What's Wrong with the 2016 Presidential Race?

   The most powerful position in our world today is President of the United States of America. As I’m sure you all know, we are currently in the midst of the 2016 Presidential Race. For those of us who have interest in this subject, now is a very exciting time to learn more about the candidates, re-think our political views, and of course, watch the Presidential Debates. As time has gone on, we have already begun to create bias and favoritism in each of our minds towards certain candidates and prejudice towards others. As the frontrunners begin to pull ahead of the other candidates, our “couple of favorites to win” become narrowed down to just one. Today I’d like to talk a little bit about the Presidential Race and what’s wrong with it, but especially about voter awareness. The foundation of this country is We the People. If each of us as individuals refuse to take action and become aware of our awful situation, our freedoms and liberties will be taken from us. You may not feel like you can make a difference as one person, but a nation with millions of weak individuals is like a herd of sheep being led off a cliff. Freedom begins with individual effort.

     

       Before I go into my points, I’d like to admit that I have very strong political beliefs. So no matter how hard I try, what I say is going to be biased, but hear me out before you shoot me down because you can still learn something from a biased point of view.

Trump currently holds the lead on the conservative side
of the 2016 Race

            The first item of business I’d like to talk about is Donald Trump. Trump has been in the lead of this race for quite awhile now, and surprisingly, despite the many Americans who despise him as a politician, Trump still currently holds that lead. I believe the thing that sets him apart from the other candidates is the fact that he is not a politician. He is a businessman. Because he’s not a politician, he doesn’t really follow a lot of the same unwritten rules as the other candidates do. Trump is notorious for not being afraid to speak his mind, even when he fully intends to offend or even personally attack someone with his comments. So why do so many people support him? I think it’s because the American people are sick of politicians. We have had far too many of those in office who have lied to us, made poor decisions based on poor policy, refused to do their job of enforcing the law on certain points of legislation, overstepped their bounds of stewardship in certain areas while neglecting other areas of responsibility, and done many other acts and things which politicians have a reputation of doing. Not to say that Trump wouldn’t fall into some of that criteria, but America is ready for change, and that’s why Donald Trump leads the Presidential Race right now.

            That is also precisely the reason why I believe Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have any support at all. Honestly, all you have to do is turn on five minutes of any Democratic Presidential Debate to realize that these candidates want nothing to do with upholding the Constitution of the United States. Why would people support them? Because people want change. They want something different than what America is now. What they don’t realize is that socialist policies will destroy our constitution and give us bad change rather than good change. I want to be absolutely clear: putting a socialist in the White House will be the downfall of America. It has been proven time and time again throughout history that socialism creeps into societies and destroys them. Bernie Sanders said himself that he is a socialist. It’s kind of insane and frankly scary that a socialist is even getting any support as a presidential candidate in this country. Why in the world is America supporting the very thing that we fought against only one or two generations ago? Have we forgotten already? We are embracing what thousands of our fathers and grandfathers gave their very lives to keep us safe from! Come on, America! Open up your eyes! Socialism is evil, and that is the truth! If you disagree, you are disregarding the history of the human race! The reason this is happening is because the dangers of socialism are not taught in schools today, and as a result, people do not understand history. To go even further, people are too caught up in their own lives to take the time to find the truth for themselves. If they did, they would be able to see these dangers.

Is this not the very thing we were
fighting against only generations ago?

            Let me give you an example here of an ignorant and apathetic American. A little while ago I was discussing the Presidential Race with a close friend of mine. I inquired who he supported out of the candidates, and he told me that he believed Bernie Sanders was the best candidate for the job. When I asked him why, he didn’t have a good answer. He told me that he wanted Bernie Sanders to win because he thought that Sanders was one of the only candidates who would actually do something in office (and I agree with him on that point, by the way). But the main reason he gave for supporting Bernie Sanders was this: that his parents are Democrats, and so he believes that he has to choose one of the Democratic candidates to give his support.

            Now obviously, this friend of mine isn’t even old enough to vote in the 2016 Election, so who he supports doesn’t really apply at this point in time. But to me, this was a very interesting reflection of the American people as a whole. We have got to get out of this division. We are the United States of America, but we are not united because the biggest battle that is going on right now in this nation is the Republicans versus the Democrats. We have got to get out of this mindset that you either have to be on one side or the other when it comes to party candidates. The truth is: it doesn’t matter whether a politician calls himself a Republican or a Democrat. In our world today, party status does not determine political belief or policy. It sure used to be that way, but even though each party platform lists the beliefs of each party respectively, very few politicians regard those platforms today. Washington is full of wolves in sheep’s clothing. We need to start looking at each candidate individually and researching his political beliefs and policy. I don’t care if Bernie Sanders ran for president as a Republican, I still would never support him, and honestly he doesn’t even belong on the Democratic side either, and he shouldn’t belong in America. He doesn’t believe in the principles this nation was built on, and as president, he would finish the job of ripping the constitution to shreds. I believe that even Donald Trump is running on the conservative platform because he knows that he’s going to get more support that way, and not at all because he believes in conservative principles or would implement them as president. Whether someone calls himself a Republican or a Democrat should not be a deciding factor in an election.

What in the world is happening to America?

            In the midst of all this, we have Kanye West. The world-famous hip-hop artist announced last August that he would be running for president in 2020. We all know that he’s nothing but a joke, but the saddest thing is how many votes he will actually get if he runs in four years. Didn’t we think that Trump was a joke a year ago? But that’s the thing: the presidential election has become a joke. People think it’s funny to make Donald Trump the president, so they do it. They think it would be cool to have an African-American or a woman as the president, so they vote them in, regardless of any other factors! Kanye West isn’t a joke just because he’s a rapper; the office of President isn’t for politicians and lawyers only. I say that Kanye is a joke because of his agenda (which is evident in his music), his ego, and most importantly, his character. For me, character is the number one factor that should be looked at when choosing a president, because it is so vital in our world today to have someone in the White House who will serve the American people rather than serving himself.

