So the federal government has
gotten back in business of defining whose rights take precedent over others. So
be it, I am just God fearing man speaking what I consider common sense. I don't
really care one way or the other about gay folks or whether they marry but
think about this. How long before Churches are forced to perform gay marriages
even though that very concept may go against their religious beliefs? How does
the esteemed Supreme Court rule then? Is a gay couple’s right to marry under
the 14th Amendment greater than the church's member’s rights under the 1st
Amendment? At what point is the line drawn? Whose rights are greater than another’s?
This
is question to consider.
As far as the government picking a winner in that battle,
the last time they did we ended up with a civil war and hundreds of thousands
dead. And before you say that was over slavery, you better read some history.
The civil war was over state's rights, i.e. the right of a state to make its
own laws and not have an overreaching federal government strike them down.
Slavery was a horrible symptom of states exercising their rights under the
Constitution. Now the federal government, Supreme Court in this case, has done
the same thing with this ruling on gay marriage. Many states had passed laws voted
on by their citizens that defined marriage as a union between one man
and one woman. Now the federal government has by this decision disenfranchised
all of those voters in those states and basically said that their collective
will to govern their state is not valid. Look, we could debate the merits of
same sex marriage for the next 100 years, that is not the important point of
this latest government subversion of States rights. The important point that we
all need to consider is are we willing to continue to allow this federal
government to overstep its authority and reach down into our states, cities,
even homes and dictate to us our behavior and in some cases even how we think.
I am not saying that this issue of gay marriage is the one
that breaks the camels back but when is enough going to be enough? These folks in the government who have proven
time and time again that they don’t care about the citizens they claim to represent
and will do whatever they want to advance their own agenda? Both sides of the
aisle are guilty, perhaps the Republicans more because they will outright lie
to our faces to get elected. At least the Democrats will be honest about their treachery
and not hide it. They openly court of the destruction of our most venerated
institutions and beliefs while the current crop of Republicans works in the
shadows and make back room deals then smile for the cameras and pretend there
was nothing they could have done to change the outcome.
Someone recently said to me that the government is just
trying to “make everyone happy”. Hmmm, I
must have missed that in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. I am not aware of any clause in either of the
founding documents that outlines the government’s responsibility to make
everyone happy. In my humble opinion
that is a symptom of the root cause. The
purpose of the government as outlined by our Founding Fathers was outlined in
the very first sentence of the Constitution, “establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. Think on those words for a
moment. I am certainly not a
Constitutional lawyer like our current President claims to be but that sentence
strikes me as laying the foundation for a pretty limited form of governance
over the states by a Federal authority.
If we are to remain true to the ideals that our country was born from
then we must shed ourselves of the premise that government is the tit that we
must all suckle from.
This country used to reward and praise hard work and
success, welfare was only for those that actually needed it and now it has
become a way of life for an ever-growing segment of our population. We used to strive to emulate those captains
of industry that drove the America engine forward with their innovation, not castigate
them and actively work to place barriers in their way. We need to recognize that only we will
celebrate the best of us and hold them as examples to strive towards will we are
achieve greater success and wealth. Our ridicule
and scorn should be saved for those members of society that do not aim to
contribute but rather live off the hard work of the many. Success must be celebrated when and wherever
found, from the single Mom putting two kids through college, the small business
owner who creates jobs and provides for his employees as he would his own
family, the large corporation that continues to innovate and drive America to
the forefront in yet another field of industry.
I recently saw a clip of a speech that Bono gave at
Georgetown University almost three years ago.
You can view it here. In it, he summarizes perfectly what America
is and what it means to the rest of the world.
This is how far we have fallen from the path that we started out on back
in 1776. The rest of the world holds our
ideals in higher regard than most of our citizens and sadly even our current
President. Let government provide the
basics, security and stability, and we will do the rest. This very attitude is what America is such a
great country and why we have generally succeeded for the past 238 years. Sure we have had stumbles and challenges but
we have always risen to them. Today
however I fear that we are close to a tipping point where the majority of
America’s citizens have forgotten what made it so great and the envy of the
world. Immigrates who come to this
country know this in their very bones as we once did. They come for the promise of the shining city
on the hill with little or nothing and they succeed in building a life. That optimism that they have is sorely
lacking from many of our natural born citizens.
This post started as a rant against the overreaching of federal
government but I chose to end it with the optimism that is the American dream. We are a great people, living in a great
country and we must wake up and remember that if we wish to return to it. If we don’t then I weep for the future of my
children and all the children in this country.
If we fail to act and rein in this out of control federal government,
all branches, then we will be the ones who sacrificed their freedoms because we
could not find the strength to act.
We need to recognize that those who would tear down our great
country do not always live in caves in some foreign land but right here,
sometimes right next door. They
range from those who live off the charity of our taxes yet complain they are
downtrodden in this land of opportunity, those who claim to work for us in the
schools and all levels of government yet only advance their agenda of
destroying American ideals, even to the White House where our President can’t
willingly acknowledge the existence of American exceptionalism.
You might ask, what are we to do? We must keep the faith with the ideals put
forth by our Founders. We celebrate the uniqueness
of America and her place in the world.
We vote with every dollar we spend, spend your hard earned money with
those who share your view of what America is.
Vote for those who still believe in America and will work to bring
balance to the role of government. Speak
out when you see others tearing down what this country stands from. It is a long road ahead of us but if we keep
the faith then we will be rewarded with the America that we deserve not one
perverted by those who don’t believe any longer in the greatness of this country. God Bless American and all of her citizens.
