Crumbling Foundation

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal said on one of those Sunday talking programs recently (paraphrasing) the United States is becoming more fractured day by day, something we, too, have been blogging about for some time.

McChrystal also said (again paraphrasing) he believes in some kind of national service for young adults, not necessarily military, and that young people today have no real understanding of the foundation of America with which to form an idea of patriotism.

I completely agree with his meaning.

While I served only an eight-year stint in the U. S. Army Reserves–including six months ADT, two weeks concentrated training each year, and drills every other week–it was enough to give me competence as part of a united killing unit (after all, that is what the military does, fight to obliterate a foe), but I learned discipline and a semblance of patriotic pride to boot. The military was also responsible for much of my after high school advanced education as well.

So, when McChrystal says he favors some kind of service for all young adults at some point before beginning a private career, I’m on board. Perhaps we would regain some of the nationalistic pride in the United States we lost so long ago.

A few years ago, as a parent citizen representative in the 1980’s, I observed a high school Social Studies class for a few days. I was appalled the instructor spent more time degrading Southern members of the Founding Fathers for slave ownership that he did describing their contributions to advancing freedom and separation from Great Britain. I was also disturbed he spent a great deal of time outlining the personal life errors colonists may have made rather than discussing their written words in support of unity and liberty.

Which is more important: That I know you cheated on your wife 20 years ago, or, that you single handedly brought 5 murderers to justice last week? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? Voltaire said: “History is the recital of facts given as true, in contradistinction to the fable, which is the recital of facts given as false. There is the history of opinions which is hardly anything but a collection of human errors.”

The kinds of educational topics I’ve described above continue today with even less emphasis on Colonial and American History than before. No wonder our country is fractured.The monstrous funding provided to educate our children seems to be wasted on the frivolous.

“Me, first.” “I want it, and I want it now.”

McChrystal is quite correct. This country is fractured in far too many ways. We are male, female, liberal, conservative, black, white, hispanic, asian, veteran, Republican, Democrat, lobbyist, bureaucrat, and we are members of organizations of every stripe, kind and character. It seems to me we have digressed into  groups unwilling to sit down first as Americans for a quiet discussion and exchange of ideas before first choosing up sides much as a playground full of elementary children. The first response to the question, “Who are you?”, should be, “I’m an American.”

The United States Constitution has become a document to be used only when an Amendment, section or paragraph suits our selfish purposes. How can we make judgements about the future when we know so little about the past making of this nation?

How can there be a national discussion about the future when so many educators and their students know so little about the founding of the United States or seem to abhor this nation’s heritage?

I believe Americans should be Americans first, last and always. Divisions among us are unhealthy, and there is ample proof such polarization is destroying everything that was right about the United States as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Greed, selfishness and hate now seem to abide in all of us.

“Rule a state as you rule a family; one can only govern one’s family well by setting the example.” — Voltaire

A Country’s Murder!

We are murdering the United States of America, the bullet is out of the barrel, and it may be too late to turn away!

Utopia n. 1) an imaginary and indefinitely remote place; 2) often capitalized, a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions; 3) an impractical scheme for social improvement.

Apparently, our American society has become a nation of people looking to have their cake and eat it, too. Our government has become a burgeoning, impossible entity controlling ever more of our lives, but it appears to be exactly what the majority of voters ask. Do folks really want a cradle to grave protective government? If so, who will be left to pay the bill?

America was, of course, founded on personal liberties in a free enterprise system. This is no longer the case. According to the Bible, life itself is not fair, and yet, more people look for governmentally imposed financial and position fairness for all, requiring still more and more regulation and laws essentially “robbing Peter to pay Paul”. It is an altogether unreasonable course that is likely unattainable.

With the stoke of a pen, an American president can dilute liberties of individuals, and has done so multiple times in recent years. Republicans and Democrats, pinned to the wall by their laxidasical effort in recent decades, are now unable to reach acceptable compromises that may have been easier in the past. Too, our elected officials are unaware they were not canonized when elected, and pay little heed to those who put them in office.

Our young, are no longer satisfied by working hard, gaining experience, and earning a new home, car, and a more comfortable lifestyle. College graduates demand instant notoriety, position, and wages, even though their skill, knowledge, or ability is not proven nor tested. Their attitude “I want it, and I want it now”, is likely the result of two things: 1) We parents worked hard to give our children all those things we did not have growing up, and 2) The liberal bias educational system gave our kids the socialistic mindset to demand it is right to penalize those who have earned better life stations through their own efforts.

Add in a rapidly eroding moral standard focusing on material worth, rather than solid loving character, and the future is entirely dark.

This nation, regardless what Congress may do in the next few days, is teetering on financial collapse. Nothing more than a wholesale chopping of expenditures, overhaul of entitlements, and reduction of governmental size and largess will save America. With a budget generating an annual more than a trillion dollars in additional debt each year, how can a reduction that is less than equal the shortfall be the solution?

Additional taxes only postpone the inevitable, give elected representatives what they need to perpetuate their selfish governing, and take needed money from what is required for the people and their businesses to survive.

Failing to face the facts of deficit spending, the folly of ignoring the Constitutional limits put on government in the first place, and the desires of selfish people to want more than they deserve, are the culprits joining hand in hand to murder the United States of America.

 

 

Dangers Ahead!

Two things concern me greatly: 1) The collection of UN sponsored treaties that will neuter the sovereignty of the United States; and, 2) The need for complete upgrading of utility infrastructure.

There are several UN treaties on the table. “Agenda 21” is quite serious in that these treaties will completely dilute, if not destroy, the Constitution of the United States. You’ll remember from your American History studies, once the Senate ratifies a treaty it essentially REPLACES sections of the Constitution dealing with the same thing. It is that simple.

For example, the day after the election, the Obama Administration backed the U.N. Arms Treaty ignoring the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution. This treaty PROHIBITS weapons of all kinds in the hands of citizens.

As for Agenda 21, here is a link “Agenda 21 for Dummies”. http://youtu.be/TzEEgtOFFlM. This should alarm ANY American.

It is necessary to remember the United Nations does not exist to improve the American way of life, or the sovereignty of the United States. On the contrary this highly corrupt organization fosters a “one world” view. In my opinion, the so-called “one world” of mankind cannot exist unless every human shares identical beliefs and personal motivation, not possible given the fragility of the human spirit, notwithstanding greed, jealously, and hate.

There is a desire for so-called “green industries” and power sources to replace carbon emissions and clean up the planet. Not an altogether bad idea. However, the infrastructure to deliver so-called “clean energy” does not exist. There are no lines stretching out to the windmill farms that could be developed. There are no lines to deal with more solar power facilities. These have to be constructed, when sites have been designated.

The present administration has caused the shut down of many coal mines and coal-fired electrical generating plants through stiff regulation. The problem is, there are no facilities on line to make up for the lost power.

The administration fosters less dependence on foreign oil sources, and yet freezes drilling on public lands and refuses permits for others in areas where the United States has an over-abundance of natural resources.

All of this makes no sense. In the case of “green energy”, it is a matter of trying to get the cart before the horse. UN sponsored treaties simply cut the legs out from under American liberties and sovereignty.

Do the American People really want these things?