            My final concern is the most disappointing of all, because it all comes back to the American people. We are in control, but as a whole, We the People don’t care. I was 13 years old on Election Day in 2012, and I remember going into a Papa Murphy’s to pick up a pizza for dinner with my dad on that day. As we were waiting in line, the lady in front of us asked the cashier who he was going to vote for, and the cashier responded that he wasn’t sure yet, but he was leaning towards voting for Obama. This was on Election Day. The cashier wasn’t sure who he was voting for on Election Day. The most disturbing part of this encounter was that the cashier was “leaning towards” voting for President Obama. From my perspective, the cashier was treating this decision as something of little worth; something that didn’t affect his life. He was treating it as a formality, and he couldn’t see that in reality voting was not only his right as an American, but his duty. Earlier today I stated “for those of us who have interest in this subject, now is a very exciting time to learn…” but I firmly believe that it doesn’t matter if you’re interested in government or not. If you have freedom, you have a solemn duty to protect and uphold it, and if you don’t fulfill that duty, you don’t deserve that freedom. I often see comments on political social media posts like “Ew, politics” or “I’ve never really been into government” and it’s ridiculous! Once again, if you don’t even care to understand how to keep and value your freedom, you deserve to be in slavery. And unless individuals like these get their acts together, mark my words; they will one day be in chains wishing they had valued freedom back when they possessed it.

            To sum it up: America as a whole acts like the election process is a very exciting thing, and we express and discuss our political opinions with our friends and neighbors as citizens of a free nation should do. However, we treat the presidential election the same as we would treat the Olympics or the Super Bowl (and perhaps for some of us, we treat it even less so). We neglect the fact that the person who we elect as president will not only change our lives, but the lives of our posterity. The team that wins the Super Bowl will not affect our lives at all. We don’t realize how much power we are investing in one person when we go into the polls on Election Day. What I see today is an ignorant and apathetic American people who do not realize the role that they play in their government. And if we can’t get ourselves together, our liberty will be taken from us.

Only believing in hope for America isn't enough.
We must act on that belief and fight for it.

            However, there is hope. Many, many Americans really do care and really are educated, and they are fighting and trying their best to secure a better nation. We can all do better, though, because we’ve still got a long way to go. Become more educated. Contact your legislators. Try your best to change what is wrong. Study the candidates. Pray for America. Please, please try your best to do what you can to heal our wounded nation. Let us all have faith that if we Americans can get outside of ourselves and take charge of our government, if we can become the masters over the government instead of the servants under it, and if we can become a literate people in the Constitution to tell our government how it should be run, then we can once again ensure that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.

Traditions

All throughout world history, mankind has been known to practice traditions. Traditions can be a great thing, because they can help people to remember their heritage. They can remind people where they came from, which will lead people to better know who they are. However, there are many instances in history when tradition has not been so beneficial to mankind. 

For a very long time (about 900 A.D. – 1930 A.D.) in China, upper-class Chinese women used to carry out a practice called “foot-binding.” Basically, when a girl was still young, her toes were folded underneath her feet and bound there, then squeezed into very small shoes. A woman’s feet would stay bound that way for the rest of her life. It was very hard for a woman to put pressure on her feet after they were bound, so a woman with bound feet had a really hard time walking, moving around, and really doing any labor that required standing up or moving. It caused a lot of pain for the woman throughout her life, and often a lot of bleeding from her feet. Chinese peasant women didn’t practice feet binding because they had to work standing on their feet with their families to earn a living. Feet-binding was only practiced in families that were wealthy enough to live off of the income of only men. Over time, this tradition largely became a status symbol. If a woman had bound feet, then people knew that there was wealth attached to her name.

X-Ray comparison of a regular foot and a bound foot

As you can observe, there are a lot of pointless elements to this tradition. Nobody really knows how it was started; some people think that women began doing it because it was attractive to men. One legend goes that there was a ballerina who bound her feet to dance in front of the emperor, and many other women began binding their feet because they wanted to be like the ballerina. How the tradition started isn’t really relevant though; the question we should be asking is: why was it continued? Why would Chinese women continue to bind their feet even though it was very painful and restrictive? It may have been a symbol of status, but couldn’t upper-class women just find a different symbol to represent their wealth? The Chinese women were caught in a loop. They continued with foolish traditions only because the generations before them had. They were stuck in a constant state of blindness.

Today in modern American culture, we practice many traditions, and we have many practices that could be recognized as status symbols. A lot of the traditions we have are related to holidays. For example, we light fireworks off on July 4th, we have a feast on Thanksgiving, we give presents on Christmas, we go to stores on Black Friday, we dress up on Halloween, we give valentines on Valentines Day, etc., etc., there are many, many more. Some of these traditions are important to remembering our culture, but some are just really dumb. Take Black Friday, for example. It’s a celebration of material things. People spend hundreds; even thousands of dollars in just one day, all because things are “on sale” or because everybody else is spending their day shopping. It’s embarrassing that we have to have as much law enforcement as we do at the store on Black Friday because people care more about objects than about other people.

Money. Isn’t that what it’s all about in America? Everything we do is for money. It’s like a game: whoever has the most money and can retire the fastest wins the game of life! We have a wide variety of status symbols in our culture. Having a nicer car, or a college degree, or a bigger house shows other people that you are somehow at a higher level than they are, because you have more money than they do. Obviously, poverty is much worse in other parts of the world. But why can’t everybody just treat each other like brothers and sisters? Why do we have to treat other people like lesser beings just because they’re different or because they have less money than us? In my mind, a reputation of integrity is worth more than every paper dollar in America.

What happened to this?

American culture today, though it still possesses significant elements, is foundationally flawed. Therefore, it must be revolutionized. Our traditions do not make us better people. They do not help us to remember our true heritage. Instead, they tear us down and cause us to forget God. True American heritage is Christianity. You can choose to be offended by that statement, but evidence shows that it’s true. I’m not saying that you have to be Christian to be a true American, but I do believe that you have to stand by and live basic Christian principles which are found in ninety-five percent of non-Christian denominations. That is American culture. The Pilgrims sailed the Atlantic Ocean so that they could worship God in the way they believed was right. Our founding fathers called upon God to deliver them from British bondage. They studied and lived by Christian principles and based the systems of our government upon those principles. That is our heritage and the basis of our true culture.

