God's Fireworks

For the 4th of July celebration I got together with a few friends for beer and barbecue and had a great time. We even managed to set up a badminton net and played, badly, for a while. It was really humid here in the center of the country, but not too hot as storm clouds were rolling in. But playing was still fun.

No matter the direction we faced, fireworks displays could be seen. They started early as the dark clouds made a great backdrop for the colors of the fireworks. The great state of Missouri is not one of the states that protects it's people from themselves by outlawing the sale and display of fireworks, so in addition to the city display, which we could see from the yard, the neighbors were all having fun with fire. We had our own that we shot off as well. But as it got full dark, the sky was lit up with more than man made fire. God was making His own contribution to the show. Having fireworks with a backdrop of lightning made the display something really special. For nobody can put on a show like He can.

It also served to remind us that God should always be a part of our celebration. The freedom we celebrate we believe is a freedom given to us by Him. Being included in our Declaration of that Independence, He should also being included in our celebration of achieving and maintaining that Independence. For as with the fireworks display, God's contribution made it something more than it ever could have been alone.

So I thank God for his display last night, and for reminding me of who we should really thank.

God Bless America.

The Textbook of Freedom

Needing to be reminded, after all of the apologies for our arrogance, of what a great nation we truly are, I decided to read Reagan's speech where he referred to us as a shining city on a hill. I was just 14 years old when Reagan was elected to his first term in office, but I remember clearly going, as a nation, from demoralized and depressed as we dealt with the fall out from Vietnam, the economic problems and the energy crisis of the Carter years, into the hope and pride that Reagan instilled.

Whether you agree with his economic policies or anything else about him, Reagan, in his speeches, reminded us of why we should be proud and why our nation was great. I found a story that he tells regarding the signing of the Declaration of Independence that I would like to share.

You can call it mysticism if you want to, but I have always believed that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.

This was true of those who pioneered the great wilderness in the beginning of this country, as it is also true of those later immigrants who were willing to leave the land of their birth and come to a land where even the language was unknown to them. Call it chauvinistic, but our heritage does not set us apart. Some years ago a writer, who happened to be an avid student of history, told me a story about that day in the little hall in Philadelphia where honorable men, hard-pressed by a King who was flouting the very law they were willing to obey, debated whether they should take the fateful step of declaring their Independence from that king. I was told by this man that the story could be found in the writings of Jefferson. I confess, I never researched or made an effort to verify it. Perhaps it is only legend. But story, or legend, he described the atmosphere, the strain, the debate, and that as men for the first time faced the consequences of such an irretrievable act, the walls resounded with the dread word of treason and its price -- the gallows and the headman's axe. As the day wore on the issue hung in the balance, and then, according to the story, a man rose in the small gallery. He was not a young man and was obviously calling on all the energy he could muster. Citing the grievances that had brought them to this moment he said, “Sign that parchment. They may turn every tree into a gallows, every home into a grave and yet the words of that parchment can never die. For the mechanic in his workshop, they will be words of hope, to the slave in the mines -- freedom.” And he added, “If my hands were freezing in death, I would sign that parchment with my last ounce of strength. Sign, sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, sign even if the hall is ringing with the sound of headman’s axe, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the bible of the rights of man forever.” And then it is said he fell back exhausted. But 56 delegates, swept by his eloquence, signed the Declaration of Independence, a document destined to be as immortal as any work of man can be. And according to the story, when they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he could not be found nor were there any who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.

Well, as I say, whether story or legend, the signing of the document that day in Independence Hall was miracle enough. Fifty-six men, a little band so unique -- we have never seen their like since -- pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Sixteen gave their lives, most gave their fortunes and all of them preserved their sacred honor. What manner of men were they? Certainly they were not an unwashed, revolutionary rebel, nor were then adventurers in a heroic mood. Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, nine were farmers. They were men who would achieve security but valued freedom more. "

For that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the bible of the rights of man forever. Is it? Or are we relegating it to a piece of interesting, but irrelevant, piece of American memorabilia?

