Earlier in my software sales career, while working with a large IT organization on a contract, the person who was my main contact had the job of corralling multiple silos of their business together in order to determine how many licenses of software each was consuming and whether they actually needed what they were allocated from corporate.  It was not a job he enjoyed as he would regularly refer to them sarcastically as ‘Fiefdoms’.  Not having used that word in my everyday life, I needed to go back and look up the official definition.

          The word Fiefdom came from medieval times in France referring to a local community with a separate authority of their own who had vowed their allegiance to an overlord power in exchange for military protection.  Otherwise known as Feudalism.  In the corporate world, a large company may have multiple business units which operate separately, but still are subject to the headquarters authority and their profits roll up to the overall company bottom line which is where my friend so rightly labeled the business units in his company. 

          When one of these Fiefdoms decided not to pay tribute or agree with the demands of the overlord, they would pay a heavy price for breaking with authority.  Today, we would view that feudalistic form of governance as tyrannical. 

Our country was formed as a result of our founders rebelling against a very similar thing; not wanting to be controlled by a distant authority without representation.  The result was the formation of the republic we have today governed by, what was intended to be, a limited federal government not only protecting the republic militarily, but also protecting their God-given human rights and freedoms.

Ironically, our country is slowing moving back to a system of centralized power which is gaining more and more control over the individual and giving it back to the state.  No matter what political party we may hold allegiance to, we are all becoming increasingly subject to this all-powerful government of our own making to the point where our country is at a crossroad in our history.

My hope and prayer is that, as a nation, we would awaken at the wheel of this out of control vehicle that seems to be hopelessly driving us ever closer to the edge of the cliff of freedom threatening to drive us right into the abyss of tyranny once again.  Most of all, my prayer is for our country to awaken to our need for a higher power than any government can provide.  Only then will we truly be free; both in our natural lives and in our hearts…

Love always my friends,

Brad