So the question is: why don’t our traditions help us to remember our heritage? Even the traditions that brought people closer to God when they were started are flawed today. For example, Christmas is supposed to be a time to give gifts and show love to other people, and to celebrate what Christ has given to us. Today, we teach the next generation that how much you receive from others is more important than how much you can give. Thanksgiving started out as a day to give thanks to God and to remember all that he has given us, but today it’s just gluttony and NFL worship.

Let us cease to practice foolish traditions of our fathers and instead do things that will help us to remember who we really are and where we came from. That is what traditions should do.

Wake Up America!!!

  Every true American knows that without God, we would be nothing. That may be a very bold statement, but to me, that is the definition of a true American. This nation was founded on principles of Christianity taken straight out of the Bible. The whole reason that the Pilgrims and the Puritans came to America was so that they could worship God. It’s been proven that the number one resource the founders used to create our founding documents, including the Constitution, was the Bible. The very first freedom that is mentioned in the Bill of Rights is the freedom to worship God. There was no way America could have won the Revolutionary War without God, and if you disagree with that statement, you have more studying to do on the Revolutionary War. God’s hand has guided this nation throughout all of our history, and the success that America has had up to this point is proof of that. The role that our nation plays in the world today is proof of that.

            However, I don’t think that very many of us truly realize the entirety of the role that God has played and still does play in American freedom. In Old Testament times, God made a covenant with Israel. It was a national covenant, and it applied to the whole land, not just a certain person. Israel was the Promised Land. The Israelites were God’s chosen people, and God covenanted that He would preserve and prosper them if they would but keep His commandments. The prophets pled and pled with the Israelites all throughout the Bible to keep their side of the covenant. Christ was even sent to the land to bring salvation to all mankind, but in the end, the nation rejected and crucified Him.

America is God's chosen land. This is
the land of the free.

            Today, America carries that covenant. America is the Promised Land, and God has guided it and preserved it because of the faithful people that have turned to Him. The covenant was re-established in America when this nation was being founded and established. This is the land where anyone can worship God in the way that they choose. This is a land of freedom, and freedom has been God’s plan from the beginning. Throughout our history as a nation, we have been faithful to God. However, there have been times in our history when we haven’t kept our side of the covenant.

            In the early/mid nineteenth century, slavery abounded in America. We were denying freedom to groups of God’s children, not only African-Americans, but many religious parties and certain other groups of people. The Constitution didn’t properly protect the freedoms of everyone, because the Bill of Rights didn’t give the Federal Government enough power to properly protect everyone’s freedoms. Action had to be taken to stop this, or God would send his punishments upon the nation.

            Unfortunately, the nation did not decide to change, and the punishments were sent. A very bloody Civil War happened, and so many people suffered. That’s when the nation finally decided to turn to God. Abraham Lincoln went through a conversion process and kept the nation together by turning it to God. By instituting the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments, Lincoln abolished slavery in America and gave the Federal Government the power that it needed to keep freedom in America.

            This nation is in a covenant with God. That covenant still exists today, and we are breaking our side. We are becoming lazy and reliant, and we are putting other Gods before the God who delivered this nation so many times. Our freedoms are being taken away daily, and many of us are doing nothing to stop it. Unless we change quickly, punishment will come upon this nation, and freedom will have to be restored manually. It’s our choice: we can turn to God as a nation, or we will have to endure His wrath.

Most Americans in this country today would agree that they are free, but they are ignorant because they do not see that they are being more and more tightly wrapped in the chains of bondage as each day passes. It is the job of every educated American to wake America up to our awful situation. Join me. Let us wake up America!

The Future of Humanity: An Argument Against Network Discrimination

      I am an avid internet user, and I am convinced that the internet is the future of progress. Since its advent, the internet has steadily plowed through obstacles and ushered in a new age of development. Although the internet has great potential, it is being undermined by the age old problem of discrimination; however, discrimination has plagued far more than just the internet in its day. We have seen discrimination in racial injustice, gender inequality, LGBTQ rights, and religious liberty. Now this plague has infected the very framework of our world--the internet. This “infection” is known as Broadband Discrimination, which is more commonly known as Net Bias. Net Bias is the ability which Internet Service Providers (ISP) have which allows them to discriminate against different types of internet content users. If Net Bias can be removed from the internet system, the internet will be more cost effective, will become a tool for small businesses, and most importantly, equality and freedom will govern the web and our future.

"Internet map" by The Opte Project

     The internet isn't free. The costs associated with it are extensive. For instance, your Facebook wall is built
by a content owner who paid somebody to program the code for the page. That code is then uploaded to a server which cost hundreds of dollars to construct, not to mention the programming which went into it. From there the server attaches itself to the internet. In order to attach to the internet, ISP’s had to provide the internet connection. To create this internet connection, many towers must be built and many miles of cable must be laid. From there, the internet tower connects the server to another tower in a different part of the world, and the process repeats itself until it is routed to your personal computer where you see it in the form of a webpage. The cost of internet is very large to say the least. Net Bias uses the complexities of this system to exploit certain types of traffic and generate unfair revenue. Because of the bias built into the system, everyday content consumers are forced to pay more for a lower quality service. By eliminating Net Bias, we would effectively allow the system to distribute the wealth fairly, and lower the prices for everyone involved.

