I have been hearing many disturbing things after the election of our new administration. I have had sensible people, people of long acquaintance, who seemed steady and unshakable, confide their plans to leave the country "when it gets too bad." I read on the blog-o-sphere of theories that we are headed for a civil war, because the election and subsequent actions of our new administration have cast the differences between liberals and conservatives into a stark and unpleasant new light. I have read and seen on the news (little though I watch it these days) that Americans are buying record numbers of guns in anticipation of civil unrest and worse.
To those who plan to leave, I must ask:"Where do you plan to go?" In what country will you have more freedoms than you can claim in America? There is no other country where you will not be as or more oppressed than whatever you see shaping up here. It behooves you to stay and join the rest of us in fighting for our country. God willing, it will not come to armed battles between Americans, and it should not, if we get busy now and demand good character in our politicians.
Let us show discernment in our choices. When our politicians demonstrate poor character, let us bestir ourselves and recall them immediately. Let us demand good behavior in our judges and remove them when they stray from it. Let us demand a return to fiscal sanity and recall any representatives who do not provide it.
We, among the population of the world, have the God given and Constitutionally affirmed right to do these things. If America falls, where will you hide from the darkness of oppression that is sure to overtake the rest of the world? It is not our place to bend before the rest of the world. It is our place to demonstrate the rightness of our cause and our ability to maintain our form of government as responsible, free men and women and to require the rest of the world to come up to our standards.
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." Samuel Adams
For those who will stay and fight for our American experiment, I have for you this excellent speech. The available remnant of our Congress had gathered at York, in 1777, after several setbacks to question whether there was any hope of success. There seemed no hope, everything seemed to be going against us. Samuel Adams stood and addressed the group with these words:
"If we despond, public confidence is destroyed, the people will no longer yield their support to a hopeless contest, and American liberty is no more. Through the darkness which shrouds our prospects the ark of safety is visible. Despondency becomes not the dignity of our cause, nor the character of those who are it's supporters.
Let us awaken then, and evince a different spirit, - a spirit that shall inspire the people with confidence in themselves and in us, - a spirit that will encourage them to persevere in this glorious struggle, until their rights and liberties shall be established on a rock.
We have proclaimed to the world our determination "to die freemen, rather than to live as slaves." We have appealed to Heaven for the justice of our cause, and in Heaven we have placed our trust.
Numerous have been the manifestations of God's providence in sustaining us.
In the gloomy period of of adversity, we have had "our cloud by day and pillar of fire by night." We have been reduced to distress, and the arm of Omnipotence has raised us up.
Let us still rely in humble confidence on Him who is mighty to save. Good tidings will soon arrive. We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection."~ from "Samuel Adams A Life" by Ira Stoll.
That last line is worth repeating because it is true. "We shall never be abandoned by Heaven while we act worthy of its aid and protection." Let us act worthy of Heaven's aid and protection and we will reclaim our country.
"When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.
Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea.
And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.
Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him." ~Acts 22:26-29
