We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Getting here from there was a tough row to hoe. And here is not yet "there."
As we are an agglomeration of people, there are among us those who wish to rule, not govern. From the left and from the right. So it's a constant struggle to get to there from here.
There will be slips, one back to two forward. Sometimes three back, followed by one, two, three forward, two back, two forward... and we'll have a net gain of one, only... we wont' be sure about that. And truthfully, we'll never get to "there" in the perfect sense. It will always be a struggle to stay in place, or move forward.
And it is so easy to just let go... and slip back, and perhaps never move forward again.
If all that American's want is security, they can go to prison. They'll have enough to eat, a bed, and a roof over their heads. But if an American wants to preserve his dignity and his equality as a human being, he must not bow his neck to any dictatorial government.DDE, as President of Columbia, in the NYT December 9, 1949.
Freedom isn't the same thing as safety or security. There is always risk with freedom. But the rewards, the rewards are greater with freedom vice security. There is a tension that lies between those who want security and safety, yet are envious of those who take risk and gain reward.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Therein lies much of the tension. I've been in the arena, in differing ways, places, and days. And I want my issue and theirs to have the same sorts of chances - to speak their mind, to strive mightily to achieve happiness... or to not strive greatly, and choose to live modestly. But I want them to have that choice. And for all our scars and warts, this is still about the best place in the world to have that chance.
Like Cassandra says, I love my country. Heh. I love my wife. I love my son. I love my farm. I love my critters. Hell, I love some of my guns. Doesn't mean they can't all use some tweaks, just as I'm sure SWWBO can lay out some tweaks that your humble correspondent might benefit from. Doesn't mean we aren't fundamentally honest, good, and basically sound.
What I am always amazed at are the critics who assume that, just because you don't jump up and down screaming "murderer" or "harlot" about your country and people, you are somehow blinded to her imperfections or those of its people.
They don't really get that that imperfection is part of the perfect whole. There was no other country in the world where the imperfection of the common man instead of the perfection of an anointed king, ruled the people and governed the nation.
What must be killing some is that, here we are in all our imperfection and we have existed longer than many dynasties. We have the possibility to change our direction without assassinating the king. How interesting it is that some have tried to change the course of history through assassinating the president of our nation and only coming up with nothing. That's because they fail to understand that the president represents a national will, not an individual despot making up his own rules, despite what the detractors sometimes says or think.
Whatever the president does, we always have the chance to change it. It is why we will survive as the world still tears itself apart at the seems of tyranny of oppression.
There's a better place over the waters of 'peace'. They call it Australia :P But since it's your special day I won't mention that :D I gotta hand it to the US, it had a hard and complete Independence we didn't do.
The reality is all nations and all people make mistakes. We're loaded with them. Mistakes are how we often learn and are actually a sign of strength. For when they are missing we're talking about hiding mistakes which is not the same thing as not having any.
It's how we deal with the mistakes that matters. Do we face the fear and work for betterment or hide and deny and thus let the mistake grow?
Jerry Pournelle has said that our Rebellion was one of the few truly conservative revolutions in history. I think he's right.
*a-hem*