     One vital factor in internet-based progress is small business. Every major advancement started small. Before exploitation of the internet began, many businesses prospered. Even ISP’s started off small, but now they throttle the very thing which gave them a chance. Net Bias gives priority to those who are successful. An ISP makes such large profits by requiring a higher price for quality service. This limits high-quality service to big businesses with lots of money, restricts growth and innovation, and favors the status-quo. Small business is key to progress. As Nicole Leinback-Reyhle put it, “Small business is--quite frankly--big business”(1). She went on to explain that the majority of successful and progressive businesses are small ones (1). The Small Business Administration also estimates that about half of all small businesses die within 5 years of starting (1). This death is caused primarily by oppressive expenses or large scale competition. Net Bias perpetuates this problem by adding additional expenses and favoring big businesses. In doing this, Net Bias stifles progress and strangles improvement.

     The internet embodies the future of improvement and progress; in reality, it embodies the future of our race. Because of its vast importance for our future, it is essential that we remove dangerous flaws such as Net Bias from the equation. We have discussed many of the problems which pertain to Net Bias in the internet system, but there are several practical avenues for eliminating those problems. The most applicable solution is known as Network Neutrality. The actual definition of Network Neutrality is a subject of debate; however, there is a general principle, “At its simplest, network neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic should be created equally” (Roebuck 144). Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, who coined the term Network Neutrality, suggested the most effective application for the aforementioned principle. He suggested that telecommunication laws be implemented to protect the rights of all internet players, manage discrimination, as well as regulate other social goals (16). Wu’s writings have generated a movement, which is pushing for the Federal Communications Commission to implement rules regulating discrimination. It is in these regulations that equality and freedom will come to internet users.

     At the end of the day, we will either have Broadband Discrimination in the internet system, or we won’t; however, the consequences of either will be existential. If we allow Net Bias to remain in the system, then the consequences are inequality, inefficiency, and stagnation. By implementing Network Neutrality and eliminating Net Bias, we will see greater freedom, equality, and societal progress. Network Neutrality is the anti-discrimination movement of today and it will usher in equality and progress for all, no matter your race, gender, or the size of your paycheck.

Works Cited:

Leinback-Reyhle, Nicole. "Why You Need to Support Small Businesses." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 2 Sept. 2014. Web. 12 May 2015.

Roebuck, Kevin. "Network Neutrality." CMTS High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors. Dayboro: Emereo Pub., 2012. 143-162. Print.

"The Voice of Small Business in Government." Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy. Small Business Administration, Mar. 2014. Web. 12 May 2015.

Wu, Tim. "Why Have a Telecommunications Law?: Anti-Discrimination Norms in Communications." Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law 5 (2006): 15-46. Social Science Research Network. Social Science Electronic Publishing. Web. 14 May 2015.

The American Dream

John Smith saved Jamestown
through principles of hard work
and individual sovereignty

A struggle for sovereignty has been evident throughout the history of our world, and that struggle is the struggle between authoritarianism and democracy. Some claim the right to reign over others; others claim the right to reign over themselves. As this struggle has occurred throughout world history, our nation has risen up as a cure to the disease of tyranny. America is a nation that was founded upon principles of individuality. This truth has been evident since our humble beginning. For example, of the many first settlements upon this American continent, Jamestown is of the most notable. In 1607, a colony chartered by King James was founded in Virginia. Jamestown was first founded upon socialistic principles; policies full of good intent, yet terrible consequences. All goods in the colony were collected and redistributed equally among the settlers. This created many problems because people realized that they would still get their share of goods without having to work at all. People began to starve because the amount of available food went down dramatically. Amid this crisis, as a rising sun to a darkened city, a man by the name of John Smith arrived to save the starving settlement. Of the principles that Smith enforced to rescue Jamestown, the most effective was that of hard work leading to reward. By letting everyone know that "if you don’t work, you don’t eat," Smith turned the tides of Jamestown by motivating his fellowmen to work and put in effort for reward in the end. These principles literally turned swamps into gardens because they were based upon individual human sovereignty. These are the principles deeply ingrained in the roots of America.

This nation has always been known as a light in this dark world. Individuals under the chains of tyranny and slavery have come here from all over the world for opportunity. Some would give anything to just set foot in this chosen land. What has made this nation so great? What has made this nation the land of opportunity; the land of the free; the home of the brave? What has made this nation the unbelievably successful society that it has become? What has made the United States great is our working class. From the humble beginnings of the thirteen colonies to the Industrial Revolution of the early 19th century to now, the progress that America has made seems almost impossible, and that progress has occurred because here, you get rewarded for your work. 

Our forefathers started the fire by bringing forth a national republic that was based upon individuality. Unfortunately, like many societies of history, we have drifted further and further away from the principles that have made us great as a nation. People are becoming more and more apathetic because our government, through policies full of good intent but terrible consequences, has provided ways for men to be rewarded without being required to work through welfare programs that are encouraging laziness and reliance. Redistribution of wealth is being explicitly practiced through unfair income taxes and federal welfare programs. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 35% of Americans received federal welfare in 2012. The federal government’s welfare budget is at nearly a trillion dollars. Because welfare is so accepted and easy, it has in turn created a culture that is turning away from individuality. Much blame can go to parents as generations have passed for not adequately teaching their children that work equals reward. Today, American children are corrupted with the rotten spoils of expensive allowances and overgenerous permissiveness as their parents are spoiled with free cell phones and guaranteed health care. We are creating a generation that is not strong. Take this example as proof that this "new American culture" is infecting the rising generation of young Americans with socialistic idealism.

Real competition is a good thing for society because it
motivates hard work and growth

I’m currently playing basketball with a team in a city league. Our team doesn’t win very many games, and we often find ourselves trailing the other team by a lot of points. However, as our games have gone on, I’ve started to realize that once our opposing team starts to gain a lead, the points on their side of the scoreboard start to stop increasing. So, I asked the scorekeeper about it, and I was informed that there is a rule in place that states that the deficit of points between two teams in a game has to stay at fifteen or under. On top of that, the deficit stays at fifteen until the losing team has actually caught up. So the deficit of points still exists between the two teams, only it’s not shown on the scoreboard. This is outrageous! Not only does this prevent the winning team from enjoying the fruits of their labors, but it eliminates all feeling of competition, even for the losing team, because they don’t know how many points they have to score to get back in the game. It’s socialist and it’s softening the next generation of Americans. I’ve been on teams before where we’ve lost games in deficits as large as seventy points, but it didn’t discourage us or cause us to give up. Seeing the true numbers on the scoreboard motivated us to work harder, and we eventually went on to win games because of it. That is the American dream, and it is fading because we are forgetting the principles of individuality that have made us a nation of success.