We should all know the text of the declaration, and more importantly, what it really means and represents. Everything that is done by our government should be examined and compared against those truths laid out in the textbook for freedom. Do you, as an individual, hold these truths to be self-evident? Or do you believe they are up for negotiation based on what the government promises you in return?

Let's Focus On The Past - About 230 Years In The Past

There has been a lot of talk about letting go of the past and focusing on the future. I disagree with this. We need to look back. All the way back to our origins. We have already moved too far away from who and what we were supposed to be, and when leaders tell us not to focus on the past, they're telling us they don't want us to pay attention to how much further from our original purpose we're moving.

Obama doesn't want us to look back because he doesn't want us to really know these "principles and values on which we were founded" that he keeps quoting. This is due to the fact that he is violating almost every one of our true principles. Thomas Jefferson said to educate the people on their past, so that's what I am going to do today.

We talk a lot about common sense. That it's just common sense that a 50% tax rate is absurd. It's just common sense that government telling us what to do is bad. Well let's look at Common Sense, the pamphlet written by Thomas Paine and distributed in January of 1776. The Common Sense that rallied the colonists to revolution. The Common Sense that was the precursor to our Declaration of Independence. If' you've never read Common Sense, I highly recommend it.

Thomas Paine's pamphlet was incredibly powerful, and a past we should definitely focus on. All I will post today is part of the introduction, but that alone is a strong condemnation on where the colonies were at the time, and where the new nation has gone again.

"PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.

As a long and violent abuse of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in question, (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry,) and as the king of England hath undertaken in his own right, to support the parliament in what he calls theirs, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpations of either."

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right. How very true that statement is. We have accepted the growth and increasing power of our government as not being wrong, and as a result, current leadership is pushing the appearance that it is right. It is not right.

We have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of our government and to equally reject the usurpations of either. I don't think there's any question that our leaders have become pretentious, and that they are usurping our rights. But are we exercising our privilege of inquiry? Are we holding our leaders accountable for the usurpations of our liberty and independence? Or are we accepting the superficial appearance of it's rightness. That's a question that only you yourself can answer.

Look back. Focus on our nation's past. Know where we started and he principles on which we were built. Educate yourself and others. And most importantly, take a long hard look at where we are and compare that to where we were supposed to be.

I Don't Need A Nanny

The Declaration of Independence says that "history hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provider new guards for their future security." My question is, does becoming my unwanted Nanny count as an abuse and usurpation? Does is count as Despotism?

I've suffered about all I've suffered at this point, and the idea of bailing out other states really chaps my ass. Being middle aged and fully self-sufficient, and at the same time being treated by my government as if I were a drooling infant incapable of running my own life, looks like an abuse and a usurpation to me. I don't need a nanny and the Democratic Nanny party needs to back off, butt out and let me be an adult. They're not even a good nanny. One of the main things a nanny should teach is that there are consequences to your actions. Our nanny government is spending millions and billions of dollars paid by responsible citizens to protect irresponsible citizens from the consequences of their actions.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Well, we didn't prevent that. Too many people thought they DID need a nanny. And our Nanny has gone on a major power trip expanding her power to cover every aspect of our lives. Sounds like a Despot to me. And if we start squalling? What happens then? Well the Nanny party offers us a pacifier in the form of a new entitlement program. Wasting the fruit of our labors yet again. And we buy it. But you know the problem with a pacifier don't you? No matter how hard you pull on it, no milk will come out. So while they offer us sustenance and satisfaction, what they give us is empty air.

So I urge you to spit out the pacifier, kick the nanny to the curb, and stop the abuse and the usurpation of our Constitutional rights. They claim to be taking care of us, but all they're doing is taking our money to take care of themselves. Decide whether or not these evils are still sufferable, and if they are, then ask yourself how much farther you'll let them go before you can suffer them no longer.