What's so special?

The Fourth of July is right around the corner, as we prepare to remember...what?

I noted recently in a Facebook blurb - only partly in jest - that teenagers must believe they are smarter than any adult, because their answer to any information offered by anyone older is virtually always, "I know." Recalling my own reliance on that phrase way back when, I think that response may be hard-wired into our brains.

However, with Independence Day fast approaching, reality casts a different light on what most people actually know about our greatest national holiday (note: Christmas and Easter are ostensibly religious holidays). For instance; ask most grammar school kids today what we're celebrating on Monday and if you're fortunate, you'll get something like, "Ummm...We fought a war?" If you ask many high schoolers you'll most likely get a response that includes the near-universal retort; "I dunno."  And if you ask college-age young adults, who are one step shy of taking the reins of "responsible" adulthood, you might get something mumbled that smacks of "Old white slave-owners." Ignorance of our history is the new standard.

Before liberals took control, US scores
 used to be near the top of the charts

The sad - no,...tragic truth is, the modern American diseducational system has done incredibly successful work over the past half-century in turning what was one of the world's showcase demographic on literacy into Number 18 (depending on which scoring method you look at) and falling.

Thomas Jefferson warned us of the dangers of ignorance; "Educate and inform the whole mass of people...they are the only sure reliance for the preservation of liberty." His words now come back to haunt us as we have traded education for indoctrination, and truth for disinformation. Newspeak passes for news.

All this is a roundabout way to hit my actual point: most Americans no longer know what our own country is supposed to be about: why it was formed and how it got to be the greatest nation in the history of mankind for a while. And while there seems to be a late-blooming awareness by many that something is wrong, most folks today  do not understand how precarious our current position is, or which way we are lined up to fall. And they certainly do not see how those latent dangers may one day directly affect their own lives.

Instead of being a nation of people with the freedom to pursue our own destiny, to enjoy the fruits of our labors, we are being turned into a nation of mindless sheep, driven by packs of ravenous wolves - many of whom don't even realize they will eventually be turned into sheep themselves.

Just because we haven't (yet) officially adopted the swastika or the hammer and sickle, there can no longer be any doubt; America is effectually becoming a police state. We're still in the early stage, but the evidence is clear. Law does not automatically equate to justice. Language no longer makes sense, because meanings have been turned around to expedite political change and agendas. Our leadership is either cluelessly or intentionally destroying everything that made this country a great nation. In any event, that leadership is unravelling as Obama's abject inability to understand how to lead becomes more apparent each day.

OK, then; enough depression for one sitting. Monday is Independence Day. So, what does that day mean to us today? Here are my own answers.

- To me it means that we in this country have been God's favored people, and under His guiding hand for nearly four hundered years (if you think back to the Pilgrim era); perhaps the first since the establishment of ancient Israel (and the reestablishment and defense of modern Israel may have been the latest). But by turning our backs on Him we risk national calamities (natural, economic, military, agricultural, governmental, social, etc.), as have many other formerly Christian nations such as Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Italy and others.

- It means we are, for the moment, among the most free people in the world, with the ability to follow our own destiny based on our abilities, opportunities, personal energy and will to persevere. But each year we become less free and more dependent - either forcibly or willingly - on government. We have forgotten that we were supposed to elect representatives, and instead continually return career politicians who more often than not simply rule over us with secret deals and bullying tactics, without satisfactorily debating or explaining the issues or heeding our choice. Such actions only reinforce my desire to see an end to political careerism, open debates, and public referendum on major issues, especially those that turn social structure upside-down.

- It reminds me we are blessed with the best military in the world; a true force for good - but (and I've changed my opinion on this) that doesn't mean we should be building nations, or spending our largesse in countries that only use our generosity against us.

- It reminds me that we have been the most charitable nation - for our own needy and those of other nations in distress. But charity has always been and should remain the purview of the Church, based upon our Christian heritage. But that charity is derived from personal and willing generosity, not coercion. When government gets in the charity business, it quickly forgets that it is only giving away what it has forcibly taken from our own productive citizens, and in too many cases, giving it to those who feel no compunction to actually earn or repay their "allowance".  When you've bled your own productive sector dry, it only signals the beginning of a death spiral, as government takes more from people who must now work harder to keep less, and therefore have less to give.

- It reminds me that this nation gained its strength from the union of diverse peoples who sought to become something better than they started as; millions of legal immigrants willingly surrendered (but always retained) part of their former heritage to attain a new heritage as an American. Now we are being consciously and intentionally divided to further political agendas; we are increasingly either hyphenated or socially isolated in cloistered "ghettos" where mostly-illegal immigrants refuse to acculturize, while the rest of the society is divided by moral issues that did not conflict with the social "normal" until the 20th century.