The regression of these principles in our society has led to slothfulness in every class of people. The poor are apathetic because they can get whatever they want without having to work for it, and the wealthy lose motivation to create wealth because it is taken away from them and given to those who take no action to create wealth for themselves. In short, the people of America as a whole are becoming reliant upon the government, and frankly, lazy; all because of government policies full of good intent, but terrible consequences. History has shown that the only way lazy people can be motivated to work is through the confiscation of their freedom. We are already deep in the grip of reliance on our own government and we are becoming weaker and weaker as individuals. Without strength; without recognition of our individual responsibility and sovereignty, outward forces threaten the freedom of the people of this nation. 

The strongest hope that we have is the spark of motivation that is inside each of us. In order to save ourselves from the engulfing chains of slavery that codependency has brought us, we must once again become self-reliant. We must abolish our government’s corrupted welfare programs that are only digging us a deeper and deeper pit. These welfare programs are making individuals lazy and reliant upon the tyrants of the government of America, they are getting those tyrants re-elected year after year because of that reliance upon them that has been created by our lethargy, and finally, these programs are getting our nation into trillions and trillions of dollars of debt to other nations, which is making us yet more reliant; even upon external forces. The progress that the world has made in the past two-hundred years when compared to thousands before has been incredible, and it’s because of the American dream. America has forever been known as the land of opportunity, and that is where we must return. Our history is enveloped with the love and charity of brotherhood that has always helped people to help themselves, and that is where we must return. We were once known as a nation of hard workers and dedicated self-masters, and that is what has made us great. That is what has given us progress and prosperity. That is where we must return.

As the spark of hope and freedom has become dimmer and dimmer, many of us have asked ourselves “is the American dream still alive?” I will not deny that it is slipping away from us, but the American dream is not dead. America still is the land of opportunity. America still is the shining city of freedom for the whole world to see. America still is great. However, we must take action to preserve our freedom and our sovereignty. We must throw off the chains of apathy and selfishness that are holding us down as a nation, and we must fight to preserve our individuality, our liberty, and our greatness.

"Free Rainbows"

Walking down the streets of a large city, you look around. What do you see? You see the towering buildings touching the sky. You see the extensive infrastructure and expensive cars stretching on into eternity. Towering above our meager lives, society casts a long shadow across the earth.

Now take a step back. Look a little bit closer. Beneath the shadows of every immense building, and on the corner of every busy street you can find something much smaller, but ever so much more important. Lurking in the shadows there are the people who have been cast aside by this massive society. The poor, sick, needy masses who are left on the corner of a road pleading, pleading for someone to show them the smallest compassion. But day after day, they are tossed aside by people who see a world no deeper than their own selfish desires.

Two years ago, a tiny girl stepped onto a street corner under the shadow of the selfish city. She was not homeless, not in need, not there to beg for compassion. She was there to spread hope  to those who were homeless, in need, and begging for compassion. This little girl sat down, and put up a sign which simply said, “free rainbows, so you can smile.” When people would look at her as they walked by, she would hand them a small picture of a rainbow which she had just colored. This little girl did something no massive building or endless road ever could. She made someone’s life better, “so they could smile.”

The Sign of God's Pure Love for All

This little child did something which very few people do anymore. Unlike little children, the human race has become obsessed with themselves. We look past the pain and heartache and, by thinking only of ourselves, justify our cruelty at the expense of the weak and needy. In doing so we cast shadows of selfishness on those around us. It is this selfishness which must be overcome for the world to become truly great.

Just as in the biblical days of Noah, there are two great forces at work in our world today. The cause of light and goodness in constant combat with the shadowy cause of selfish indulgence. There is no longer a middle ground. We may claim to be good while walking in the twilight of selfishness, but so long as we do not stand directly in the light, we place ourselves in a position where we may be destroyed by our own figurative floods. A flood which, if we do not actively fight, will sweep the glow of compassion from this earth, Leaving nothing but the gloom of apathy in its wake.

People do not love each other; rather, they love themselves. We need to love people, else we may end as those who died in the first flood. We must truly look beyond ourselves and genuinely care about others to make the world better. The dark clouds are forming above us, their shadows ominous, foreboding the rains to come if we do not stand firm against them.

One person cannot save a world of people who aren't willing to join with them in the saving. We are all living in this great society. Each of us are responsible to serve each other, and to be a benefit to that society. I can pull my own weight, but every person here must assist me in order for us to change the world.

We are not blatantly evil or apathetic. However, many people are not actively striving to make the world better. By sitting on a wall between compassion and apathy you are hurting the well being of the entire world. Those sitting on this wall forget a fundamental attribute of that wall; That it is owned by those who do actively do evil. Indeed Edmund Burke said it well, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Some may say that I am seeking glory, honor, or have some ulterior motive for promoting the cause of human goodness through selfless action. To those who may think such things, I say that it is not the case. Rather, I seek for a better world. A world where human beings of every walk of life will turn their eyes from cold, hard ways of selfishness, and will instead look at others in the light of charity and empathy. I seek a world where all people help each other to climb from the pitfalls in which we are all held captive rather than battle and bully their way to the top of the pit, simply by pushing others beneath themselves. I seek only a world in which we, we the citizens of the earth all seek to lift, comfort, and serve each other.

Do you who sit on this wall wish to join us in this great cause of compassion upon which we are embarking, yet find yourselves unwilling to relinquish the pleasures found in selfish living? You are not alone in those desires. I am one of the most grievous sinners of pleasure. But unlike those who sit on the fence, I actively declare war on this carnal self within. It is not a difficult task. Simply in trying to become more compassionate, you step away from the wall and become a benefit to the human family.

