It Is Time We Remembered

It is time we remembered, because there are those who wish us to forget. They cloud our memories and deny the truth of our past. Remember where we came from. Remember the vision we were designed to move toward. Remember what inspired our creation and the future we were meant to claim. It is time we remembered the true America.

The history of the world is a continuous record of hardship, oppression and distress. It is a record of tyrants, dictators, monarchies that repressed the human spirit and promoted the self-interest of the powerful.

Individual rights were subservient to the needs of the collective, whose existence was only tolerated in order that the elite thrive. No country in the world truly valued civil rights or individual liberties. It was time for a change.

From this dark environment God saw fit to establish a light to obliterate the darkness and for the first time, allow man to breathe free air. His inspiration took root in the hearts of great men, the likes of which the world had never seen before. From this Divine Inspiration was born the United States of America and mankind, and humanity, would never be the same.

The citizens of Malborough, Massachusetts aptly proclaimed, "A free-born people are not required to submit to tyranny!" and for all the generations that followed America's first generation, we have proudly claimed to be free people.

As it often does, prosperity and good fortune finds an enemy. Our first Americans found their enemy in the person of King George III who set out to control this new land and keep it under his unjust rule. And as will happen once people taste what it is to be free, these early Americans refused to live under the thumb of a tyrant across the ocean.

In 1764, only four years after assuming the throne, his likeness of King George was burned in effigy from a tree in Boston, later named the "Liberty Tree". Decree by decree, Great Britain's hand became too heavy for men who wanted to be free to tolerate. The American Revolution was the outcome of their resolve and every generation since has proudly proclaimed the title of American.

Today, the passion of the men we revere as our Founding Fathers that birthed this nation, is under attack once again. The Liberal Progressive mindset seeks to erase their contribution to our nation's beginning. It is time we remembered who they were and what they gave us.

One recent study found that 86% of our children's school texts had deliberately omitted the Godly influence that guided these men to separate us from the government Samuel Adams described as having "lost all sense and feeling of morality" and was "governed by passion, cruelty and revenge".

Re-writing of history is the Liberal's only way to deny the influence of "Divine Providence" in our nation's founding. Ignore the truth, refuse to tell the real story, and in a generation or two no one will even know that our Founding Fathers valued the hand of God in all they did.

As James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers in 1787, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm". He knew the dangers that come with the establishing of any new government. With added power comes the opportunity for corruption, and it will only be held in check by men of conscious and morality. Efforts for us to return to an form of government that recognizes God and a standard morality, in the eyes of some, must be diminished and discredited. Movement toward that goal is fully underway today.

A teacher asked the children to draw what they thought Christmas was. While Santa Claus, Christmas trees and elves were permitted, one child soon learned that the manger scene she drew was not acceptable. What is Christmas if not a manger scene?

As a young student I remember when the Gideons would come yearly to our school and see that every child who wanted a pocket New Testament would get one, free of charge. Don't expect to ever see that gift being made available in today's federally funded school system.

A declaration of love of God is now seen as bigoted against anyone who doesn't hold that view. It is permissible to be proud of being Gay, for example, but to proclaim that you are a Christian believing in Biblical principles, or an organization who gives freely to traditional marriage groups, often gets you labeled as a hater. The God of Love is now the God of hate.

Cries for the "Separation of Church and State" assault us from coast to coast, but is that what our Founding Fathers' really believed? Setting the record straight requires we understand that such an idea is found nowhere in the Constitution of the United States.

The "wall of separation" Thomas Jefferson spoke of in a personal letter was about keeping government out of religion, not religion out of government.

The First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This amendment was designed to tie the hands of the government from setting religious guidelines, a job best left up to the people themselves. It was rather, designed to tie the hands of government, not the hands of the people.

Today, freedom "of" religion is being promoted as a freedom "from" religion. It is time we remembered the truth.

During the first observed national Thanksgiving Ceremony in 1791, John Hancock, Governor of Massachusetts said, "In consideration of the many undeserved Blessings conferred upon us by God, the Father of all Mercies; it becomes us not only in our private and usual devotion, to express our obligations to Him, as well as our dependence upon Him; but also specially to set apart a Day to be employed for this great and important Purpose. . . . And above all, not only to continue to us the enjoyment of our civil Rights and Liberties; but the great and most important Blessing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ: . . . . that all may bow to the Scepter of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the whole Earth be filled with his Glory."

That proclamation hardly sounds like a leader who wanted God left out of our government or society. Hancock and John Adams, the second president, together stated, "We recognize no sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus."

"The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence," wrote Adams, "were the general principles of Christianity... I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."

Patrick Henry put it this way, "It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Noah Webster, acclaimed as the Father of American Education, would not recognize today's school system, one so determined to keep God off school property and out of the classroom. He wrote, "In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed ... No truth is more evident in my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."

