07.08.09
Call for Liberty
An informal online poll was taken recently by the Arizona Republic which asked whether America’s best days were ahead or behind her. The answer was astonishing. Sixty-two percent of respondents thought the United States would never match her achievements of the past century.
In my neighborhood, the very low number of houses displaying our American flag on our day of independence also disturbed me very much. I’m certain there is no shortage of flags available for sale, and most people have stayed home this holiday, so the answer must lie elsewhere.
As a nation we are losing hope. With lost hope follows waning pride. We are told by our leaders that great sacrifices must be made, that scarcity is going to be the norm, and that opportunities are few. These leaders say the solution is collective cutbacks and government imposed redistribution of the wealth of our labor.
We have been told that our current economic problems are due to greed, or Americans living beyond their means, and even that the free market system itself is to blame. In short, they say the American citizens are to blame. Then, before we can catch our breath, these leaders use or inflate crises to dupe us into believing the solutions are theirs alone to select. And their solutions are in direct conflict with the foundations of our great republic.
These leaders’ notion of hope and change is to have us trust them, the people in charge. I could not disagree more. Our trust should be in the principles and values that built this unique and magnificent nation. No man or woman can approach the purity of those principles and values. Instead, we are mired in negativity and hopelessness brought on and used by these leaders who would rather see you beholden to the government and financially responsible to the masses.
Are these leaders intrinsically negative thinkers? I think not. They are the self-crowned elite – the supposed best of the best. Their argument subtlety states that we are not educated, sophisticated, or progressive enough to make our own decisions. It says a small band of elite can better govern us than we can govern ourselves. The falsehood in their argument is best said by Ronald Reagan, “If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?”.
Through acts of hurried legislation and political gerrymandering, they are spending our money while figuratively patting us on the head, as if to say, “It’s alright, you wouldn’t understand and we know better anyway”. These leaders would make you believe they are the only conscience of our nation and that they have everyone’s interests at heart.
I categorically reject the idea that we are a nation in decline and scarcity and sacrifice are inevitable. I scoff at the inference the American citizen is to blame. And I could not disagree more that we are incapable of governing ourselves completely. If blame is to be laid down, it should start at the feet of those government leaders who disdain the abilities of individuals to look out for themselves, to be charitable to fellow citizens, and to act in the best interests of all. Those leaders who believe the contrary have abrogated leadership and demoralized a nation.
We are unique – our form of government, our free market economic system, and most of all our trust and belief in the values of reward for work, laws for all, and humble gratitude for generosity. We demand many things of our government, and it can assist us greatly. But it can also harm and weaken us and our nation if led by those who do not believe in its people. Our form of government is not without faults. But the faults are exacerbated by leaders who use its power unwisely, and many times for their own selfish purposes.
Our government was established to serve the populace, not the other way around. We deserve better than what we have had the last several years, and especially these past few months. We should insist on a renewal of effective leadership – a leadership that promotes individual initiative, effort, and reward.
It is time we take back our government, with all its faults but also with its capacity to streamline nearly limitless individual accomplishment and reward. It is time we voice our displeasure with rampant spending, central control, and usurpation of the greatest document of law the world has ever seen. It is time to stop the interference in our lives and begin to see the fruits of our labor and charity. Our call to action should be no less than civil, persistent, and peaceful. Our mission should be to remove through democratic means the misguided or nefarious leaders who govern not for us, but for their own ends.
We are all Americans and are just as unique as our economic, governing, and legal systems. We hold the power to correct the downturns and problems facing us. We are the hope to stop the false-premised path we are on. We have within our grasp the horn of plenty if given a chance to succeed. The only thing we need from our leaders to start down a new and prosperous path is the liberty that was promised and promulgated by our nation’s founders in the Declaration of Independence.
