Volume 9, Issue 24
The difference this year is that the world sees us differently than we see ourselves.
For the past four years, the debate has roared internally about what is wrong with America. There has been little discussion about the great attributes that are right about America. This is not a question about how pervasive and penetrating the constitutional rights of America are. These inalienable rights are, in fact, so obvious in so many ways that they are easy to overlook in the security of their completeness.
There exists in all societies good characteristics that should be advanced and flaws in need of reform at that the same time. Both should be managed. Neither should be ignored.
Since World War II, every other single nation in the world, with the exception of China, North Korea and Cuba, has looked to American values of freedom as their hope, as their compass, as their guideposts for societal destination. Cultures differ of course. Yet, the diversity of the world’s cultures found security and not imposition in aligning with the United States. The question posed by our world partners is different from the question that we ask ourselves on this birthday: They wonder why do we not trust our founding principles?
The valid analysis of racial justice, criminal reform, narrowing of the wealth gap, and societal privilege is essential and critical to national system reform. However, to focus singularly on flaws, without any acknowledgement of character strengths, is self-defeating. Why? Because the good always exists with the bad. It is the nature of a fallen human race.
When counseling our children, we nourish the good while counseling reform of the bad. Name a person you know who is perfect in every way. He or she doesn’t exist today. Society is a reflection of the collective flaws and strengths of humankind. Progressives seem to thrive on pointing out only the flaws, seldom balancing criticism with respect for liberty advanced.
Have you ever heard a liberal call for banking reform to protect the 20% who are vulnerable in society while calling for the protection, support, and facilitation of the 80% who are doing just fine? No! They are willing to burden a proven economic system with such regulation that it fails under the weight to perform. They ignore the evidence that, under socialism, any relief of forced benefit to the 20% at the expense of the 80% is realized by a much lower standard of living for both.
There is not a single country that progressives can name as an example for the United States to follow. America is the example admired by many other countries.
The people of the world are now bewildered. They fear their choices for the future have been limited to a Chinese communist system or an American system which has lost its confidence in freedom. They know in their heart of hearts that the only way to maintain the way of life they desire is through individual freedom and liberty. The Bill of Rights in the American Constitution has never been criticized as irrelevant except by a communist regime. The common people of a society know what makes them happy, what provides for their security, and what sacrifices are moral. In the past, the world’s choice was between freedom and oppression. Now the options seem to be merging into an opaque dystopia wherein the condition of freedom is expendable.
Some leaders are timid in the defense of liberty. They back government measures that restrict an individual’s access to inalienable rights. They falsely claim to be protecting people against evil when, in fact, they are too cowardly to trust the people to unite, even in sacrifice, against tyranny.
On June 4, 1940, Winston Churchill, as the newly installed Prime Minister of England, was under great pressure by his own party’s war cabinet to sue for peace with Italy and Germany. Entering into negotiations with Herr Hitler was an anathema to Churchill’s dignity. Three hundred thousand British and French troops were stranded and surrounded by enemy forces on the beaches of Dunkirk. England was unprepared for invasion. Lords Chamberlain and Halifax had organized the war cabinet to petition for a negotiated surrender.
Churchill stood alone in opposition to totalitarianism.
An unlikely advisor approached Churchill prior to his decision to accept the war cabinet’s recommendation. King George VI, a man who he himself had been thrust into leadership unexpectedly, offered Churchill his support. Churchill admitted that he was afraid for the lives of so many Brits at stake as measured against generations of British history past and yet to come. The King had previously held reservations about Churchill’s politics. But now, he wanted the Prime Minister to know that he believed in him and supported him in his decision to morally address the needs of societal posterity.
Both men were extraordinary in that they believed in the wisdom of the people for their commitment in the defense of freedom. Churchill, with the support of the King, decided to ask the people their opinion of negotiating a subjugated peace. In his conversations with the common citizens, it is purported that the words ‘never surrender’ came up repeatedly. The speech that Winston Churchill delivered to Parliament wherein he pleaded to fight in the seas, oceans, hills, streets, and beaches – to “never surrender” came from the strength of the British people and their confidence in their forefathers’ generational values committed to the ages. The British people never doubted their heritage.
One man’s belief in the wisdom of the people literally saved Western civilization. His true strength was having the confidence to ask the people what they desired and the courage to act upon it in concert with them. This was truly Britain's finest hour.
This July 4th, pause in a moment of silence. Be grateful for the freedoms we have as Americans. Liberty by law, whose origins are found in the Magna Carta and codified in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of American, is still the foundation of our personal inalienable rights.
This is our national heritage.
In this, America’s hour, the world stands at the precipice once again in the decision to deny totalitarianism or surrender in negotiated economic peace. America must recommit itself to the nourishing of that which is good and reforming that which is bad. For both will exist simultaneously until this system of things has run its course.
In these times, when the world asks America the question: in what creed are you confident, seek God in your answer in defense of inalienable rights.
Never, never, never surrender freedom in the face of government tyranny.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?
Happy 4th of July.