Remember when?

I received an interesting e-mail from an old friend a few days back that brings up a number of interesting points about Mr. Obama’s “accomplishments” over the last four years.  It also managed to prove once again that Mr. O’s doings are definitely bad for my blood pressure!  I guess the anointed one and his supporters are rather proud of themselves however, with what they’ve managed to do to our nation despite the objections of the majority of the American people, and the (said somewhat tongue in cheek) “opposition” of mainstream Republicans. 

I can remember back to the days when a conservative war hero sat in the White House, and our nation was in the midst of those dark, threatening days of the cold war.  Yet the economy was thriving… people had jobs, Mom didn’t have to balance working and her family to make ends meet, we were building a national highway system second to none, the post office could send a letter clear across the country for three cents and still show a profit, gasoline was 25 or so cents a gallon, illegal immigration was effectively a non-existent problem, criminals were in jail instead of in government, and the only “terrorist” I knew of was that big mean kid living down the street.  With all this our national debt was diminishing!  The nation was in the midst of a “golden age” that we still fondly look back on, where schools taught patriotism, churches taught morality, John Wayne was our movie hero, and we were proud to be Americans.  But then, things do change…

Do ‘ya remember when… Mr. Obama refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, and then it became known that multi-billionaire Marxist George Soros had spent gobs of money to get him elected?  Or do you remember when he received glowing political endorsements from people like Farrakhan, Kaddafi, and Hugo Chavez, along with his radical friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn… and people said that it didn't matter.

Do you remember when…  He refused to wear a flag lapel pin in honor of the Americans killed on 9/11, and did so only after a public outcry, or when he stood with his hands over his groin for the playing of the National Anthem and the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance… or when he claimed he was a Christian during the election, and tapes later surfaced showing the man with three Muslim names speaking to a Muslim group stating that he was raised a Muslim, was educated as a Muslim, and is still a Muslim… and people said it didn't matter?  When, as President of the United States, he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia and to the Emperor of Japan while traveling around the world criticizing America and apologizing for our greatness…  Or do you perchance remember when his personal background was so well hidden that nothing could be found out about him… or when the place of his birth was questioned, and he refused to produce a birth certificate… and people thought nothing of it.

How about when… he surrounded himself with advisors who were pro-gun control, pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage and who wanted to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition.  When he said he favors sex education in kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, or when his followers started treating him as a Messiah, or when children in schools were being taught to sing his praises… and Americans said it didn't matter

Do you remember when he started appointing White House “Czars” that are radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist /Communists.  When he appointed a Science Czar who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations, and seizing newborn babies from un-wed teen mothers…  When he selected a Regulatory Czar who believes in harvesting human organs without family consent.  When he appointed the homosexual organizer of a group called Gay, Lesbian, Straight, and Education Network, as our Safe School Czar?  Or appointed as Diversity Czar a man who believes in curtailing free speech, and who supports Hugo Chavez.  When he selected an avowed Socialist as Senior White House Advisor, when his White House Communications Director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for inspiration, when his pick for Health and Human Services Secretary could not be confirmed because he was a tax cheat… and people still said it didn't matter.

Do you remember when… he started spending us into a national debt that’s so big we’ll probably never get it paid off, when he generated another huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off the various organizations, unions, and individuals that got him elected…  When he took over our nations insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., and set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy production in the United States through his Cap and Trade scheme… and Americans said it didn't matter.

Do you remember… his radical plan (now the law of the land), to take over the nations entire health care system and put it under government control, giving us a Soviet Union style socialized medical care system complete with rationing and death panels… and people still think it doesn’t matter.  How about when he signed the executive orders setting into place his capability to bypass Congress at will, and totally take over every means of transportation, communications, production, banking, and even individual property rights… and people said it doesn’t matter.

So what does matter?!  Well, I remember when he stood before the Nation and told us that the United States was the greatest country in the world, and that his intentions were to "fundamentally transform this Nation" into something else.  Add these accomplishments up one by one and you get a huge score attesting to the fact that Barrack Hussein Obama is determined to turn America into “just another” third-world Marxist-Socialist society.  Even as we contemplate the upcoming election, he has nearly completed transforming us into the ‘United Socialist States of America’, with himself as our first Premier, a place where our hallowed Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and our precious liberty, are only a vague memory.   

If the American voter allows Mr. O to continue with his “master plan” this November, people will finally begin to remember that it does matter… but by then it will be far too late.