It was during this time that various socialist groups (marxists, communists, nazis, progressives, eugenicists, Fabians) began to insert the Satan bug (Gen. 3:1 - "Did God really say...?") across the culture to get us to doubt our previous moral imperatives: Margaret Sanger introduced the abortion movement in 1921 (which was fraudulently legalized in 1973), immorality became semi-legitimized in 1948 by the first of the faux-scientific Kinsey Reports and went mainstream with the publication of Playboy in 1953, and homosexuality became a liberal cause cèlébre following the 1969 Stonewall riots.

Each of these destructive 'seeds' have germinated into ever-growing movements,cultural weeds propelled and perpetuated by the educational system and the entertainment industry, and facilitated (or disobstructed) by a rogue government that continuously distances itself from our founding principles.

But as far down that dark road we've already traveled, I believe there is a chance to revive this nation's spirit. By that I mean, in part, an authentic religious revival. Unless man reconstructs himself from within and reestablishes internal restraint, reason, and sound judgment, we can never adequately address the needs of the larger community (and by community I mean every social structure outside the immediate family, up to and including the global community). Man cannot rule justly if he only relies on himself, because sooner or later his baser nature will take the lead (as Kings David and Solomon belatedly discovered). In our weaker moments, eventual tragedies are born. We must look to the greater Good for solutions.

I call that greater good...God. I believe God is the ultimate force for creation and destruction. I believe He is the author of logic and science, and through these He is the master craftsman of all creation. I believe that although we have come to understand much, we effectually know next to nothing, and we err when we try to limit Him by our own understanding. He left us instructions, examples, lessons and reminders, and we ignore or misinterpret these at our peril.

In a nutshell, the celebration of Independence Day is a celebration of His gift to us; the gift of freedom. I believe He wants us to use that freedom constructively. I believe this nation - for all its ills - has done more for the human race than any other. The downside is that because we have made poor choices, we are undoing much of that previous good. We should use this Monday to remind ourselves and our fellows that we have a greater heritage, and potentially, a greater destiny to live up to.

Unchangeable?

It's really difficult to keep up with the changes being instituted by this government. But none of the changes are so surprising -- especially to Obama's voters -- as the backpedaling he and other major players have done recently.

For example, on Thursday the president told a town-hall meeting that "We can't keep on borrowing from China," essentially slamming his own policies as unsustainable. And who will forget Nancy Pelosi's very uncomfortable moment in the spotlight as she tried to wriggle herself out of her contradictory statements about her CIA briefing on "tortures," and her accusations against the agency, which are being contested by CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Incidentally, Glenn Beck may just have opened a new page in what may turn out to be the largest scandal in American history. He and his team of researchers have uncovered a former funeral home in New Orleans that serves as a mail drop for ACORN and at least 270 subsidiaries, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). All the corporations (many of which may be dummy fronts) apparently use the address as a money-clearing house. The investigation - which includes vote fraud, extortion and embezzlement - is continuing. The question is, will you see any of it on the mainstream news media?

I'll be watching you. The United States has achieved yet another notable milestone: we now rank 6th in the world as a "police state" insofar as government surveillance is concerned. Granted, in the modern world we need additional protection from the electronic villains who might try to steal our identities, and it's a cold comfort to realize that a lot of murderers, molesters, kidnappers and other nasties get caught because of the prevalence of cameras and other electronic eyes and ears.

The dark side of this is that eventually the wrong people will get control of that technology. As the report from Cryptohippie USA Inc. warns, " Perhaps you trust that your ruler will only use his evidence archives to hurt bad people. Will you also trust his successor? Do you also trust all of his subordinates, every government worker and every policeman? And, if some leader behaves badly, will you really stand up to oppose him or her?"

Along those lines, it is worth noting that the Wisconsin Court of Appeals has just ruled that police can emplace a GPS tracking device on anyone's car, without a warrant, even if the owner is not a suspect in a crime. Other states, including New York, have a different view.

Keep your 'enemies' closer? There is an ominous policy change going on in our relations with key areas of the Middle East. Apparently, the Obama malAdministration is not only withholding vital intelligence from Israel - our most important and reliable ally in the region - he may also be taking other actions that directly undermine the threatened Jewish State. Among these, the president has reportedly been invited by the Egyptian Grand Mufti to speak to the Muslim world from one of the Islamic world's most important mosques. One can't help but wonder, if he does make a speech to Muslims around the world, will it be yet another "trash-talk America" spiel that will only serve to inflame people who already hate us?

Incidentally, on May 6, Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia gave a succinct and passionate response to the president's recent overseas tour and his comments about America not being a Christian nation. It is worth listening to. Seems we do have a handful of good leaders, even if they are currently powerless to affect change for the better.