We are all part of this family. We have to stick together to become better as a group. Alas, we constantly cast each other aside in our individual quests for greatness, forgetting that a man who stands alone will reach no higher than his single arm can stretch. We cannot expect to become great as a human race by tossing each other from this ship in our selfish desire for comfort and glory, for no vessel can reach its destination without a crew who will all help each other.

As we move into a new period, a period in which our attitudes illuminate the goodness in this world, and lift those weaker than ourselves into the dawn of this new age, let us each resolve to look beyond our selfish desires.

Let us each accept the responsibility we all have to help each other escape the pains of this world.

Let us each determine what things we are willing to sacrifice to aid those who have nothing.

Let us also decide to look into our relationships and search for those who hurt and are afflicted.

Let us all determine that we will make one person smile everyday.

At last, let us each follow the grand admonition to do unto every other person what we would have them do unto us.

Certainly, we will stumble, we cannot be perfect, but we can try. Indeed, to try is to do something. And something is exactly what needs to happen.

Will you good people step into the light? Will you lift the olive branch out of the flood of selfishness with true determination to make a better world? Will you be one who hands out free rainbows?

Will you stand by me? We do not stand against other men, but we do stand against pure selfishness, greed, and pain. It is these tyrants which now oppress us all.

Never before have men shrunk in time of oppression. Men of all ages have risen up in revolution to any hand which crushes them. Will we be counted among them in this grand rebellion against corruption itself?

May we each rise from the dust, cast the chains of fear at our feet, and face our foe! We can become the people this world needs. Let us finally resolve to stand together, for when we do, even the longest, darkest shadows fall beneath us.

Socialism in America: Grasshoppers and Greenhouses

Imagine with me, an early spring morning in a meadow. You can feel the breeze dancing along your face. The sun is sparkling, birds above you serenade their mother earth, and the smell of flowers is beginning to blossom all around you. As you look about, you can see two trees standing a way off. One is hidden by the walls of a greenhouse, and the other stands off another twenty yards or so. The tree in the greenhouse is a gorgeous silver oak, well cared for and healthy. This tree is under the constant care of an old gardener. The greenhouse provides the perfect climate for the tree. This tree has all the water and nutrients provided by the kind old man. It is well pruned, with soft, beautiful bark.

The other tree has never been cared for in it’s life. As you walk toward it, you can see the gnarled branches and scarred bark of the old sycamore. It cannot even compete with the beauty of the Oak. But you can see that this tree has succeeded in its quest for survival and strength. Through all the winds and rains, scorching and freezing, this Sycamore has grown by its own might. Though it is not physically appealing, it is strong and self-reliant. While the Oak in all it’s beauty is totally dependent on the old man.

As you stand there, the days begin to go by. Spring turns to summer, into Autumn, and now at last it is winter. The Oak is hidden away from the storm in comfortable protection by the gardener, while the Sycamore is fighting for it’s life. It is just like all the winters before. Each sheet of snow brings added strength to the old tree, as the Oak sits in it’s happy warmth, not heeding the weather at all.

But that was the same day the gardener died.

There is a type of freedom that comes from being self-reliant. Being able to produce and own your property and use it as you choose is a beautiful concept. Thomas Jefferson wrote it into the Declaration of Independence. He called it the unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. Which he originally wrote as the right to property. Being self-reliant and owning ones own property are ways of living happy lives. Sadly, America no longer protects our rights to freely pursue our own enterprises.

In painful contrast to the beauty capitalism offers, Americans now experience more of the ugly economic system we know as socialism. Socialism is defined by the merriam-webster dictionary as “a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism.” Allow me to direct your attention to a list discussed in congress in 1963. This was a list of “current communist goals” to make America into a socialist economy which, by definition, allows for communism to enter the government. The list, found in the Appendix to the Congressional Record, January 10th, 1963, comprises 45 goals to make America socialist. Out of 45 things proposed by communists to replace that beautiful system with socialism, the only one which has not come to pass is the dismantling of the FBI. In the last 51 years our nation has become exactly what socialists wanted it to become, if not directly by the government, then indirectly by the attitudes of the people.

Some of my listeners may not be convinced that simply a “socialist attitude” is a dangerous thing. Allow me to share a parody of Aesop’s fable of the ant and the grasshopper:

An ant had spent all summer working hard to prepare for the winter. He built his home and filled it with stores of food. Meanwhile, his friend the grasshopper just played the months away, never preparing for cold.

When winter came, all the grasshoppers had no food. So they elected a leader who would take care of them. This leader took half of what the ants had prepared, and redistributed it to all the grasshoppers. No one starved that winter.

The next summer, as the ant watched the grasshopper play, he decided that he would go play as well. After all, the government would take care of him. But almost everyone else thought the same thing. When winter came, there was not enough food, and everyone starved.

This is a way of thinking that stems from socialist ideas, and it obviously doesn’t bode well for the ants or the grasshoppers. Winston Churchill made this point in October of 1945 in the debate, Demobilisation, in which he said the following, and I quote; “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” It is imperative that people learn what is happening around them, so they will know what to do when the time comes. The way we can prepare for the political winter on the horizon is by education. It is by teaching the citizen that it is the citizen’s job to keep his country in check. To teach that in a free republic, it is the people’s job to insure the government does not overstep its bounds. But most people don’t maintain that control. Let me tell you about the 2012 presidential election.

In November of 2012 The United States Census Bureau published a statistical election report. This report detailed the eligible voter number with the number who actually voted for president. The results are depressing to say the least. Out of an estimated 319,154,900 citizens only 181,918,293 voted. That is a total of 57 percent. Almost half the people who claim the privileges of being American did not vote for the leader of their nation. According to information also supplied by the United States Census Bureau, if we were to rearrange the population, moving those who voted into the most populated states, and those who did not vote into the less populous, in the 2012 election, 39 entire states worth of people did not vote for their president. They didn't care about their rights, or their liberties. They just played all summer and waited for the gardener to care for them.

