Part 28: of a 28-part series

How is the American way of life destroyed? You must deny your own individual, independent worth. If they can, through education, get you to deny that you’re important, that you’re nothing and nobody, that you’re not worth much, you can’t do much – they’ve won almost half the battle right there. It’s appropriate that you have independent worth in your own property of first, your conscience, your intellect, your will,  your talent, your opinions – no matter what gender, no matter what handicaps, no matter what history you may have.

[Many] Americans deny their responsibility for the quality of civil government in which they live. We have neglected that. This can be restored. It’s like the stock market. We have our ups and downs. But it’s forward-pressing. America’s way of life is fueled by individual liberty, not oil. It’s not the oil that we are addicted to – it’s liberty. We can’t live without it. We must have our liberty.

Remember how this country was started. America, today the envy of the world, began with individuals who had nothing more than their liberty. And that’s true for some of us who are first-generation-born Americans - parents who came with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Amazing stories.

It’s so immediate to me. I don’t know how immediate it may be in your family. Nothing but freedom. For my mother, it was freedom from her mother-in-law. That’s all that mattered. And it changed my life. Do you see? We just need a little bit, and it just goes a long way for everyone.

They were deposited on their wilderness with nothing – living in a seemingly God-forsaken wilderness. And look at America today, because they came looking for liberty, and made sure others had it too. They didn’t impose their church doctrines on anyone. That’s not Christianity. Liberty is our breath of life.

The End

Part 27: of a 28-part series

This is the challenge – are you willing to spend time studying issues? You all have your ballots, right? It’s a lot of legalese, isn’t it? Make yourself aware. One way of doing that is, begin earlier than the night before. Before November 3rd. Do your homework. I started as early as they started – two years ago. This is about your country. You need to follow it. When they start is when you start.

You’re not going to catch it all. It takes time for you to think about these things. You’re not going to be thinking very well November 3 about how you’re going to vote November 4. You haven’t resolved anything. You’re going to “eeny meeney miney  mo” it. And so we get our leaders by “eeny meeney miney mo”. “Oh, I like his name. It sounds good. I can’t read all this. It doesn’t matter.”

So, are you willing to spend time studying the policies, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? It’s very important. That’s our insulation. It’s when we say, “No thank you, we’ll build it ourselves. We’ll take care of our own corn. We’ll get together and we’ll do it. We may be called a national disaster area, but we’re not going to take your funds.”

Realize that the doctors’ fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can’t socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you’re afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even the government, recognize that you’re just feeding the crocodile, hoping he’ll eat you last.

I like this one – I can understand this one: “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” It’s about thinking, resolving, and determination.

To be continued...

Part 26: of a 28-part series

This is my next point. We have a protection - and what is it? The power’s in Congress, not in the Presidency. Remember that. In America, we are identified more by our political sphere of influence than by our social rank. More by our town, city, county, and state affiliation than by our station in society determined by birth, wealth, or education.

Within each political sphere, there will be found the rich, the middle income, and poor. These are relative in each locality, are they not? But there’s also mobility within those categories. You can have a million dollars one day, and tomorrow it’s gone. We saw that, right? Two trillion dollars, right? Gone. The  market goes up and down. And there’s a great deal of mobility, because we are not set in any particular income class.

Some people don’t like America because of our excesses, but what have we learned about our excesses? The excesses of affluence (inordinate consumption, political corruption, gluttony, greed, etc.) – they judge and destroy themselves. We don’t have to worry about them.

You try to live a lifestyle of inordinate consumption and political corruption. People go to court all the time for political corruption, don’t they? Gluttony…greed…and you know what? What are we witnessing in this country? They judge themselves. It’s self-destroying. Don’t worry for things that are self-destructive. You don’t have to bark at it. You don’t have to shout at it. You don’t even have to shoot it. It will self-destruct. Let it self-destruct. The good will continue.

America is structured to solve our problems. We are not identified by our party affiliation, by our family affiliation, but by our locality, where we reside actually – our sphere of political influence. America is structured to solve her problems how? Beginning at the local level. So if this President doesn’t work, we can change it at the local level. We are, I believe, insulated by our local spheres. We have the power of electing our rulers in Congress.

To be continued...

Part 25: of a 28-part series

“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of self. Can he then be trusted with the government of others, or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.” (That’s a wonderful Thomas Jefferson quote.)

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem. From time to time, we’ve been tempted to believe that society can become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?” (That’s another twist on Thomas Jefferson’s quote, by Ronald Reagan.)

I want to make a point with this quote. The order and transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.

Why is the Presidency not as significant as it is in other nations? Because we care for the government closest to home. We have a structure that is a cushion against tyranny. We’re confident. We are secure in the way that we’ve been set up, so that no President can come in and become a king or a dictator without breaking down the structure.

To be continued...