by J.B. Williams
Friday, September 1, 2006
america is a big country in a complex world with its fair share of daily challenges and more than its fair share of global responsibility. If you're looking for something to fix, the most advanced nation on earth always has something for you to do. Running america is a job that's never quite finished, it's a work in progress. Finding something that needs work is easy. Fixing it is usually easier than expected. agreeing on what fix is in order is all but impossible...
The good news is, america has all the talent and resources needed to fix just about any problem, once we get in the mood to fix something. The bad news is, too many spend their time worrying about the little stuff, the daily minutia of politically motivated wrangling that aims to call attention to our flaws, but seldom offers any real solutions for fear of running out of things to vote about. Focused on the vote trolling issues, they completely overlook america's major malfunction.
We have but one real problem. This one problem is the root of almost every other problem gracing our headlines today. It's the one problem that isn't so easily solved and the one problem that truly threatens america's future like no other. It's the problem few seem aware of and even fewer care to address.
america's foundation is crumbling beneath our feet...
The greatest nation in earth's history is fast becoming something much less. The shining city on the hill is corroded, because its foundation has been systematically eroded, its principles and ideals discarded and its people flooded in a sea of disinformation, dragged to the bottom of a sewer of immoral and unethical politically motivated divisions that now takes precedent over everything that once united every american, no matter their individual differences.
The difference between today and two hundred or even sixty years ago is not George Bush. It's america's collective soul. Our run away federal government is only a symptom of a much bigger problem -- us!!
Our Representative Republic is in fact a mirror image of the people it is supposed to represent. Just like us, it's self-serving, self-centered, cowardly, greedy, immoral, unethical, fat, lazy, ignorant, disengaged, disinterested and unapologetic. as a result, it's completely divided to the point of paralysis. It is exactly like us...
Two hundred years ago, every american agreed on certain fundamental principles for a successful free society. Today, we no longer agree on those principles. Two hundred years ago, men who came from economic, religious and governmental tyranny agreed that any central government wealthier and therefore more powerful than its people threatened the freedom and prosperity of every individual. Today, we no longer agree on this. Today, many see the federal government as their savior as opposed to the nine trillion pound demon kicking our door down, the one our founders were right to warn us about.
Two hundred years ago, it didn't matter what life you left behind to become an american. You left that life behind in pursuit of a better life and that better life was promised on the basis of a common love for freedom, personal economic and religious liberty, the right to design and determine our own future, as individuals with a common goal of protecting the individual, regardless of race, creed, color or point of origin.
Today, we are told to celebrate collectivism, the greater common good, and our differences, our diversity, rather than that which all once sought, individual rights, not based on color or creed or political affiliations. Based on being american...
Two hundred years ago, any nation who threatened these things was an enemy and every american knew it. Every american was prepared to take up arms and fight to the death in defense of these ideals and principles. Today, we spend more time fighting over our place at the federal trough. We can't even decide who is an enemy of our state, even when they openly threaten or attack our state and everything it stands for. Bush is more hated in america than Bin Laden today. More effort goes into derailing Bush than preventing the next 9/11. Two hundred years ago, this was called treason and such people swung in a public noose for all to see.
Much is said about our divide and many make beautiful speeches about uniting america. But those same people work around the clock to identify and exploit opportunities to divide us even further. They do so because their power depends upon our divide. It's possible because we owe it to ourselves.
There's not a single american unaware of just what an awful brutal murderous regime reigned in Iraq. Not one american is unaware of the many crimes against humanity, the utter disregard for international diplomatic demands for reform and compliance. No american doubts the fact that the Hussein regime was a threat to innocent Iraqi people, Iraq's neighbors, the western world and our allies. Yet half of america lacks the moral clarity and courage to stand firmly behind the young men and women who have so selflessly offered their own lives to confront this evil.
Two hundred years ago, sixty years ago, this would never have been the case because then, we held the same principles in common and had no problem identifying or confronting our enemies. We all know that the Hussein regime murdered millions of innocent Iraqi men, women and children, tortured millions of others, invaded, raped, murdered and plundered our allies in the region, defied every UN resolution ever written, paid the families of suicide bombers for their international terror, sought bio, chemical and nuclear weapons to extend their reach to other parts of the world and openly threatened the west on too many occasions to count. Yet nearly half of america asks, "But what did they do to us?" They foolishly ask, "What did Saddam have to do with 9/11?" as if the war against world wide terror operations is only about 9/11.
What did Germany or the Hitler regime do to us? What did Korea do to us? The men who died to end those threats never asked this question and neither did the people back home who dropped their lives to work in factories to support those missions as hundreds of thousands of american soldiers died to bring an end to the brutality of those regimes. It's why we call them our greatest generation, those selfless, brave, determined patriotic heroes of days gone by. They still exist and they are in Iraq, afghanistan, and many other parts of the world confronting international terrorism on too many fronts to number now. But what about the rest of us?
america is well on its way to losing its collective soul. We no longer protect, preserve or defend our foundational principles, we attack them. We drive religious speech from our schools and our public square. We demand socialism and the end to capitalism. We defend our enemies and attack ourselves. We have replaced our trust in God and our faith in ourselves with an unfounded trust and faith in a run away federal government that our founders had no faith in at all, entrusting the people with all the power.
Our problem is, we have too few americans living in america today. We have all shapes, sizes, colors, creeds, nationalities and the most diverse nation on earth. But we have somehow failed to teach our own the principles that made america possible. New immigrants are often the best americans because they know vividly, why they are here and why american is the best thing on earth to be.
Too many americans are not american at all anymore. They believe in and support ideals and principles that are entirely at odds with everything america is supposed to be and they call their ideas progressive. Yet there is absolutely nothing progressive about socialism, atheism, anti-americanism or endless internal political division that keeps our nation in constant turmoil.
This is our greatest challenge. This is the one problem that we can not allow to go unresolved. This is the one problem that should drive every vote in every election until this is no longer a nation of divisive inner hostility towards foundational american principles and those who fight to defend them.
all other challenges can be met with relative ease once this problem no longer exists. But until then, the greatest nation in the world will continue its slide into a bastion of anti-american rhetoric and eventually crumble under the weight of irreconcilable political divisions.
We face another test of our strength and resolve today as Iran chooses the path chosen by Hussein in Iraq, one of defiance and determination to threaten the west and its allies until someone steps forward to end it. as the UN proves impotent once again, in its inability to successfully manage psychotically despotic regimes in the most dangerous parts of the world, america must once again choose its own course.
Is this another opportunity to divide or another reason to unite?
It's both... and the choice is ours to make...
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