Posted by
One Silver Sage on Friday, February 16, 2007 5:08:12 PM
This time it’s for me and my retirement.
I’m being called away from my lazy days fishing and back into action defending my country from left-wing lunacy and yellow-bellied politics of appeasement, governance by press release, and policy by focus group. I long for the days of principled decision-making from the gut of good men and women like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
After being patriotic all my life (and what a life it’s been!) I hate to see what's going on around us in terms of taxes and wasteful spending, the deference we give all these wacky movements out of the mainstream, the dumbing down of our children (nearing the method used by communist countries of supplanting the teaching of basics with values indoctrination), the moral blight of pornography/drugs/crime, and how public servants lure votes from people by promising them something (insert feel-good government program here) for nothing and then charging folks for it when it can actually be acquired by individuals cheaper. I’m not sure if I’m more upset with the individuals in government for wiggling the bait, or for those simple enough to gobble it up. Ever hear the saying “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”? I have—and now you have, too. Do America a favor—tell a friend. Folks, we’ve really dropped the ball. The guards obviously have been asleep at their posts.
I’m also absolutely astonished that perhaps the most hostile places for religion today are in our own Christian churches. Seems these days churches aren't talking about the Bible—the source of the concept of inherent freedom. They’re now quoting from a new, more “enlightened,” globally acceptable text—The Gospel of Social Justice—made up by a consensus of liberal elites and non-Christians. Whew! Good thing religion isn’t a bedrock of our greatness or we’d all be in trouble as we find ourselves in this critical time in history—oh wait! Oops! Oh well, moving on. Can’t afford to be distracted by a little thing like the source of our historic national strength. De Tocqueville? Never heard of him.
Then there’s the pesky little notion of facts. Consider the press. These are real people with their own take on things. In the past, as a service to their thinking readers, they scoured their writings for traces of bias which belied their claims of neutrality. Not today—we’ve got a ghastly chimera—part reporter, part commentator. Even our scientists are struggling to stick to the facts. Without them, we are just a-blowin’ in the wind—and no one seems to care. For a time some believed the advent of the internet would help. In fact the opposite has happened and we now struggle to identify facts camouflaged among urban myths and other distractions from serious thought.
For proof one needs look no further than Michigan’s recent elections. Despite her staggeringly abysmal record, the Queen of Connecting with the Public, Jennifer Granholm was rewarded with another go around. Even facing an unprecedented economic crisis and woefully lacking any real world business experience, let alone the will to challenge the endless list of special interests to whom she is beholden who are contributing to the problems, she was able to convince the frustrated and fearful electorate that she was the more “authentic” tour guide on the road to what she suggests will be a recovery. Their trust in her overrode their own common sense to their economic peril. “How did she best a proven leader?” you might ask. Easy—she waged an all out “fear and smear” campaign taking Dick DeVos’ savvy forward-looking corporate strategy to invest in a burgeoning Asian market and crafting it into an attack on Michigan’s proud, but teetering union labor. Tragically, while Michigan’s ship continued to sink, fed up voters danced as they burned the lifeboats.
Honestly, some days I don't even recognize this country--until I think of our soldiers, our entrepreneurs, young families, and my own grandson. I love America. I will not forget the valuable lessons history has taught us, both of our victories and our failures. It’s about time everyday people quit sitting idly by and instead begin to tell their stories—the stories of struggles, of courage, of greatness, of optimism, of America. Like Paul Revere, we must sound the alarm. For all the rhetoric floating around today, there’s a reality of life. And talking about it has become my new full time job.