A Worthy New Year’s Resolution: Do Something!

I was born on a farm west of Phoenix in 1939. The only houses were farmhouses occupied by farm families, generally wonderful people.

I have seen tremendous change over the span of my life, both in the Phoenix area and nationally. One of the few advantages of advanced age is perspective. There have been many technological improvements in our lives and some social improvements. We have gained some things and lost others.

Observing America over many decades, not all change has been for the better. For younger people, be aware that you can’t measure the loss of freedom as well as a senior citizen because you have never known differently.

Despite what the race hucksters are selling, black Americans thankfully are treated much better than they previously were. That has been a real improvement. However, at the same time, a social and cultural decline has followed in the wake of Biblical-based morality being replaced by secularism materialism. There are a lot of -isms today. It reminds one of the famous observations of G.K. Chesterton, that when people no longer believe in God, it is not that they will believe in nothing, it is they will believe in anything.

This spiritual decline is of considerable importance because a country can be no better than its people.  Creeping socialism has taken its toll on the work ethic and the family. But what has me most concerned is the erosion of personal freedom. While it has expanded in some areas, other areas have yielded to the growth of government. We have less personal freedom, less privacy, and keep much less of our income.  More and more of our people have grown dependent on the state.

America is in peril and I want you to join me in doing something about it. We can live in fear, we can feel intimidated, and we can be angry. These are perhaps understandable emotions but not of much value unless we take action to deal with them.

In the New Testament, we are told “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind “ (2 Timothy 1:7). It strikes me that you can’t have a sound mind if your mind is controlled by fear.

But let me ask you how you feel if you turn on the TV, and you see burning, looting, and rioting? What do you think when it becomes obvious that our military and our schools are teaching Critical Race Theory?

How do you feel when General Milley calls the Communist dictator in China and says in essence, “Don’t worry, before we attack you, I will give you a call and let you know we are coming?” Can you imagine General George Marshall doing that to Franklin Roosevelt?

What do you think of the Commander in Chief wearing a cloth mask, virtually alone on the beach, near the water’s edge?

And then there is the problem of open borders, officials ignoring the law, inflation, huge accumulated debt, and the general breakdown of law and order in major cities.

So how are you and I to respond to this sad situation that we find ourselves in?

Most of the available options aren’t particularly attractive.

We can ignore the problems.

We can acknowledge the problems but give up feeling that we can’t do much about solving them.

We can live in fear and anxiety, expressing our fear and frustrations with friends and neighbors. That’s hard on them and rarely productive.

We can move to another country. But the way even so-called free countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Britain have acted of late, certainly looks like a poor option. Many of these nations have gone even more Covid crazy than we have.

Or we can recognize that if freedom is to survive, it must flourish here. If that is true, then we must act positively to defend our country and its founding principles just as vigorously against domestic enemies as we would those that are foreign.

In short, the best option is to fight.

American history teaches many lessons. During the Revolutionary War, the colonists fought against the greatest military power of the day. In addition, the Revolution was supported by only about a third of the population, or at least that is John Adam’s estimate. In some sense, it was our first civil war, and it was about freedom.

Our second civil war was also about freedom.

In both cases, people who were for the most part comfortable economically, engaged in great sacrifice for the principles of freedom. Why did they do that?

That should be an inspiration to all of us. Not that much is being asked of us. No one is suggesting you sacrifice like the troops at Valley Forge or the Marines at Tarawa.

What do I offer you? I say don’t give up. Fight politically now so we don’t have to fight militarily later.

Become informed by reading beyond the mainstream corporate media. Read The Epoch Times and The Prickly Pear, and many other fine new publications.

Get active politically. If you are old and bent over like me don’t let that stop you. Write and call your representatives, even those in other states. It’s easy. You can do it.

Attend school board meetings, speak out against what is wrong. Find out what is being taught in the public schools, and support school choice.

If you temperamentally are not a fighter, support those that are fighters. There are many good organizations such as Faith and Freedom Coalition, Freedom Works, Project Veritas, Judicial Watch, Turning Point USA, and Prager U, just to name a few. Find their phone numbers. Visit their websites. Give them a call asking for information to be sent to you and give them money. Your money won’t mean much if you are not free.

Many people seek a sense of meaning. For me, my Christian faith provides that. But beyond that, I want to leave the world better than I found it, not worse. The best gift we can leave behind in this world is liberty for our children and grandchildren.

So let’s make standing up for liberty our New Year’s resolution.

Come on folks, let’s do it together.