My First Ammendment Rights

My blog was originally about creativity. I value the opportunity I have to choose things about my life. This post, however is not about art. Its about the ability to create the life I live and love. Its about my personal feelings regarding the health care debate going on right now. I'm going to say it because my feelings are strong. Disregard it if you don't agree. Just exit out and stop reading now. Its just my own soapbox, to be sure. I value my first ammendment rights. I am grateful to be an American. I am grateful to have the right to worship as I please and to have the opportunity to speak and assemble as I see fit. Here are my thoughts.

Being born doesn't entitle you to receive health care. For the first two hundred years in this country everyone knew that if you wanted a good life it would take a lot of work and effort and some good luck too. Our Founding Fathers came here to do just that - work hard, be independent, and hold on to the liberty which they felt were granted to them by their Creator. To be an American meant you had the ability to choose for yourself how you think and how you live, not dictated to by a king or your government. We are the nation we are because even immigrants to this land were willing to work hard, save their money, pennies at a time, and stay out of trouble to help their families have a better future. Did they get sick? Sure, sometimes. If a doctor could help them, and they could afford it, great, if not they weren't whining about being here. They knew people get sick - its life, and they were just grateful they had the opportunities granted them as Americans to have free speech, free religious opportunity, and the right to peacefully assemble and bear arms. Why did they come here for two centuries? Because everywhere else they lived they saw what happened when common people weren't allowed these privileges and they did everything in their power to get here so their posterity wouldn't have to live like that ever again.

We are not a country of equal outcomes, we are a country of equal opportunity. Given your individual circumstances, you can still improve your lot in life if you work hard. There are compensations already in place for those who are born blind or so disabled that working and making great progress are more limited, but they are the exceptions in this country. The purpose of government is to protect basic rights and patrol our borders to keep the "bad guys" from getting in. I am referring to terrorists and people who seek to destroy our country and its citizens as well as those who feel like being a bully and seek to take away your pursuit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In America those rights are already given to us by the Constitution. The problem these days, is that government thinks it has a different role. In fact in many ways it has taken upon itself the role of nationwide bully. It seems to think that only IT knows what is best for all of us. IT doesn't have the basic respect for us to make our own correct decisions. IT feels the need to make more and more decisions for us every day, from how much money we should be required to give to charitable causes to how much or how little we should say when we disagree with IT. In ITs desire to Control everything in our lives IT has forgotten how to control ITself. And so IT is largely unaccountable for ITs actions, ethically corrupt and prideful in ITs arrogance to determine that It should live one standard as an elected official instead of remembering that they are only there to serve US.

Unfortunately, in our government two key facts are missing. One is that governemnt workers are public servants. Service appears to be a forgotten notion in current politics. When you serve it requires sacrifice, putting your own needs behind those you are serving. You are more frugal with shared funds you have stewardship over because you know how hard people have worked to be able to give these to you since you are the one who is working for the best interest of all the people. You listen to those you serve because you are truly there to help them. Your agenda is not to make more money or to get away with something or to get better perks. It is not about gaining a greater advantage than another. Service is about taking an opportunity to work on behalf of another and then giving yourself wholeheartedly to that cause. Its not about personal gain but about losing oneself in the purpose of something greater than your own self interest. It is about keeping yourself to the highest standard so that your personal weaknesses do not get in the way of doing the hard work that really needs to be done. Unfortunately the title of Public Servants seems to have lost its real definition. Yes, we pay them to work for us, and so they, in fact, are accountable to us. It is not their job to deceive or manipulate or change us. It is their job to do what we, the people, have asked them to do. It does not make them better than us and it does not mean that we don't have to be aware of what they are doing, but when we are, they should never tell us to be quiet and go away and let them do all the talking because they are the only ones that know anything. No, it is the voice of the people that this government was founded upon, and so we must let our voices be heard again. They are the servants, we are the masters. I expect my government to protect my basic rights and when it does not, it can expect to hear about it. These are rights I will not just quietly give away. The Founding Fathers fought too hard for me to have these rights for me to just let anyone take them away from me, even my own government.

The second key fact that has been forgotten is that this was a nation founded by Christian principles. Even if you are not a practicing Christian, the basic values of honesty, being true to your family and spouse, behaving decently all have a place in American society. "In God We Trust," is all over things that are American. It is constantly there to remind us, but so many Americans have forgotten that when we put God first, all other things will fall into place. Men don't have to be perfect to be good men, but they do have to hold certain principles of standards and practices in their lives to be good men, and when they forget those and don't live them, they and we suffer. This is particularly true for public servants. We trust them to do the best they can and when they do it without considering the moral and spiritual implications to the citizens of this country we suffer. With God we cannot fail, without Him we cannot win. If this nation would embrace God's laws, our nation would grow and prosper again, but when we disregard His commandments and following His words and laws, the only thing left is for God to cease blessing our country, and wo to us when that happens. We are feeling its effects now, and it will continue to grow worse until people choose Him first. I know in my heart that we need God's help to get through these hard times on our country, but I fear other men and women won't heed His words, but disregard it. I cannot change every heart in America but I can be an influence for good in my own life, and I pledge to do better. To really be a good Christian and to be a servant for HIM, is the best I can do, and I want to do it for HIM. God Bless America, my home sweet home!