Freedoms Pledge

For a number of years now we have been hearing about the dissolution of our distinctly American euro-centric culture, and the high value of “Cultural Diversity” in our lives today.  Most of this spiel seems to be coming from the liberal left, so I of course will take the statement with a grain of salt  In part at least, I’ll agree that our American culture is coming apart at the seams, but I certainly don’t agree that all this diversity is a good or desirable thing.  In describing our American identity, author Samuel P. Huntington attempted to reject the concept that America is “a nation of immigrants.” He gets a bit picky with sematics, claiming that America's founders were not immigrants, but settlers, since our origional forebearers came to North America to establish a new society.  Well, Okay, but I’ll bet the Indians that met the Mayflower would dispute that statement.  Later peoples joining the origional colonists were indeed immigrants according to Mr. Huntington.  To avoid a literary donnybrooke with assorted left wing English professors, I’ll give Mr. Huntington the point, but I still doubt the Indians will! 

I’ll further agree with his claim that the political and legal institutions created here in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were in large part based on the legal practices of England’s sixteenth and seventeenth century.  These included the concept of the law being superior to the government (which England inherited from the Romans), the division of executive, legislative, and judicial functions within the government, a two-house legislature, the responsibility of legislators to their local constituencies, and a reliance on militia rather than a standing army for defense.  While abiding with that, any new immigrants were expected to become law abiding, english speaking citizens, no matter where they came from, what the color their skin, or what religion they happened to follow.  For well over two hundred years that system served us well.

By the 1960s our uniquely American identity had begun to disappear as a result of several mildly interconnected factors.  The beginning of economic globalization and the easing of the Cold War reduced the importance of a national identity.  Candidates for political offices began to stress ethnic conflicts in an effort to win over particular groups of voters.  There was (and remains today) a strong desire among the various ethnic leaders to enhance the status of their particular group, and thus their personal status within that group.  There was and remains the problem of legal (and quite loose) interpretation of Congressional acts, that lead to their execution in ways not necessarily what their framers intended.  The feelings of “sympathy and guilt” for historic “wrongs” is taught by self-proclaimed academic elites and intellectuals, while assorted ethnic appologies are encouraged, and severe changes to our immigration laws are demanded.  To that I’ll add that our drug induced utopian “counter culture” hasn’t helped things either.  Huntington further considerd other ways in which America’s identity has weakened, including the denationalization of business, professional, intellectual, and academic elites, and the influence of intense non-english speaking immigration.  By “denationalization” Huntington means that “new” Americans do not think of themselves citizens of the United States, but merely as temporary residents.  Huntington further proposes a solution to these problems, arguing that unless Americans “participate in American life, learn America’s language, history, and customs, absorb America’s Anglo-Protestant culture, and identify primarily with America rather than with their country of birth”, our once proud nation won’t be here much longer.

Apparently this general idea has been around for quite some time.  During the 160th anniversary year of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, then Attorney General Tom C. Clark presented President Harry S. Truman with the idea for a nationwide display of our nations greatest treasures, something that was eventually called the “Freedom Train”, that would travel around the country carrying historical documents and artifacts for all Americans to see.  Envisioned as a way to reawaken Americans to their taken-for-granted liberty in the years following WW II, President Truman approved the idea, and the Freedom Train was soon (1947 – 1949) visiting every state in the union, spreading the “Spirit of ’76.”

Never before had any nation contemplated sending on tour its treasures and national symbols.  For 413 days the train was the temporary home of America's most precious documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, one of the 13 original copies of the Constitution, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, and the Iwo Jima flag.  Among the 127 documents and six historical flags on board, the train carried many treasures that were the earliest inspirations for American liberty.  Some were from a distant and oppressive age, when there was little or no consideration for the rights of ordinary men, such as an original copy of the Magna Carta, written in 1215 as the first guarantee of the Rights of Englishmen, much of which became part of our law as well.  Other documents included the first guarantees of individual rights to freedom of speech and of religion dating from Colonial days.  Others proclaimed women’s rights, and racial equality.  Many of the displays aboard the train had never left Washington D.C. before, nor have they since.  These and other historic symbols were reminders of just how precious freedom is, and the price Americans have paid to keep it.

When the train made its stops, organizers urged visitors to recite the “Freedom Pledge” and sign its scroll.  While most Americans know the Pledge of Allegiance by heart, not many of us are familiar with this lesser known Freedom Pledge:

The Freedom Pledge

I am an American.  A free American.

Free to speak – without fear.

Free to worship my own God.

Free to stand for what I think right.

Free to oppose what I believe wrong.

Free to choose those who govern my country.

This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold,

for myself and all mankind.

While this proud pledge was quite meaningful to our citizens in the late 1940s and early 1950s, most Americans today have no idea of what it means.  Our educational system certainly doesn’t appear to be teaching Americanism, and today’s parents don’t seem to be making much of an effort either.  We have I think, lost our way both as a nation and as a people.  Perhaps it’s time for another “Freedom Train” carrying the meaning of “America” to all our citizens, explaining, and urging a repeat of, freedom’s pledge.