Post by Tim Collins on Sept 17, 2009 7:21:46 GMT -7
The Four Pillars of America’s Greatness
In the 2008 Presidential Election, President Obama ran on a campaign theme of hope and change. Since even before his election our world has been in a period of turmoil characterized by terrorist attacks around the world, a financial crisis of extreme proportion, and domestic issues that have polarized our nation's citizens. These are indeed interesting times.
If America is to move forward, we must revisit the source of our standing in the world, and the foundations upon which we have achieved so much, and use these pillars as a scale for weighing the desired results of decisions we make in these challenging times.
The Four Pillars - presented in reverse chronological order.
Military Strength
A strong military, both the shield and the spear, facilitates our ability to follow and act upon our moral convictions at home and on the world stage.
The shield must be strong enough to deter aggression by those who wish us ill and, those who would seek to enslave others.
The spear must be sharp enough, that when the shield is tested the aggressor will only find defeat for their efforts.
The spear and the shield must never be used to impose our will upon another free people.
Industrial Strength
Industry is the engine that powers our financial and military pillars and fuels individual advancement. Our industrial capacity at one point was the envy of the world, and the arsenal of democracy. Today we are but a pale shadow of what we once were, and are weaker for it. Plagued by the “off-shoring” of our industrial capacity in search of cheaper labor, and our addiction to lower prices, we have sold our future for present pleasure.
Financial Strength
Maintaining a strong military, providing infrastructure that facilitates industrial growth, promoting the general welfare through public education, disaster response and recovery, and all the various social programs that demonstrate our collective will to care those who need our help, requires a sound financial position.
Excessive borrowing from other nations, exposure to world wide financial crisis through a cavalier attitude towards regulation of the financial markets, wasteful spending, expanding bureaucracy and many, many other ill advised actions by our government and by private corporations serve only to weaken our financial position.
Moral Strength“
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Though written 234 years ago, and many times honored as much in the breach as in the compliance, these words still summarize the moral standards upon which we must judge ourselves as individuals and collectively in the actions of our government.
We are weakened as a nation when we lose sight of the power of these words, and fail to recognize that for many in the world these are still nothing more than an ideal un-reached.
We are strengthened when we embrace both the words and their meaning, and act so as to put the truth to our conviction.
These simple concepts, individual equality, and government by the people, are the foundation of our past success and the key to our future advancement.
We would do well to demand that our elected representatives, and we as individuals, ask ourselves in our public actions and discourse, “Are we advancing or hindering achievement of these simple standards?”
In the 2008 Presidential Election, President Obama ran on a campaign theme of hope and change. Since even before his election our world has been in a period of turmoil characterized by terrorist attacks around the world, a financial crisis of extreme proportion, and domestic issues that have polarized our nation's citizens. These are indeed interesting times.
If America is to move forward, we must revisit the source of our standing in the world, and the foundations upon which we have achieved so much, and use these pillars as a scale for weighing the desired results of decisions we make in these challenging times.
The Four Pillars - presented in reverse chronological order.
Military Strength
A strong military, both the shield and the spear, facilitates our ability to follow and act upon our moral convictions at home and on the world stage.
The shield must be strong enough to deter aggression by those who wish us ill and, those who would seek to enslave others.
The spear must be sharp enough, that when the shield is tested the aggressor will only find defeat for their efforts.
The spear and the shield must never be used to impose our will upon another free people.
Industrial Strength
Industry is the engine that powers our financial and military pillars and fuels individual advancement. Our industrial capacity at one point was the envy of the world, and the arsenal of democracy. Today we are but a pale shadow of what we once were, and are weaker for it. Plagued by the “off-shoring” of our industrial capacity in search of cheaper labor, and our addiction to lower prices, we have sold our future for present pleasure.
Financial Strength
Maintaining a strong military, providing infrastructure that facilitates industrial growth, promoting the general welfare through public education, disaster response and recovery, and all the various social programs that demonstrate our collective will to care those who need our help, requires a sound financial position.
Excessive borrowing from other nations, exposure to world wide financial crisis through a cavalier attitude towards regulation of the financial markets, wasteful spending, expanding bureaucracy and many, many other ill advised actions by our government and by private corporations serve only to weaken our financial position.
Moral Strength“
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Though written 234 years ago, and many times honored as much in the breach as in the compliance, these words still summarize the moral standards upon which we must judge ourselves as individuals and collectively in the actions of our government.
We are weakened as a nation when we lose sight of the power of these words, and fail to recognize that for many in the world these are still nothing more than an ideal un-reached.
We are strengthened when we embrace both the words and their meaning, and act so as to put the truth to our conviction.
These simple concepts, individual equality, and government by the people, are the foundation of our past success and the key to our future advancement.
We would do well to demand that our elected representatives, and we as individuals, ask ourselves in our public actions and discourse, “Are we advancing or hindering achievement of these simple standards?”