I wonder just how free Webster would see us today based on his belief thus expressed. As our freedom to even speak the name of Jesus or to mention God is being restricted with ever-increasing frequency, so is our overall freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment. There is a reason that freedom was listed at the very first of the very First Amendment. It was considered that important.

Benjamin Rush, founder of Dickinson College wrote, "By removing the Bible from the schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime." After a generation without the Bible being honored in our schools, Rush has been proven correct in his prediction.

George Washington, our first president stated, "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States." He felt that we, above all other peoples, should clearly recognize the hand of God upon this nation. His message is being silenced today. It is time we remembered.

Washington's first official act as president was to lead a small group of people to a tiny church that still stands today near New York City's Ground Zero, to pray for the future of America. Does that sound like a president who wished for God to remain nameless and unmentioned? It is time we remembered.

And what of the tendency to deny that prayer has a place in public arena? Washington's own personal prayer book, written in his own handwriting, is full of prayers he prayed morning and evening, incidentally in the name of Jesus Christ. To quote him exactly as he concluded one Sunday evening prayer, "These weak petitions, I humbly implore Thee to hear, accept and answer for the sake of Thy Dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

Countless quotes and examples could be cited to remind us that the demands for silence about God and Jesus in the public square are without merit, except in the minds of godless men who deny His Divine influence in the creation of the very country that allows them the right to demand that silence.

God ordained the establishment of the government of the nation of Israel and I believe he ordained the creation of the United States of America. What man has done with that gift must sadden Him as we have lost respect for the treasure we were blessed with.

God is not anti-government and government need not be anti-God. People today are itching to remove the phrase "under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance. Some wish to remove the pledge to our nation all together and replace it with a Pledge to the World, to further dismiss the recognition of both God and America. Those words were placed there to remind us that this wonder we call the United States of America was not an accident, and neither was it made by the hand of man alone.

The motto "In God We Trust" is constantly being attacked as having no place in anything remotely related to America by atheist groups, as are crosses marking the graves of fallen soldiers who died defending the right to honor God opening.

As Jesus Himself said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." Gratitude for the hand of God in the creation of America, as well as the acknowledgement of the sacrifice of devout, believing men He inspired, should come easily to us. It will, when we remember the truth. It is time we remembered.

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It's Time To Shore Up, Not Neglect, America's Foundational Values

Our Founding Fathers knew that the decision to pledge their lives, liberty and sacred honor for the opportunity to birth the greatest nation in mankind's history, could cost them their lives. To them it was something worth dying for. Those values which spurred them forward are still the foundation of America over 237 years later.

The question we must ask ourselves today is the same one they asked of themselves two centuries ago: Are we willing to pledge our lives, liberty and sacred honor in defense of the country they gave us? The reality is that unless we switch our mentality from one that simply allows us to enjoy the liberties of America, to one which demands we protect those freedoms, we will surely lose them.

No different than the foundation upon which we build any structure, the soundness of that foundation will determine whether the house built on it continues to stand or falls. The cracks we see in America today are the result of stress, strain, and pressure being exerted upon that foundation. Foreign regimes, inhumane philosophies, and corrupt political practices at home are chipping away at it. Its erosion will inevitably affect the nation and influence its ability to survive.

Foundations are built first, before any actually building of the structure can begin. America's foundation is essentially the fundamentals that have shaped the country from the beginning. One can tell much from looking at a foundation, how large and expansive the building will be, how tall it can go and how well and for how long it will be supported.

In 2008, when then Senator Barack Hussein Obama, proudly proclaimed his intention to change those fundamentals, he was declaring his plan to stop building on the foundation and start dismantling America. Changing the foundation changes the final outcome, what is to be built upon it.

Sadly, too many Americans cheered the prospect. Ignorance of those fundamentals by too many voters secured for him the opportunity to begin the demolition process. It still continues today and too often it is not effectively challenged.

America is not the physical structures that dot the landscape or the soil within its boundaries, but the people themselves. "We the people" still defines America and that places the burden of protecting it squarely upon the shoulders of the people, all people, We must resist those who work tirelessly to chip away at all that is good and replace it with a patchwork of defective ideals.

When we sit idly by and allow fundamental changes to be made to the America God has blessed us with, we indirectly aid in the process. There will always be some in America, a remnant, that still cherishes the values which define us and set us apart from an ever-collapsing world. But the silent rarely make much of a difference in anything, and the silent are ineffective in preserving America as well.

"The squeaky wheel gets the grease" still holds true. The ones that demand it are the ones that have their issues addressed. Wishing and hoping doesn't get it done. Wishful thinking is an exercise in futility. Every country in the history of man that eventually fell at the hands of evil designs, had within it a remnant of people who saw the mistakes being made but were made powerless to stop it by their own apathy and/or inaction.

Sometimes corrupt and oppressive regulations or laws made their resistance ineffective and as such should not have been allowed to be implemented in the first place. The confiscation of weapons makes a populace weak and has always preceded the eventual take over of a country by men with evil intentions, whether at that point in their history or one not far into their future.

