Issue 38.15
I had a wonderful opportunity last Friday to attend a patriotic rally and speech. Those in attendance were well fed with encouragement, ideas and a way forward in our efforts to stem the tide of overstepping government and abuses of power.
The first speaker was David Hinton who has taught in the public and private schools in Washington Country for decades. His students have had wonderful experiences memorizing and sharing inspirational songs, poems and historical documents. One that Mr. Hinton shared during the meeting was spoken by Abraham Lincoln long before he became President of the United States. His second grade class memorized and recited this for a program with hundreds of parents and citizens. It is worth repeating.
“This government must be preserved, in spite of the acts of any man or set of men. No where in the world is there presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest among us are held the highest privileges and positions. What constitutes the bulwark of our liberty and independence?
It is not the frowning battlements or bristling sea coast, our army and navy. These are not our reliance against tyranny. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit, which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors!
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic giant to step the ocean, and crush us in a blow? NEVER!!
All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge.
At what point then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up among us, it can not come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author, and its finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time, or die by suicide!!
Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with the ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day. No,…No!! Man was made for immortality!!”
The keynote was former Congressional Candidate Jim Noorlander. His topic was the meaning of liberty. People often confuse it with freedom. After a comprehensive four year study of the founding documents and their reference to scripture when using the word, he found that liberty is actually the moral foundation of freedom. He also explained why, without that moral foundation, we are doomed to lose more and more of our freedoms.
A couple of quotes that may give you a flavor of his outstanding insights. He said that “Liberty by definition is adherence to gospel principles – natural law principles that Thomas Jefferson outlined in the Declaration of Independence.” And these concepts “are embodied in the use of the word liberty in the preamble to the Constitution.”
He spent time explaining why we are losing our freedoms to bureaucracies and unconstitutional mandates in law and executive orders. He also explained that there is only one way to reclaim those freedoms and liberties. That way is reinstall the importance of living morally and spiritually as a people including requiring that our representatives promote freedom and moral standards in government.
One final quote. “America is a great nation. America is worth saving. America has a great destiny which has not yet been fulfilled and you and I are a part of it. American’s founding fathers knew it and you know it.” Words to ponder!
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.