Between the standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada, several different mass shooting and stabbings + the passage of new gun control laws in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and other States where hundreds of thousands are refusing to comply and are now deemed criminal this has been a trying time for the USA.
What we are failing to grasp is just why the fabric of this nation is seemingly unraveling. The Constitution we now enjoy was designed to govern a people who had a particular societal and personal moral core. The Founders were consistent in warning that if this society were to lose these core beliefs and that core erode ( we have and it has) this form of government will no longer operate as it as designed.
The founders of this nation in their own words spoke in great detail on this subject.
Here are a few of those words.
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. Benjamin Franklin
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people .It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams
The sum of it all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While on the other hand , if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves." Samuel Adams
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of duties of men and citizens.... let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life , if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?" George Washington
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever." -Thomas Jefferson, 1781
When you read the words of those who were the founding fathers of this Republic it soon becomes clear that this nations Constitution was only designed to function in the governance of a people with a particular moral center and foundation. They also sternly warned that if we lost that moral center and rejected those core values as a people that this very freedom that the constitution instituted would become our undoing.
Today because this society has lost respect for the preciousness of human life our very freedoms granted under our constitution are quickly becoming our undoing. This leaves us as a nation with a difficult choice.
We return to our core values regain the respect for one another and for the preciousness of human life that our republican form of government was intended to govern over; or we continue down our current path which will lead to more and more governmental control of our daily lives and eventually the abandonment of this current form of government altogether and the institution of a much more authoritarian and restrictive form of government.
This particular quote from one of our nation's founding fathers Benjamin Franklin
applies I believe here as a stern word of warning.
"Those willing to forfeit liberty for security will have neither."
The founders of this nation knew that the form of government they were institution as the "great human experiment" also required a great responsibility from its citizens in order to survive. Now the question becomes as a people today are we up to that task?
History will judge us on the path we take over the next few months and years. The question asked here by Thomas Jefferson must be answered " The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
The final answer of whether the founders "great experiment" in creating a republican form of government was a successful experiment or failure today seemingly hangs in the balance as it never has in the history of this nation.
Sincerely
Richard Rutledge
Chairman Conservative Party Alabama
http://www.conservativepartyal.org/
What we are failing to grasp is just why the fabric of this nation is seemingly unraveling. The Constitution we now enjoy was designed to govern a people who had a particular societal and personal moral core. The Founders were consistent in warning that if this society were to lose these core beliefs and that core erode ( we have and it has) this form of government will no longer operate as it as designed.
The founders of this nation in their own words spoke in great detail on this subject.
Here are a few of those words.
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious they have more need of masters. Benjamin Franklin
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people .It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams
The sum of it all is, if we would most truly enjoy the gift of Heaven, let us become a virtuous people; then shall we both deserve and enjoy it. While on the other hand , if we are universally vicious and debauched in our manners, though the form of our Constitution carries the face of the most exalted freedom, we shall in reality be the most abject slaves." Samuel Adams
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of duties of men and citizens.... let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life , if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?" George Washington
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever." -Thomas Jefferson, 1781
When you read the words of those who were the founding fathers of this Republic it soon becomes clear that this nations Constitution was only designed to function in the governance of a people with a particular moral center and foundation. They also sternly warned that if we lost that moral center and rejected those core values as a people that this very freedom that the constitution instituted would become our undoing.
Today because this society has lost respect for the preciousness of human life our very freedoms granted under our constitution are quickly becoming our undoing. This leaves us as a nation with a difficult choice.
We return to our core values regain the respect for one another and for the preciousness of human life that our republican form of government was intended to govern over; or we continue down our current path which will lead to more and more governmental control of our daily lives and eventually the abandonment of this current form of government altogether and the institution of a much more authoritarian and restrictive form of government.
This particular quote from one of our nation's founding fathers Benjamin Franklin
applies I believe here as a stern word of warning.
"Those willing to forfeit liberty for security will have neither."
The founders of this nation knew that the form of government they were institution as the "great human experiment" also required a great responsibility from its citizens in order to survive. Now the question becomes as a people today are we up to that task?
History will judge us on the path we take over the next few months and years. The question asked here by Thomas Jefferson must be answered " The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite."
The final answer of whether the founders "great experiment" in creating a republican form of government was a successful experiment or failure today seemingly hangs in the balance as it never has in the history of this nation.
Sincerely
Richard Rutledge
Chairman Conservative Party Alabama
http://www.conservativepartyal.org/