 Likewise, the erosion of our First Amendment, giving us Freedom of Speech, will limit our ability to confront any corruption while debate is still an effective tool. Remove it and an entire nation of people can be bullied into submission. Civil, honest debate is the first line of defense against evil taking a foothold. Once that is eliminated, defense becomes an uphill battle.

 The job of preserving America lies with those who wish it strongly enough to get their hands dirty, to pitch in and make their voices known, demanding attention be paid to them. America belongs to the ones with the strongest determination to win. There is a battle going on for the soul of America. There will be a winner and there will be a loser. To believe otherwise is wishful thinking.

In almost every sport we have seen a team with the best record going into a game feeling they cannot lose and yet walk off the field two hours later with heads hung in defeat. "It can't happen to us" is not an effective defense and doesn't allow for the implementation of a successful offense. America's survival cannot be left in the hands of an "It can't happen to us" mentality. The history of the world has proved that repeatedly.

A generation grew up knowing the threat Russia imposed upon the United States and it shaped our actions and defined our cautiousness. More recently, Islam brought its Supremacist ideology to our side of the world and in a day we saw landmarks fall and almost 3,000 lives erased. Instead of recognizing that enemy, we embraced their philosophy in the causes of Diversity and Tolerance and became determined to welcome and understand it and we work today within the parameters shaped by that ignorance.

Now we are being assaulted from the inside by an administration eagerly chipping away at the foundation that we have depended upon to exist. More dangerous than that is the mentality that cheerfully placed that leadership in power and continually hides their agenda, defending even their most aggressive attacks upon our liberties. Unless that tide is reversed no one but the disconnected powerful will approve of the result.

President Obama sees his goal of fundamentally changing America more important than the Constitution. He sees it as his duty to go around the Constitutionally empowered law-making body to get his way. It displays his contempt for and a lack of understanding of the very system that put him in power. He will effectively burn the bridge behind him which others will one day seek to cross to be legitimate servants of the people.

He is a game-changer whose first step into politics will forever be a dark day for America, looking back. Whether history will hold him accountable remains to be seen. He certainly hasn't been held accountable for very much in the past four years.

What one doesn't value will eventually leave his/her life. That works the same for countries as it does for personal and business relationships. What we neglect to value and protect will leave, and the door will remain open for other liberties to follow. Once lost, they are rarely given back, a lesson we would do well to never forget. Preventing loss of freedom can be more effective than trying to reinstate it once it has been stripped away.

We cannot solve the massive problems we face using the same people that add to them. The mindset that created many of the challenges we abhor cannot be successful in eliminating them. We need fresh blood. We need fresh ideas. We need a fresh commitment to return to the foundational truths that gave birth to America. We need to replace the politicians in Washington, who call themselves Conservative, that have settled into a lifetime position of ease but do little to advance the cause they were sent to Washington to promote, old men who wake up in the morning closer to the Liberal philosophy than they were when they went to bed.

Becoming governed by the politics of popularity and keeping their jobs, they inch toward the Left to get votes. Compromise is sometimes necessary in politics but it appears that only Republicans submit to compromising. That is little more than betrayal. Soon there will be no telling the parties apart. We don't need another Democratic Party nor do we need to expand upon the existing one by adding members calling themselves Republicans. There must be a clear and distinct difference, obvious to all Americans, between Democrats and Republicans.

The answer is not to form a third party, which would in effect only guarantee future Democratic election wins, but to regain control of the only party that stands between them and total control. Understanding what built America and returning to that foundation is the only hope of saving America from being devoured from the inside out.

Fighting back is the only solution we have to the rising tyranny we see today. For a century there has been the desire by some leaders to move us toward Socialism and they made sure we were creeping in that direction. There exists now, however, politicians not satisfied with watching America creep toward anti-American ideals but who insist we race toward them. It is the new twisted "patriotism" when it is anything but patriotic.

Waiting to win the next election is not a viable option. Watching to see who comes along that can upset the Liberal apple cart is not a definitive strategy. We must live in a state of action, not reaction. We must choose an offensive movement and not simply settle for being on the defensive. Defense is needed to stem off some attacks upon our freedoms but, as in any game, defense doesn't put points on the scoreboard. The desire to win must be greater than just the desire not to lose.  
There are many liberties being assaulted in America today. First and Second Amendments are under attack. Fiscal responsibility is being neglected. Success is being demonized. Religious freedoms are being eroded. All Americans are encouraged to choose one or two freedoms dear to their hearts and get behind efforts to rescue them before the are relegated to the dust bin of history. If the future does indeed belong to the fittest and the strongest, we cannot allow our efforts to come up short.

The time for timidity is past. Apathy is as much an enemy to America's survival as evil agendas are. Failure to resist the destruction of our foundation will result in the collapse of the nation that rests upon it. Cracks need to be repaired and weaknesses shored up. Too much is at stake for us to engage in wishful thinking. Only effective, determined action can guarantee America's survival.