About Grass Roots Patriots of Hawkins County
We are a group of ordinary Hawkins County citizens, concerned by an accelerating authoritarian trend in government that is encroaching on the freedoms we have inherited from sturdy, self-reliant forbearers, but perhaps which we have taken too much for granted.
God-given rights they may be, but rights can be taken from us by evil people who would enslave us if they can. Our ancestors had to fight to earn the rights we have inherited, and we need to fight to keep them. That said, we advocate for peaceful means within the Constitutional framework we inherited. Violence begets violence, and that can get ugly fast.
Many people today have an expectation that government should solve all our problems. We believe that more often government is the problem—not the solution—and that the cure for too much government is personal responsibility and community self-reliance from the bottom up, with individuals, families, and communities working together.
The Grass Roots Patriots of Hawkins County have five basic tenets:
- The principle that all people have God-given rights to Life and Liberty, which legitimate governments are obligated to uphold.
- Inalienable rights include freedom of speech, religion, peaceful assembly, due process, impartial justice, and the right to bear arms—among others.
- The federal government has limited duties explicitly defined by the U.S. Constitution, with all others reserved to the states and ultimately the people.
- Government is best that governs least and is closest to the people.
- Liberty and legitimate government can be sustained only by a moral and self-reliant people who vigilantly protect local interests.
Our goal is to ensure that Hawkins County is a bastion of the above principles, which we will undertake by:
First, encouraging individual and community self-reliance so that our local economy is more resilient to disruptions and to external coercion.
And second, by strengthening local public and private institutions to protect our rights from government overreach at all levels.
We invite like-minded people of all stripes and backgrounds to join us to make Hawkins County a light of liberty for future generations.