The Wisest Man I Know... A Heartfelt Tribute
This weekend, 24 months ago, my world was rocked when I unexpectedly and tragically lost my mentor, my role model, my amazing father, Robert Flower. He walked into the hospital for a somewhat routine, out-patient procedure, and he never came home. Though it has been 24 months, I still cannot believe he is gone. My explanation for my lingering shock is because to me (and to most people who knew him) my father was such a force, so wise, so inspiring, full of life, and stoic. Everyone found him to be truly larger than life. Without question, he helped shape me to become the person I am today, whom many of you know as the attorney who consistently and passionately fights for your freedom against one of the most corrupt state governments in our nation, whose malfeasance affects every citizen in this country, for their actions often have national implications.
So this weekend, as Father’s Day fast approaches, I feel moved to honor my father’s greatness and share some of his wisdom in the hopes that he will inspire you to add one more item to your list of goals, or start that project you’ve been putting off for one reason or another, or to help someone you know is struggling... all in the name of reaching your potential. Below, I am re-posting an article I had written about him three years ago when I was in the midst of my years-long battle against the governor of New York over her absolutely insane quarantine camp regulation. I had defeated the tyrannical Governor Hochul in 2022, and she was appealing my win in 2023 when I wrote the below article. Read on for the details, but I’m confident in saying that if it wasn’t for my father, there would most likely be quarantine camps in New York State today. How so? Here is the story…
Originally published June 25, 2023:
“The Four Great Restrictors - What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
My office is not really a typical lawyer’s office. My walls are not adorned with framed certificates of honors or awards I have received over the past 25 years, nor do I have my college or law school diplomas displayed for the public to peruse. If I had to find them, I’d guess they are probably in the credenza by my desk, though I’m not exactly sure. No photos of me posing with famous people that I have known hang on my walls. Instead, I have a framed replica of our Constitution, one photo of me with my family atop Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany, and a lone plaque. The plaque is small. You’d miss it if you weren’t actually looking for it. In fact, it’s not even on my wall, but instead sits on my desk. It is small, but mighty. It reads…
What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
Ahhhh. More profound words have never been spoken. It is fitting that the person who gave me that plaque is the wisest man I know. Someone who has not only inspired me to do great things in my life, but who has taught me how to think critically, and has encouraged me to push myself to be extraordinary. I have referenced him in my writings before, but never by name, only as “the wisest man I know.” After reading my prior entries about him, some of you have asked me who that person is… He is, my father.
One day I’ll share his story with you, as it is a profoundly inspiring one, and you know how I aim to inspire people. For now, I’ll just say that he is the embodiment of the American dream. From very meager means (at one point for a period of time, he was so poor he would eat a 10¢ candy bar as his dinner each night because that’s all he could afford), the first in his family to get a college degree (which took him several years because he worked days to pay for school at night), he went from rags to riches the old fashioned way… he busted his rump and earned it. And what makes him even more extraordinary is the fact that he wants everyone to succeed. He has amazingly enough written 11 books, (yes, eleven!) each of which was written to inspire us to reach our full potential. To him, the greatest failure in life is to live your life and never reach your potential. I agree.
One of the stalwart principles of how to reach one’s potential that my father always talks (and writes) about, is to acknowledge and then overcome what he calls the “four restrictors.” These are things that keep us from doing what we could and should be doing. Things that keep us trapped. Things that do not let us reach our potential. They are…
Fear, Ego, Ignorance, and Self Deception. Fear is number one. It’s a very powerful inhibitor, isn’t it? If you fear something, or someone, you will cower and succumb. But if you face your fear, stare it in the eye, you become empowered. Even if you don’t defeat it the first time around, you garner the courage to stand up to it again. Think about it. Relate it to something in your life. I know it has proven true for me in my life. When I am struggling with something, though invisible to others, my father sees it, and asks me point blank, “What are you afraid of, Bobbie Anne?” That triggers me to stop and analyze the situation. And what I often realize is that what I fear stems from one of the other three restrictors (Ego, Ignorance and Self Deception). Do I fear failure? Well, isn’t that a direct result of ego?
Putting it into a real-life context, I will share with you what I briefly discussed with host Jan Jekeilek when he interviewed me on American Thought Leaders after my historic win against New York’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, and her Department of Health over their Isolation and Quarantine Procedures regulation. When Jan asked me to describe what it was like to leave the comfort of my successful 20+ year law practice in the world of Real Estate Tax Certiorari and dive head first, with absolutely no support, into the world of Constitutional Law, to go up against one of the most radical, and powerful left-wing state governments in our nation, I had to admit that it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It took a courage that I didn’t know I had, especially because I didn’t even want to be the lead attorney to sue New York’s governor and her Department of Health! The story goes, that I had reached out to dozens of colleagues, and even civil rights attorneys and organizations that I had only heard of but never spoken to before, and I asked them if they would take up the case. Of course I offered to help them if they needed or wanted the help, but not one of them was interested in the case. A common question I get when I tell this story is, why didn’t any other attorneys want to take the case? Some didn’t want to work for free (I’ve been handling the case pro bono since day one), some didn’t think my legal theory was valid, and some told me point blank that I would not only fail, but I would surely lose my rather successful law practice that I had spent over 20 years building up, if I took on that quarantine case against the Governor.