We each have an inalienable responsibility to defend our unalienable rights. It is not the grasshoppers job to feed us. We have not been guardians of our liberty! We stand at a crossroads. What we do now will determine the freedom and happiness of our posterity. If we continue the path we have begun, we will, in just a few short years, have to look our children in the eyes and tell them why we didn't fight for them.  It’s a very dark future, but there is a way to right our wrongs.

Consider the American Revolution. There was a great amount of complacency and a feeling of indifference towards England pervaded.  But there was a man by the name of Thomas Paine. He believed that if we would be free, that we must stand up and separate from Great Britain. But did he stand idly by? No, he wrote out the cause for which he so earnestly believed. People were ready to listen to him, and when he published his pamphlet, Common Sense, it became an all-time bestseller in one month. He educated the masses on his vision, and only several months following his pamphlet’s publication, the Declaration of Independence was signed, bringing his vision to fruition.

Like Paine had the power to change the course of history, each of us carries the potential to change the path toward socialism down which our country is heading. But simply because we can change doesn't cut it. These flaws which we have permitted to slip into our nation must be fixed if we wish to posses the happiness found in being self-reliant. We not only can educate, but we must! The first step is not just to tell others, but to act ourselves. We must be the ones to change. It is our roots which must grow deep to make our trees strong. Prepare for the winter to come. The grasshoppers have entered the White House. I urge you to reach out, and like Thomas Paine, build up yourself, and build up those around you. Socialism has taken root in America, and it is time to cut down that tree.

Secession: Is It Constitutional?

Is it constitutional for states to secede from the United States? Many have argued for and against it, but no real clear answer has appeared. To explore this topic, we must first define secession. In the political science section of the Colombia Encyclopedia, it defines secession as: “formal withdrawal from an association by a group discontented with the actions or decisions of that association.” 

We have to realize that there is a difference between revolution and secession. Secession is defined as peaceful or formal withdrawal, whereas revolution is when you have to fight to be independent. Revolution is what happened to America when they broke away from Britain, and revolution is what happened during the Civil War after the Confederacy tried to secede. The circumstance of secession is different from the circumstances during colonial times. Before America broke off from Great Britain, they tried to change the corrupt government, but were not given representation to do so. That is why it was necessary for them to break from Britain. America didn’t secede from Great Britain, because their break off wasn’t peaceful. It was revolution. The same thing happened during the Civil War. We have to realize that just because mankind has a certain right doesn’t mean that right will be protected. It doesn’t really matter if secession is a God-given right to states, because if a nation is so corrupt that a state wants to secede, then that nation will not let that state secede, and revolution will happen. It is the job of governments to keep their people happy. 

Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution states: “No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.” It goes on to state many more powers that are not granted to the states, but to the Federal Government alone. All are powers regulated by a federal government. Some have argued that if it was constitutional for states to secede, the Constitution wouldn’t be so bold on what states couldn’t do. Anti-secessionists argue that by mentioning these powers, the Founders were trying to say that it was illegal for states to secede. The argument has come up that the Constitution doesn’t specifically mention secession, and because of this, there is no reason to assume that it is constitutional for states to secede; that the Constitution simply doesn’t give them that power. 

Another argument that anti-secessionists have brought up comes from Article 7 of the Constitution. It states, “The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.” Before colonies became states and joined the United States, they had to enter into an agreement to become a part of the union by ratifying the Constitution. The people of the United States can leave whenever they want and move to Canada or Mexico or whatever other country or place they desire to reside in. However, many have argued that the states are bound to stay a part of the Union because they ratified the Constitution. 

With this argument comes a quote by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase (it’s long, but it’s all very significant to the point he’s trying to make): “The Union of the States never was a purely artificial and arbitrary relation. It began among the Colonies, and grew out of common origin, mutual sympathies, kindred principles, similar interests, and geographical relations. It was confirmed and strengthened by the necessities of war, and received definite form and character and sanction from the Articles of Confederation. By these, the Union was solemnly declared to 'be perpetual.' And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained 'to form a more perfect Union.' It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more clearly than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not? ... When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration or revocation, except through revolution or through consent of the States.” 

What is the truth? It’s hard to say, but I’m not sure if these arguments are completely valid. Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution mentions powers not given to states, but these are all powers that are meant to be given to a federal government. The argument doesn’t make sense because if a state seceded, it would become a federal government in and of itself, and therefore it would have rights to exercise powers that are meant for a federal government. It is very difficult to know whether or not secession is constitutional because it is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, so that is a bit of a mystery. It’s also very hard to decipher unalienable rights of states, because the circumstance of state rights is different from that of human rights. 

The Declaration of Independence states: “…that when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” 

Is secession constitutional? That is a question that I do not have the answer to. However, the question “can states secede?” isn’t as important as the question “should states secede?” I strongly believe that this nation was meant to stay together. In the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution, the Founders were trying to make it clear that they wanted to create a nation that fixed itself, not a nation that broke itself into pieces. Secessionists have argued that the Founders believed in the right to secession because they made the states sovereign. On the other hand, I think the reason why the Founders invested so much power in the states and the people was so that when the government became corrupt, the people could fix it. Because the people and the states in the United States are sovereign, the Founders didn’t want them to be able to break off from America—rather, to fix America when it became corrupt. These are the principles that our nation was founded on. 

Fifty-five men came together at Independence Hall in the summer of 1787 to create something that had never before been created—a nation that lasted. They came to create a nation that would stand the test of time; a nation with a government that was not corrupt and not oppressive that would allow for it to last for hundreds of years. That is exactly what they accomplished: they created a chosen nation that has remained intact up until even today. During Civil War times, Lincoln was trying to keep together a nation that was being broken apart. He said a lot about secession, and I don’t know what he believed as far as that goes, but I do know that it was his mission to keep this nation together, and that’s what he did. 

As we see America crumbling and the Constitution being stepped on, there’s one thing we have to remember: united we will stand, and divided we will fall. This is God’s chosen nation. This land is a free land. We can’t just escape America’s problems. We are here to fix them.

