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With one master stroke of tyranny, the Congress of these United States has foisted on the nation a plan that will provide health insurance for 32 million Americans who have gone without it.

This cynical act will remove from countless households the right to free choice: whether to spend scarce funds on groceries or on medical care.

The passage of health care reform has caused a frenzy among patriotic Americans who want to take this country back to the era of its founding fathers, when government was small, women were docile and a man was a man, or -- in the case of African American slaves -- three-fifths of a man.

It's all quite understandable when you look at what it would be like were we to reverse 234 years of regression since these United States gained their freedom in 1776.

It was in that year that our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

No, wait. That was the description applied by the great tyrant, Abraham Lincoln, some fourscore and seven years after the Declaration. Until Lincoln started taking away states' rights, close to half the states granted their free citizens the right to own other humans.

When the United States was born, the blight of democracy had not alighted on these pristine shores. Government was in the hands of men who knew how to govern. Presidents were elected by an electoral college chosen by state legislatures, not by the ignorant masses. The U.S. Senate was elected the same way. Of course, free men could vote for their state legislators, provided they were white male property owners.

The country took its first step toward tyranny in 1787, when it adopted a Constitution that established a federal government with power to tax and a Supreme Court that could rule on state laws. It took an early step toward socialism when the federal government got into the business of building roads and canals and providing rights of way for railroads in an attempt to tie together a sprawling wilderness land that might otherwise crumble by its own free will into separate little republics. It also adopted the socialistic view that government had the power to favor American industry by taxing foreign imports.

In the early days, before we lost our freedom, there was no Social Security to siphon money out of the collective wallet and dole it out to the elderly. Back then, a couple's security was provided by raising sons and daughters who could provide them with food and shelter after Pa and Ma no longer could. This worked better for men than it did for women, since women tended to die a lot from child birth before reaching retirement age. This was good for the divorce rate.

Medical insurance was unnecessary. Back then, doctors made house calls and would accept a mess of greens, a chicken, a leg of beef or a ham as payment for services. They hadn't discovered MRI or multiple-bypass heart surgery; nor had the pill companies invested millions in the development and advertising of prescription drugs.

People who found themselves unable to make a living and who had not been foresighted enough to raise big families could just pack up and move to the Poor House. It wasn't deluxe accommodations, but it was a place to die.

If you were out of work and could scrape up a pittance, you could buy a wagon, a team of oxen, a cow, a couple of pigs and a plow mule and head west into the wilderness. There, you could buy some land from the government, build a log cabin and raise a crop, provided you could hold onto your scalp when the Indians objected to your settling on their land.

It was only in 1862 -- after the Southern states had withdrawn from the tyrannical government Abe Lincoln headed -- that Congress passed the socialistic Homestead Act, which was the opening wedge of the welfare state. Under this act, an out-of-work citizen could settle on 160 acres of unoccupied wilderness land, work it for five years, and get full title for a nominal fee.

By 1929, when America entered the granddaddy of all depressions, we had about run out of good land to give away. There was no Social Security for the old folks and no unemployment compensation for the 25 percent of breadwinners who were out of jobs. It was then that Franklin D. Roosevelt, the granddaddy of all socialists, hatched a scheme to rob us of our tax dollars by implementing government jobs programs such as the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, and to provide Social Security for those past retirement age.

Since then, the federal government has added food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare to the list of burdens it has piled on its freedom-loving citizens.

I'm not sure where this is all going to end. If things keep going as they have been going, the government will be using tax dollars to keep private businesses such as General Motors and Chrysler from going bankrupt and throwing all their workers into unemployment; it will be sending zillions to bail out banks who got too generous and too careless in doling out loans to people who couldn't repay them.

But wait a minute. That's already happened, hasn't it? So on with the slogan: Billions for bankers; not a sixpence for the sick.

Write to Gene Owens at 315 Lakeforest Circle, Anderson SC 29625. E-mail: Swampscum2@aol.com