What a conundrum.
I kept staring at that plaque on my desk. “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” The quarantine regulation was horrendous… allowing unelected agency bureaucrats in the Health Department to pull people out of their homes with no proof they were sick, for an arbitrary, indefinite amount of time, at a location of the department’s choosing, with no way for you to get out once you were locked in quarantine! Someone had to stop this unbelievably totalitarian regulation. Here came one of those conversations with my father. It went something like this:
Me: “I have a situation here, Dad. It’s rather grave.” (I tell him about the regulation and how I cannot find any other attorneys or organizations to take the case, or to assist me).
My father: “Why don’t you just handle the case yourself?”
Me: “I’ve never handled a Constitutional Law case. It will take a ton of research, time, resources, etc, if I have to do it alone…”
My father: “So? You can handle it.” Thinking of the four great restrictors… “What are you afraid of, Bobbie Anne?”
Any fear I harbored was overshadowed by my determination to STOP the tyranny that was embodied in that regulation, especially after the insane government overreach we had all just experienced for two solid years, in the name of COVID19. Someone had to stop that quarantine regulation. I said to myself, I guess that someone is going to be me. So I put my thriving law practice to the side, and I dove in. After the lawsuit was finally ready to go, I had to find plaintiffs - a task more challenging than I originally thought it would be. It took me weeks, but I finally found them - Senator George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague, and (now) Congressman Mike Lawler, with terrific support in an Amicus Brief filed by Assemblymen Andy Goodell, Joe Giglio and Will Barclay. We sued. And we won! Of course now the Governor is shamefully appealing (using your tax dollars to fight me to try to get back a completely unconstitutional regulation that has no business existing in this country, no matter which state). You can read about the appeal here, and for the latest update on this case, click here.
My point in all of this is, take my story as an inspiration to examine those four restrictors in your life, and see what you can do about overcoming them. See how the powerful words of the wisest man I know can help you reach your potential. As for me, have I reached my full potential? Nah, not even close yet. There’s much more to come!
Today…
In case you are wondering whatever happened in the conclusion to the quarantine camp saga, you can get full details in this article, “Quarantine Camps”, which I wrote last year when the battle came to its final blow. In short, there is no quarantine camp reg today in New York State thanks to my work, however, the despotic Governor and her DOH are free to reissue that heinous regulation at will, (thanks to the captured NYS appellate courts).
Other high-profile battles that I have fought since the writing of that article three years ago are:
The illegal redistricting (read gerrymandering) saga headed up by the ever-scheming DCCC, which threatened to unconstitutionally reshape our congressional districts throughout New York so as to ensure a Democrat recapture in 2024 of the lost House of Representatives from 2022. I fought that battle with my Stop NY Corruption organization, along side former Congressman Lee Zeldin, who now sits in President Trump’s cabinet and runs the Environmental Protection Agency. You can read more about how Lee and I worked together on that crucial issue in some of my prior articles, here and here.
L to R: Secretary Zeldin, Congressman Lawler, City Councilman Borelli, Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox, Chairman Gerard Kassar, City Councilman Holden, Congresswoman Maliotakis Then there was the fight against the Democrats’ stunningly deceptive Prop 1, which they pathetically called their “Equal Rights Amendment.” Believe you me, there was nothing “equal” about that amendment to our NYS constitution! I worked with Congressman Lee Zeldin again on this project, and the organization Vote NO on Prop One Committee.
However, since the power-hungry, psychotic politicians in Albany pushing their twisted agenda constantly spewed the deception that Prop 1 was needed to “protect your right to an abortion”, (a full-on lie of epic proportions), Prop 1 ultimately garnered 56% of our votes, and it passed. As a result, now you cannot “discriminate” against anyone for any reason based on a list of TWELVE new protected classes (added to the existing four classes of race, religions, creed and color). So, at this point, the government here in NY can control your speech, your actions, your beliefs, your company’s policies, etc. - and they can restrict your parental rights, your privacy, your civil rights… all in the name of “stopping discrimination”. More details on that insanity can be found in some of my prior articles, Here’s What Happened With Prop 1, and A Trojan Horse of Epic Proportions.
L to R: Attorney Bobbie Anne Cox and Secretary Lee Zeldin Now I am working on the #TakeBackNY project to expel the radical politicians and reclaim this once prosperous State! The details of this exciting work, and how you can get involved, are in my recent article entitled, “The Lost City… and State”. Absolutely worth the read.
For this, for all of this, and then some, I would like to say…
Thank you, Dad!
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Bobbie Anne - What a blessing to have a father like yours. One who loves you, and believes in you. Through you, he has blessed all of us. Thank you for sharing him with all of us. It will be an honor to meet him one day, when earthly battles are over.
Every one of We the actual People of the United States owes you a great debt of gratitude. No effort to stand against corruption, or to stand for Truth and Justice, to stand for what is Right is ever wasted - no matter the outcome.
Thank you, Bobbie Anne
You are the frontline Patriot thriving in a very dark time/place,Bobbie Ann,and you don't know how many of us across this (still)great nation hold anchor to you,to your bravery and fountless resourcefulness. My prayers (prayers are the true desires of the heart) are with you and all of yours. I know 10,000 angels watch over you.