Simplicity, in your original piece, you stated the problem….and several of us responded. I personally agree with you, but there is a piece of me that says, like Winston Churchill, “Never, NEVER give up….” Helen Keller is a hero of mine, and she is famous for saying “I am but one, BUT I am one, and I can do something”……
So for me, and you, and all of us who care about this country, the question becomes not IF there is a problem, but WHAT can we do to help solve the problem. I don’t doubt that after so many years of activism, you are saddened and discouraged. Most of us are too, even if we haven’t been quite as busy on that front as you have been. Thank goodness you and those like you have been working so hard……just think where we would be had you, and those like you, had not been so active in that arena.
You mentionled a few days ago in part.....
>>>>”Think back on the way the early Americans lived. Consider the quality of life, if you will, of the early pioneers who crossed the country in small covered wagons, who staked a claim to a small piece of land somewhere in the midwest or west, and who spent the next many years living off the land, growing their own food, hunting for meat, caring for sick family members, often without the aid of doctors or other medical practitioners.
These were our forebears. They didn't have the luxury of concerning themselves with those things that today's Americans place at the top of their list of concerns: the job market, affordable medical coverage, the unemployment rate, and the like. Those who came before us were busy doing what they had to do to simply survive from day to day, defending their freedoms, staking out and protecting what was theirs, and defining and facing down enemies. <<<<<
>>>>>I suggest that placing those issues on top of our list of national priorities is representative of short-sightedness at its worst, and we would all be significantly better off if we stepped back and looked at the big picture. If we continue to refuse to do so, we ignore that big picture at great peril.<<<<<
>>>>>At the same time, there are three glaring crises facing this country which, if not soon addressed, and if not soon brought into the forefront of the national consciousness, will not be reversed, and may prove fatal to the American experiment itself. Those three crises are embodied in
(1) our dramatic loss of personal liberty,
(2) the erosion of our national sovereignty, and
(3) the threat of radical Islam to our very survival as a people<<<<<
>>>>> I suggest that it is time we Americans stop looking at the quality-of-life problems that we face each day and begin looking at the threat-to-life problems that are looming just over the horizon as a result of a government that seeks to enslave us, refuses to protect us from invaders, and emboldens our enemies. “ <<<<<
http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsg.aspx?msgid=28373447
Absolutely RIGHT…..BUT the problem is HOW to have ALL Americans see these problems NOW, when so many of them are just trying to survive, and don’t want to talk or think about “Politics” (because many of our politicians have made Politics into a dirty word….???) Our American schools hardly have ANY American history courses as a requirement to graduate. I know for sure that in WA State, the ONLY American history classes that are required are:
**5th grade for part of the year and for the “history” part of the curriculum
**8th grade- only a “smattering” in the last half of the year in the “civics” --at most a couple of weeks
**11th grade – 1 semester
BUT, that could have even worsened in the last 5 years since I checked….Everyone should try finding out in your own state what the American History requirements are K-12….
That old adage is true: If you don’t have a good understanding of your History, you will be doomed to repeat it……
That is what the Tea Party represents to me…..Many people have finally realized we must do and say something….but how?
The group I have belonged to for so many years, the Daughters of the American Revolution, is a non-profit, non-political, SERVICE organization. We can’t and don’t “do politics” as a Society but only as individuals. We have members active in both political parties as individuals. What we do: The DAR, founded in 1890, is a volunteer women's service organization dedicated to keeping America strong by promoting patriotism, preserving history and supporting education programs.
However, I can’t and don’t speak for the Organization. I can, and do, speak for myself.
If Americans and those who are new to this country, don’t have idea of what, who, and why this country was founded and what makes the US the beacon of light for the world, then we will never have an electorate that even begins to understand what our forefathers (and mothers) helped make for us, until, because of their lack and will of understanding, we lose our country.
You said most recently in part:
>>>>>”The infiltration of our public school system, and our institutions of 'higher education', by agenda-driven leftists is beyond frightening. Most of our college-bound young people are being exposed to blatant propaganda at every turn, and are no longer exposed to the details of their proud heritage. Very few of our young people today are at all familiar with the stories of courage, vision and sacrifice that were an integral part of the founding of their country. The magnificence of the concept of individual liberty that served as the catalyst for the American Revolution is no longer something that has been impressed upon their consciousness. There is a void where there used to be an intense sense of appreciation, and a duty to defend what was achieved for them by those who went before.
The average American has become soft -- unwilling to even recognize the extent of the loss of his liberties, let alone considering himself ready to do anything about it. We complain about our economic troubles, our loss of net worth, our job insecurity, and our uncertain financial future. And yet our understanding of the foundations of our republic is so lacking that we are incapable of recognizing that a robust economy means very little when it is not accompanied by the liberty to benefit from it.
Just one of countless examples: what good is a beautiful home (something that used to be an integral part of the American dream) when our government has the power to tax that home at any rate it sees fit, deny us the right to grow what we want on our land, disallow us to take down what trees we might want to remove, build any structure upon that land, disturb any puddles that some bureaucrat might define as a wetland, etc., without first tap dancing to their tune and jumping through their required number of bureaucratic hoops? The government likewise interferes in virtually every aspect of our economic lives -- from what we pay for gasoline to how much of our accumulated wealth we are allowed to leave to our children.
Very few of us comprehend the effect that Obamacare will have on some of the most personal aspects of our lives. It makes me furious that an historically unparalleled usurping of power on the part of this government has caused good, decent, intelligent, hard-working Americans to scramble around attempting to discern exactly how their government is brutalizing them, once again. It isn't clear. We do not know. The 535 people who foisted this upon us do not know. We will learn about the ramifications once they hit us in the face, or if we are willing to spend our time attempting to research what is contained in the 2,000+ page law”<<<<<
>>>>>” It is our lack of understanding of our rights under the U.S. Constitution that is writing our epitaph as a republic. It is the fact that (as Clint Eastwood said earlier this week) we own this country, and our leaders are our employees that has all but escaped our notice – because those of us who are paying attention are forever scrambling to figure out how the latest governmental assault is going to affect our lives. And those of us who are not paying attention will someday discover that ignorance is not bliss -- not when a tyrant has used it, election after election, to insure that he wields irrevocable power.” <<<<<
In your latest brilliant piece of writing, I want you to know that I am cheering you on from the sidelines! And from the looks of the recommends, so are many, if not most of us!! You state for us in words what so many of us feel and think. You cannot give up.
Nor can I – Nor can any of us …..each of us in our own way, must find a way to guide others to the realization that they too must lend their voices as well as their support, to help others realize they have so much to lose if we let our country be taken over by European Socialists, or worse. |
