 catherinebiewer  catherine biewer  daughter of charles linda biewer st johns high school graduate gpa 397 home schooled from 20072010 st johns high school 20102011 organizations national honor society writers club 4h debate club homeschoolers for life roller ice hockey church choir youth group work burger king college will be attending aquinas college in grand rapids catherine biewer essay throughout human history societies have tried numerous ways of governing people each with varying successes from ancient roman emperors to old french kings to modern american presidents throughout the ages the ways of governing have been added to continuously because of revolutionary ideas as americans we have been fortunate enough to have benefited from a free society thanks to certain simple revolutionary ideas these ideas grew rapidly and triggered a whole new vision of life and its meaning directly proportional to these ideas were the exceptional people behind them who started the spark and encouraged the flame such names as george washington thomas paine and paul revere continually echo throughout american history as prime examples of ideal patriotic americans they stood for freedom of speech of religion of the press mdash for ldquo life liberty and the pursuit of happiness rdquo so that all people who came to america would be given an equal chance and wouldn rsquo t be hindered by an unjust and greedy government they stood for a limited government that would provide for the needs of the people and yet still maintain freedom by means of the declaration of independence the constitution and the bill of rights they set this tone of freedom which they intended to be spread throughout the united states of america and influence the unborn generations yet to come their vision for the federal government was based off the assumption that wellintended workers were to represent the local people as a whole in their area in their minds the government rsquo s role while being run by ordinary people was to simply keep order ensure freedom and protect all american citizens and let the rest be managed by the people they envisioned there to be a hasslefree simple willingness of the people to govern themselves they intended for the people to have the aid of the federal government only in pressing issues which couldn rsquo t be resolved by the local communities in the founding leaders rsquo vision there was no room for mandatory governmental healthcare stimulus money or a trillion dollar debt obviously these men had great expectations for the government they were aiming so that the government of the united states would never turn into what they had just come from where the government was ruled by tyrants who declared unjust laws in our federal government today it would be wise for us to look back at our founding leaders rsquo vision its importance for today is becoming ever clearer the spirit in washington dc is no longer identical to the original american spirit whereas the american people want the federal government out of personal lives the federal government continues making reasons as to why it is essential for it to be there therefore the federal government while it is important for our country rsquo s survival has inexplicitly become a crutch it has forcefed its people in order for them to become dependent on it now as a consequence the people are slowly relinquishing their freedom and allowing more intrusive laws and regulations the pressing question now is what will cause us to get back to our founding leaders rsquo vision that has been debated countless times and there is no clear path in front of us in the meantime we should all be focusing on keeping our own personal life in sync with our own ideals if we ourselves look back to the ways of government that we so desire and in turn match our lifestyle to that simple way perhaps it will quicken the return of limited government in our country we all must have faith that we american citizens can influence our federal government one voter at a time finally we must never lose sight of the plentitude of freedom we still possess and be thankful for the sacrifice it took  catherine biewer from johns high school  