things, and hold that our elected leaders in Ottawa County have stood idly by without taking a public, conspicuous stand against these attacks on liberty and freedom.
Elected representatives must lead boldly. They must reject passivity and protect the people. Elected leaders who are silent are complicit in acts of tyranny.
We, the members of Ottawa Values, will use all legal means to prevent the local and state government from using force, fines, and threats against innocent citizens in Ottawa County – citizens who simply want to exercise their God-given rights to live their lives and raise their families in the manner they deem best.
“It is the natural, fundamental right of parents and legal guardians to determine and direct the care, teaching, and education of their children.”
“The civil and political rights, privileges and capacities of no person shall be diminished or enlarged on account of his religious belief.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”