America in Decline

Note: I originally wrote this column two years ago, but I didn't publish it at the time due to its political content.  However, since that time I've decided that I do believe in that sage advice that, "If you don't speak out on a problem, then you are part of that problem."

I'm getting tired of sitting on the sidelines watching my country torn asunder by fools and incompetents in Washington and elsewhere.  Now I'm going to start speaking out on our problems and, if you don't like it, at least I've done my part. Welcome to the debate.

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We just celebrated one of our most important holidays, Independence Day, but some of us only know it as “The 4^th of July” and its significance has lost all meaning.  It has become an excuse to buy and set off fireworks and fire up the grill for a picnic. Some people wish that it would become another of those holidays that is always celebrated on Monday so that we get an extended weekend.  To too many, those are the only benefits they see in this celebration.  That is truly sad.     

I again watched a very disturbing video this week.  It featured radio talk-show host Dennis Prager on a panel discussing American exceptionalism.  His take of it was that America is no longer exceptional, but not because of current politics and policies, not because of the controversial actions of Barack Obama, and not because of our dependence on imports to fuel our stagnant economy.

No, the reason Dennis Prager gave for our decline is that we have not passed on what it means to be an American.  The greatest generation did not teach this generation what Americanism is.  It goes back a hundred years to the age of “modern” education.  We have incrementally changed our teaching from the three-Rs to a social hodgepodge that doesn’t even include history anymore.

Exceptionalism has been replaced by humanism, equality of birth—when we allow birth to take place—has been replaced by equality of result, charity has been replaced by entitlement and morality has been replaced by civility. None of these changes has improved us as a nation, they have only leveled the playing field so that everyone is less than they can be or should be.

The melting pot that was once America has slowly but surely become a nation of many camps.  They are not physically at war with one another, but they define themselves in exclusive terms by ethnicity, skin color, politics and ancestral nationality.  The hyphen has taken on a new significance in America.  Everyone is now a hyphenated being. Even I have a hyphenated appellation; Red-State-Conservative.

No one is just an American anymore.  We are African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc, etc, etc. We are gun-toting, pro-life and anti-establishment ...  and that is only a partial designation for my side. 

The late Rodney King was famous for his saying, “Can’t we all just get along?”  Well, I hate to break it to you, but no, we cannot all just get along.  Too much is at stake, even if America has begun to fade into the scrap heap of history.  There are still a lot of people who want to restore America to its best years, and they are more than willing to fight to achieve that end.

I am glad that I won’t be around to see or participate in the civil war that is coming. This will be a true civil war, not a North/South conflict like we fought 150-years ago that was not really a “civil” war at all.  It had clearly defined boundaries.  This one will be a street-to-street, house-to-house combat that well might destroy whatever is left of our once-great nation.  I hope you’re prepared for it, because I fear that it is coming and coming soon.

You may well ask,  “Do I love my country?”  My response is, "Yes, I do," and I am appalled by what I see happening in all my travels.  But I am especially appalled by what I see happening in Washington, D.C.  We are no longer a nation of laws because the laws on which this country was founded are scoffed at and overridden daily. 

I know that some of my friends and even some of my family will be offended by this column.  I understand that, but I pity you as well.  You are lied to, misled and yes, even brainwashed into ignoring those who present the facts that our media-mavens cover up.

Example – Andrea Mitchell’s out-of-context, edited clip of Mitt Romney prior to the 2012 election that made it seem like he was “amazed” at the technology that enables him to order food at an ATM-type screen, and then her refusal to admit the truth in the unedited video that showed Romney was “amazed” not by the technology, but that government cannot adopt private sector innovations like the touch screen and instead relies on old and failed devices and policies that are inefficient and expensive.  Ms. Mitchell didn’t even apologize for her too-clever ruse to belittle Romney and never played the entire clip for her audience.

More up-to-date, the New York Times published an article this week under the byline of one Monica Almeida about the protest at Murrieta, California.  Her lead paragraph reads:

When the three busloads of immigrant mothers and children rolled into town for processing at a Border Patrol station this week, they were met by protesters carrying American flags and signs proclaiming “return to sender” as they screamed “go home” and chanted “U.S.A.” Fearing for the safety of the migrants and federal officers, immigration officials decided to reroute the buses to San Diego, an hour south.

This is patently false, as those were not "immigrant mothers and children."  The women  were escorts for and with unaccompanied minors, hired earlier this year by the Federal Government, and were not even related to the children they were with.  And those "mothers" were not any immigrants, either. They are all most likely United States citizens.  Leave it to the NYT to let a Hispanic writer lie for them.

I regret that I am throwing water on your fireworks and barbeque grill, but I hope I can inspire you to spend some time post-Independence Day thinking about, and maybe even reading about what has made America great and exceptional.  Maybe we can become that nation once again if enough of us care.

 

Oh, and one more thing.  I hope they never move Independence Day to a Monday holiday.  It is a special day like Cinco de Mayo is to the Mexicans or Canada Day (formerly Dominion Day) is to the Canadians, that cannot and should not ever be used as an excuse for a three-day weekend.