Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Country

There is a dull ache spreading its reach across the warm side of my heart where I store all the affections I have for my country. I worry for the future of my children and I worry for the future of my parents. The current trend of the Union is accelerating down the steep hill of unsustainability. We are a nation of maxed out citizens. Our leaders have continually nudged us to the point at which the pressure on us is too great to bear. I ache for freedom and decency, but the squawking of the vocal elite seems to always drown out the calm quiet voice from the pages of our very Declaration. "Inalienable rights" are shackled under entities too big to fail. "Life, Liberty, Happiness" have become just words that draw sneers and scoffing laughs from the supposed defenders of our Constitution.


America is the last great hope for freedom in a world of barbarism. If liberty dies here, then liberty dies. There is nowhere else for freedom-loving people to go. Once social dependence has taken root in the form of over-reaching governance, only extreme sacrifice can tip the scales back toward personal freedom. It is becoming exceedingly clear that more and more of my countrymen are content to jettison the freedom protected in the Constitution for the shadow of some socialist utopia that has neither been effective anywhere it has been tried nor does it make any pragmatic sense.



There is a country I want my daughter to know. I want her America to be that last great beacon of hope where merit and tenacity dictate success. I want her America to be the one place on the planet where her religious conviction is respected by her government and not shown disdain at every turn. I want her America to be free of the financial shackles of her grandparents' and parents' generations. I want her America to be a place where a man is not demonized for the fruits of his hardwork. I want her America to be known for her generosity; not begrudging forced aid but real compassion driven help for those in dire need. I want her America to be the nation that fights battles with revolutionary fury; when she must fight, she fights to win. I want her America to be hopelessly infatuated with the joy of the concept of freedom. I want her America to be that nation which encourages and cultivates the family unit instead of continually tearing it down. I want her America to herald the virtues of capitalism instead of undercutting the principles of free markets. I want her America to, first and foremost, before any domestic social programs are funded, completely and extravagantly provide for the dead and wounded servicemen who fought their country's enemies.

It is my hope that my generation will pave the road for her generation.

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