What Now, America?

A few days ago, may of us took a moment to thank and honor the armed services in general and veterans in particular for their service and sacrifice in protecting the United States, our freedoms and our way of life as we acknowledged and celebrated Veterans Day. Others did not.  But what has become of us, since that noble holiday was established so long ago to celebrate the end of a terrible and costly war?  What have we lost in terms of freedom, democracy and most importantly a sense of self reliance since those days a hundred years ago?  That America, I am sad to say, no longer exists.  In that America, one could wake up in the morning and go out into the world and not only be free, but able to make his own way, in most any way he chose.  The unbridled optimism of people simply being and doing resulted in our country becoming the most ambitious, free, and prosperous nation the world has ever seen.  Innovation, literature, science, technology, manufacturing, exploration - all of these things were heralded, honored and admired.  But today, our every act and thought is monitored, judged and punished by a mindless, nameless, overreaching and completely totalitarian government.  Innovation and intellectual curiosity is quelled and is made to genuflect at the alter of political correctness.  Individual motivation and desire to excel is punished so that egalitarianism may be worshiped.   How were we, as the most powerful and righteous nation on earth, able to defeat the authoritarianism of a hostile communist enemy, only to succumb without a whimper to the very same ideology from within?  How did our concept of our nation of laws, not men, become so perverted in such a very short time into the exact opposite of that noble notion today?  How did we allow this to happen?

The culprit was- and is - moral apathy and cultural complacency, and the enemy took advantage of that weakness.  Are we defeated?  No, not yet.

I'm encouraged by the overwhelming change of national mindset I hope I see in the results of the recent midterm elections.  If what I see is true, then the country has indeed awaken to the fact that we have been literally invaded and occupied by an alien and hostile force, not only in a political sense, but culturally as well.  If the folks we elected into positions of leadership follow the electorate's mandate, and resist being sucked into the amoral political morass that defines Washington, DC, we just may be able to pull back from the brink of Orwell's dehumanizing nightmare, and save our culture, our nation, and our way of life after all.  If however, those leaders resort to the insipid get-along, go-along mentality espoused by the smiling, evil freedom sucking vampires, then I suspect we, as a nation of free men, will need to resort to other means.  What now, America?