In his address to the graduating class of Ohio State University, President Barack Obama offered this insightful perspective on government tyranny:

“Still, you’ll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.”

Does our President not know it was the government that enabled slavery for 90 years before it was abolished at great loss of life? Does he know about Jim Crow laws that permitted racial tyranny to continue, often at the end of a noose?

Does he not know that government policy permitted slave ships into U.S. ports until 1808? And that unarmed slaves were taken as slaves because they were not armed to defend themselves against government-sponsored tyranny?

Does he not know that the NSA distorted the Gulf of Tonkin incident in order to escalate our involvement in the Vietnam war? How many Americans were needlessly killed in that war?

Does he not know that up until recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against minority farmers by denying them loans based on their race, and who recently settled a lawsuit agreeing to pay out a $1.2 billion settlement? That wasn’t tyranny?

Does he not know that the U.S. government literally treated Native American Indians like savages under the name of manifest destiny, stole their land, massacred them on more than one occasion and to this day, won’t release artifacts being held by museums and institutions to their rightful ancestors? That isn’t tyranny?

Does he not know about the Tuskegee syphilis experiments from 1932 to 1972, carried out by the U.S. public health service on over 600 black sharecroppers?

Does he not know about Executive Order 9066, signed by Franklin Roosevelt, that ordered the internment of Japanese Americans in concentration camps, stripping them of their Bill of Rights?

Does he not know about the Patriot Act, that has suspended a great deal of the Bill of Rights under the guise of fighting homegrown terrorism? Does he not know that a “false tip” can have the FBI crashing through my door without any investigation or without a search warrant?

Does he not know that it was by his own hand that he signed the Indefinite Detention Bill into law (NDAA in Dec. 2011) which is a statute that contains sweeping “worldwide indefinite detention of anyone without probable cause,” and that he himself said that he had “serious reservations” about signing it, but he signed it anyway?

He should at least know the American Civil Liberties Union is fighting it, and many Americans are opposed to it.

Does he not know about the U.S. Army Field Manual FM 3-39.40 Internment and Resettlement Operations manual, dated Feb. 2010, that includes the internment of U.S. civilians on U.S. soil without being charged of any crime? Does he not know that the Army recruits Internment / Resettlement Specialist (31E)?

Does he not know that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, a law prohibiting U.S. Army from operating on U.S. soil, was, for all pratical purposes, redacted.

Tyranny does lurk right around the corner, Mr. President, and in the words of other Presidents who knew better than to mislead a graduating class of college students, here are some notable quotes:

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms (of government) those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“I don’t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.” (Ronald Reagan)

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government.” (Thomas Jefferson)

“We must not look to government to solve our problems. Government is the problem.” (Ronald Reagan)

“A government big enough to supply you with everything you need is a government big enough to take away everything that you have. The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases.” (Thomas Jefferson)

The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.” (Thomas Jefferson)