The Theory of Thymos: Plato’s Prediction

People are strange. Throughout all the ages of man, armies have wasted their lives going to war over things as frivolous as an apple as well as many who kill themselves and others in the name of a divine being that they have never even seen. At the same time, many heroes have given their lives in protecting liberty and standing up for justice and freedom. What could cause people to make decisions such as these? The ancient Greeks believed that there was a part within each of us that caused us to make irrational decisions like these. This was called Thymos. Plato wrote extensively on the topic. He said that all forms of society are born from this philosophy of Thymos, and I agree. Upon examination we can find that political initiative, the life blood of a free society, flows from the attributes of Thymos. Likewise, if we do not control this place within, we will develop a weaker more tyrannical society.

The Thymos that dwells within each of us is the seat of our passions. It has been defined as that area of the soul where feelings of pride, indignation, greed, and shame as well as those of kindness, charity, empathy, courage, and nobility are located and ruled. The Thymos is a force of progression. It is not content with where it is now. It wants to grow, to become greater. If left unchecked, it will even push a person to dominate or enslave another. It also drives many people, especially men, to seek glory in what they do and a legacy for others to remember them by. This is an essential part of a human being.

Plato compared the human soul to a chariot with the charioteer and two horses. The first horse is called Eros. This horse was not well bred, hard to control, and is represented as a black horse. The second is Thymos, of royal breed, but rather prideful and difficult. He is a white horse. The charioteer’s name is Logos. He is the master of these horses and has the potential to control them, or to destroy the whole chariot by his lack of control. The meaning of these three Greek words are Appetite (Eros), Passion (Thymos), and Logic or Reason (Logos). Combined, these three function to make us each who we are. To find the key to understanding Plato’s idea of the soul (and how Thymos works into it), we must look at the other two parts of the chariot.

Plato's Analogy of the Soul

Thymos is the part of our soul which allows us growth. However, depending on which of the other two agents it listens to will determine whether it grows to a healthy and strong Thymos or becomes a deformed and weak force for evil. When Thymos begins to act like Eros (or we allow our passions to become dependent on our carnal appetites), it will grow weak and unhealthy. In contrast, the Godly capacity each of us has to reason and think for ourselves allows us to subjugate both our passions and our appetites to work as a team. When we master all three of these fundamentals of the soul, we exhibit pure greatness. Men in this station will often demand respect, and are they very dignified. When this state of being is achieved, we receive a greater sense of what we feel is right and wrong, our understanding of justness (the primitive form of justice) quickens, and we begin to get a sense of what we want the world around us to become.

This sense of justness brings with it a need for action. When people with strong Thymos see unjustness being exhibited towards themselves and to those with whom they are associated, they cannot help but stand up for that. When there are enough people who rise to fight this unjustness, no matter what the price, there will be a change in the society to match the new active majority’s view of justness. This massive-scale change is exactly what took place in America with the Civil Rights movement. This now becomes the new law of justice, and it will remain so until a new active majority overrules that in the name of their perception of “justness,” ad infinitum. This is the key to political action. A persons natural sense of what is “just” and what is not. But this is not always a positive, improving concept. When the active majority decides that what is “just” is not in fact true or eternal “justice,” then the society is headed for a dark period.

The first way that a Thymos can become twisted is if it is allowed to fall into step with Eros; our appetites were not meant to control our passions. This occurs when reason steps aside and is not firm in its control of Thymos. Thymos then begins to see the “freedom” of following ones basest instincts. When one totally logical person loses his or her passions to things like eating, sleeping, and amusement, they become totally immoral and selfish. This is just the opposite of what is necessary for a freedom reform. The sense of “justness” caused in this type of person will change as fast as their animal instincts will. If the active majority consists of these people, they will have an extremely unstable foundation.

Another way a Thymos can become socially destructive is when you feed it but don’t control it. By hooking that beast to your chariot unbridled, you are asking for destruction. This type of Thymos is like a unkept fire. It will only grow and consume everything around it. When this type of Thymos develops inside of someone, they lose all the positive attributes that used to be a part of it. All that is left is pride, indignation, and greed. This person, when insulted or not recognized as much as they would like, will lash out in indignation because of their pride, or the shame they feel because of the truth shown them. They won’t only fight back, they will begin to rally others around them, lighting others on fire as well. As this begins to happen, greed sets in and those people begin to seek for power. This is much like what happened in the French Revolution. People with this mindset will have a very oppressive idea of “justness” and they will normally use force to instagate their idea of justice.

The last dangerous type of Thymos is actually not dangerous in and of itself. Its presence makes it so that the other two types can function, making this, in my opinion, the most lethal of the three. This is a domesticated Thymos. Thymotic behavior is essential for liberty and freedom because it invites all to stand up for what they believe. It is this same behavior that caused early Americans to fight for liberty. When that behavior is removed, you have complacency and apathy. This is why the “active” part of any majority is the part that has the power. A person who doesn’t stand for anything will fall for everything. These people might not agree with their immoral leaders, but they won’t do anything about it. When one of those flaming groups of powerseekers begins their quest, these people won’t care what’s happening (as it won’t hurt them). They will be caught in the fire and throw their lives away for a selfish tyrant and a cause to which they don’t even understand or really care about. This is the kind of Thymos that is destroying America as we speak.

Thymos was something greatly understood by ancient peoples throughout the world. It was the source of many great political changes like the Magna Charta, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. But when not harnessed appropriately it has also led to some of the worst moments of history, times like the Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Communist movement. We can see the need to awaken those who don’t have any passion, and to stand up for the true sense of eternal justice. Some have been pushing their personal idea of “justness” upon what we thought was true “justice.” In truth, this process has been in motion for years. We are at a crossroads of freedom and bondage predicted by Plato. I swear that I will take up the reigns of my chariot and guide my passions and appetites down a road towards freedom. I can only hope that you will join with me in this Race for Liberty.

See Plato’s Phaedrus and The Republic for details and sources.