Yuk, Yuck. The annual White House Correspondents' Dinner was held last Saturday night, and was attended by around 3,000 reporters, talking heads, and other celebrities, including the unusual addition of many of Hollywood biggest (liberal) names. They were all there for what is generally a relatively good-natured jibe at the current administration. However, while the president did take some pot-shots at a prominent bunch of Washington insiders, this time the emphasis was mostly on the previous Bush White House and conservatives.

The libs lapped it up and laughed at it all, including some not-so-kindly sick humor directed at Rush Limbaugh by so-called commedienne Wanda Sykes, who called Rush the "20th hijacker," expressed her "hope his kidneys fail," and that "he needs a good waterboarding." But the "comedy" got even meaner when the openly professing lesbian trashed Sarah Palin and her daughter. Sarah wasn't there, but her husband Todd was. Being the class act that he is, he didn't get up and punch her lights out. I might have been sorely tempted if she was trashing my wife and daughter. Even a reporter for the generally left-of-center UK Guardian noted that the affair "turned into a hateful and disgusting diatribe." The whole thing was a reminder that there's no class like low class, and there seems to be plenty of that around nowadays.

Where do they think charity comes from? You've probably seen the commercials for the Christian Children's Fund on TV. It generally shows a kindly-looking middle-aged bearded man holding a small child as he walks through what looks like a garbage dump in the middle of an alley. It seems that in this age of political correctness, watered-down faith and downright ignorance, the organization has adopted a new strategy: eliminating the "Christian" part of its name. Henceforth, the organization that professes to spread Christian charity to impoverished areas of the world will be known simply as Childfund International.

The irony is that virtually all the major real charities (not the political machines masquerading as charities) -- such as the Young Men's Christian Association, the International Red Cross and the Salvation Army -- that have sprung up over the past hundred and fifty years or so began as Christian organizations committed to helping the less-fortunate while spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some of the largest, like the Red Cross, YMCA and YWCA, have all but rejected Christ for the secular world. Does it not occur to those in charge that it was predominently Christians who contributed to these charities, and that dissing a major reason for their giving may have dampened their generous spirit over the years? And with the frequency of mismanagement and greed within secular organizations (e.g., ACORN), it becomes less than appealing to send even more of our hard-earned money down a rathole disguised as nobility.

Now for some encouraging news. With all the doom and gloom you generally see here, it's nice to be able to give you a little on the other side.

The president did something right, as far as I'm concerned, when he backtracked on a decision to release new photos of the Abu Ghraib debacle. The White House website no longer features his support for killing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). But before you get ready to pucker up and plant a big wet one on the nearest presidential portrait, the site now states, "President Obama also continues to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. He supports full civil unions and federal rights for LGBT couples and opposes a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage..." (emphasis added). Still, his apparent abandonment of the homosexual holy grail must be frustrating to the activists.

Then there is the blip produced by certain supporters of the homosexual agenda who are taking note that the impending hate-crimes legislation is little more than an attempt at fund-raising for gay activist groups, at the cost of the individual liberty of those who oppose that deathstyle.

Another slap to the homosexual lobby came from the American Psychological Association. The APA has disavowed its long-standing support for the elusive "gay gene". The activists' battle-cry that science supports a genetic cause for the behavior (a position held by them since 1988) cannot be confirmed, according to the report. Of course, it is doubteful that the new statement will change any of their minds, because these folks would rather see the entire culture burn rather than admit they are wrong. The report states in part, "There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian orientation... no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors."

A Major (Re)Production. In recent times - despite the many Christian ministries scattered throughout the undeveloped world - the Christian church itself has slacked off in the areas most in danger of losing touch with Christ; the breeding grounds of the faith -- Europe and our own continent. Despite being the the furnace in which the faith was forged over a millenium, secularism is drowning out the Church of Christ. Even more alarmingly, Islam threatens to overtake both Christianity and secularism within our childrens' lifetime, and its greatest weapon is the fertility it espouses. While Westerners have chosen to defer, delay or abort their future generations, demographics indicates that Islam has a strong likelihood of taking over Europe and North America in only a few decades if trends continue. Our culture of convenience and self-gratification will be the demise of not only our family bloodlines, but of our entire culture as well, unless a drastic nation-wide reversal of this suicidal behavior occurs soon. We must stop looking at raising a family as an inconvenience, and remember that it is a major blessing.

How much good news can we take? A lot more...but this is truly encouraging. A new Gallup poll indicates that a majority of American adults now consider themselves to be "pro-life" for the first time since Gallup asked the question in 1995. Now, if only we could get more of those adults to begin procreating.