“Yes, we did
produce a near perfect republic, but will they keep it, or will they, in the
enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material
abundance without character is the path of destruction.” Thomas Jefferson
I
once got an email from a highly placed Libertarian Party official that supported
a long-held theory of mine—not all Americans want freedom or even know what it
is! To demand and preserve freedom,
you at least have to know what it is, be dedicated to its principles, be willing
to accept the individual responsibility that comes with it and ultimately be
willing to aggressively defend it when threatened—simply put; you must first
want freedom before you’ll fight for it.
If you don’t really want freedom, or even recognize it, you don’t
deserve it and you’ll never miss it when it’s gone.
Everyday I see
indicators that many would rather let someone else make the decisions in life surrendering liberty in
exchange for the illusion of security—even
if that means surrendering America herself.
A poll conducted by
the First Amendment Center awhile back tells me that those questioned don’t
know what freedom is nor realize the proper role of government based on our
heritage and think government should be involved in most everything.
* 20% said the US
government should approve what newspapers publish.
* 54% said the
government should rate entertainment programs shown on TV.
* 36% would support a
law that banned public remarks offensive to racial groups.
* 37% could not name
even one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment –the freedom
of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and to petition the government for
redress of grievances.
In a similar poll
conducted by the Portrait of America:
* Only 36% believe
Congress should follow the Constitution. [Does that mean the other 64% believe it’s OK for Congress
to circumvent it?]
* 22% of respondents
would vote against the Constitution while another 27% said they were not sure
whether they would support it. [That’s probably because they’ve never read
it]
*
35% said dropping the Second Amendment from the Constitution and making personal
firearms ownership unlawful would make the U.S. a safer country, while 42% said
the nation would become more dangerous. Another 16% said eliminating the Second
Amendment would have no impact on safety. [It’s sad when only 42% can separate
the truth from dribble]
Expecting government
to provide solutions to life or even thinking that government has the major role
in it is not the way we started out in 1776.
This concept however is now perpetuated by government and willingly
accepted by many of the governed who can’t see the dangers so clear just a few
generations ago. This tells me that
many modern Americans don’t have the same solid principles this country was
founded on and cherished by Americans of yesteryear.
At our country’s
birth, we were much more willing to accept the idea of self-sufficiency and had
a very healthy distrust of centralized authority.
The founders knew that whatever government touched, entangling strings
were attached which jerked the bricks from freedoms’ foundation.
Many victims of
American education and prosperity have lost that sense of colonial
traditionalism. They’ve become
too lethargic enjoying their plenty as Jefferson said and don’t want to be
distracted or bothered by anything that doesn’t immediately entertain or
provide more money and comfort…“let government handle that, I can’t
be bothered” and “Why doesn’t the government do
something?” seems to be the attitude of many who are so willing to
trade liberty for a mere campaign promise of security.
Another reason I
think many feel this way is that they just don’t know any better.
Their education of our history, rights, and our original form of
government has been lost in a curriculum focused on perpetuating politically
correct illusion over truth and substance.
When the modern S’s of sex, self, security and socialism replaced the
traditional R’s of readin’ ‘ritin’ ‘rithmatic’, responsibility and rights
in American education we started down a very slippery slope.
Many Americans are
now ill-educated in their own culture. They know precious little about such things as both
Revolutions, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as well as our concept of limited
government. Educational
liberalism is now firmly established as a way of life.
In general, we no longer teach kids to think, we teach them to feel good.
We don’t teach history, we teach PC-based revisionism and we don’t REALLY
teach the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or the responsibility every American
has to defend our homeland at all! Sadly,
we also teach that pride in things uniquely American, even Old Glory, is to be
shunned—after all, such displays of pride might offend a few foreigners.
The undereducated and
ill-informed are always more apt to be dependent and that’s exactly what big
government types want—more people dependent on them for everything regardless
of personal potential.
American potential
for success has always been great. We’ve
become very successful over the past two centuries because of our traditional
values of self-reliance, freedom and the willingness to stand up for and
unapologetically defend our American culture. As a nation, we’ve been enjoying the fruits of our plenty
that originally came to us because of those founding principles. However,
we’re losing the memory of true freedom in the process and many are afraid to
hold our political leaders accountable even in defending our borders, language
and culture. This attitude stems
from the disease of political cowardice that’s running rampant these days.
Many so-called leaders would rather give up our country than risk
“offending” potential voters—even those that would eventually destroy us.
Many recipients of
the real fruit of all that prior sacrifice of past generations have become
exceedingly complacent and are willing to trade traditional values for the
easier, “more enlightened level of existence.”
In so doing we’ve sewn the wind and will inevitably reap the whirlwind.
We’re reaping fruit that the concept of government dependence has sewn
and losing the greatest fruit of all along the way…Freedom.
I’m afraid the time
is quickly coming when young Americans will have lost ALL memory of real
freedom, replacing it with government-subsidized lethargy.
But that course won’t last long nor bode well for any long-term future
for this country. History has repeatedly shown that when a nation becomes too
lazy and wrapped up pursuing pleasure, losing its moral fiber, values, steeled
willingness to defend itself and tenacity in holding their political leaders
accountable, it quickly disintegrates…it self-destructs, as did Rome.
When that happens, the American life will be a hard one…subservience to
big government always is.
My guess is that just
a few generations ago, answers to those same poll questions regarding the role
of government would have been to tell the feds to take a hike. Until Americans
again want freedom badly enough to strongly tell government to butt out, it will
continue to butt-in…with one huge and imposing butt stamped, Property of
the U.S. Government. Trouble is, if people want to choose big government over
liberty and independence, they are free to do that in America, all they have to
do is vote for it…and pay the price later of course.
One final thought.
I’d love to see how our founders would have responded to that same poll
wouldn’t you?
Just the view from my
saddle…
Contact Colonel Dan:
coloneldan@bellsouth.net