I’ve got news for you, folks. The blame game in
natural disasters can go all around in a vicious
circle if it pleases, but the god honest truth is that
the blame rests in the societal and cultural shift
we’ve seen in the last decades towards a welfare
state. If I may wax philosophical but for a moment,
I’ll return us in memory to the principles upon which
this country was founded: freedom, honesty, HARD work
ethic, national pride, and patriotism. I’m not even
talking about philosophies or ideals…I’m talking about
the character qualities that formed the core of our
nation’s people. I’m a firm believer in the concept
that those qualities that forged the strength and iron
will of our nation’s people have been slowly but
surely weaned out of us.
Formerly, we were a “crock pot” nation. We are now a
“microwave” nation. We were fitted with patience,
cunning, and the ability to wait things out. Now (and
I even include myself in much of this analysis), we
are a microwave oven nation. We want our pop – tarts
immediately, we want direct deposit for our paychecks,
we want the paper on the front porch every morning, we
want a coffee maker that will make coffee on a timer
so we don’t have to turn it on in the morning, and we
want to be able to buy movie tickets online so that we
don’t have to stand in line.
Formerly, we were an enterprising nation. We are now
a nation outsourced all over the world. A wise
politician in our country once said that our country
was equally formed by the bravery of our soldiers, and
the sweat and toil of the farmers who stayed home.
That’s not at all to detract from our men and women of
arms; it’s simply a recognition of the hard work that
made us great. Now, many people spend four years in
college learning how to outsource, delegate, sub
contract, and automate. The internet is plagued with a
plethora of get rich quick schemes…we even have seven
minute abs.
Formerly, we were a nation without fear. When this
nation was founded, boys grew up just waiting for the
opportunity to join the military. It was an honor, a
desire, to serve our country in uniform. Nathan Hale
regretted that he had “but one life to give for his
country.” Now, fear permeates even our armed forces
and law enforcement, and men and women desert the
armed forces and quit their jobs as law enforcement in
droves. It seems the sons of Benedict Arnold have
returned.
Formerly, a man was shamed and placed in stocks who
refused to work for his food and his family. Now, we
pat him on the back, give him a government check, and
send him home to watch TV. When these same people are
unable to receive the government handouts, they resort
to violence, shooting, and crime. I know it’s harsh,
but it’s the cold hard truth. I’ve talked to enough
high school aged young men who PLAN, not stumble upon,
but plan to drop out of high school, find a single
girl with a child and a welfare check, woo her, and
move in. For those of you who’s ire I’m beginning to
raise, I have a question for you: that sorry excuse
for a young man is taking your hard earned dollars
through your tax money: where’s your pride in a job
well done? Why don’t you care to keep the money you
worked hard to make?
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare; we
have abused power and called it politics; we have
coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it
ambition; we have become a generation of learners, not
thinkers; we have become a generation of consumers,
not producers; we have become a generation enslaved to
a system who attempts to even the playing field and
giving us everything we want, when we want it, and how
we want it…on a silver platter. We are no longer a
nation of tested, tried, and true, enterprising, proud
individuals. We are, and have become, a culture of
egalitarian parasites. “In modern socialist theory,
socialism is the pursuit of the goal of creating a
democratic society that would form the backbone of an
ideal welfare state.” That’s one dictionary’s
definition of socialism. What did this “welfare state”
bring us to, in one small example of the breakdown of
the ideal American societal system?
From the Washington Times:
“Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt
with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking
out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue
helicopters are repeatedly fired on. “The plea from
Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen
poured in to restore order and stop the looting,
carjackings and gunfire…. “Last night, Gov. Kathleen
Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas
National Guard members were inside New Orleans with
shoot-to-kill orders. ” ‘These troops are…under my
orders to restore order in the streets,’ she said.
‘They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded.
These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are
more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect
they will.’ ”
That’s why we had to send in thousands of battlefield
hardened troops in APCs to the streets of New Orleans.
That’s why the stories reported brought news of
violence, rioting, rape, and anger in conjunction with
floods, wind, destruction, and devastation. That’s why
there were some reports of cannibalism taking place in
New Orleans. That’s why the news feeds have contained
images that could be confused with movies such as
Hotel Rwanda and Black Hawk Down. That’s why,
according to early news reports, New Orleans had no
plan for getting all the criminals out of the city.
So, they just let many of them loose. That’s why
Drudge later reported:
“Even as Americans rally to make donations to the
victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Internet is brimming
with scams, come-ons and opportunistic pandering
related to the relief effort in Louisiana, Mississippi
and Alabama — and in greater numbers and varieties
than any past disaster, according to Thursday editions
of the NEW YORK TIMES. Florida’s attorney general has
already filed a lawsuit against a man who mounted one
of the earliest networks of Web sites —
katrinahelp.com, katrinadonations.com and others —
which purported to collect donations for victims of
the storm. In Missouri, a much wider constellation of
Internet domains — with names like parishdonations.com
and katrinafamilies.com — displays pictures of the
flood-ravaged south and drives traffic to a single
site, InternetDonations.org, a nonprofit entity with
apparent links to a white supremacist group.”
That’s why, folks.
Joseph Farah, in his article Why I Am Not a
Conservative, speaks to this issue: “Conservatives, by
definition, seek to conserve something from the
past—institutions, cultural moores, values, political
beliefs, traditions…No, it takes a radical agenda to
defeat a radical agenda. Conservatives have no stomach
for fighting—the sort of fighting that it takes to
restore real freedom in America. It’s not time for
timidity or compromise. It’s not a time for
defensiveness and conciliation. It’s time to take an
offensive in this struggle. Was Washington a
conservative? No. He was a revolutionary. He is
known throughout the world—or was when people
appreciated such concepts—as the “father of freedom.”
Was Thomas Jefferson a conservative? No, he was a
radical, a visionary. He wasn’t interested in
preserving the status quo. Like his contemporaries, he
risked everything to expand freedom, not just to
preserve the limited freedoms that existed in his
time…”
“We can see these symptoms of materialism throughout
our society, but the most visible one is the loss of
courage. Our political leaders watch communism gobble
up other nations, and they do nothing. They are
afraid. People complain in private about the state of
affairs, but will not speak out. They are afraid…”
General Lewis B Walt
This being said, I will write to you from the
perspective of one who lives and breaths this larger
than life chess game we call politics, from the
perspective of one who was raised on the fundamental
principles this country was founded upon, from the
perspective one of the few, perhaps, who still
believes that patriotism rest secondarily only to
devotion to one’s God and family. I am, however, far
from radical, as “pragmatic” seems to be an ever
increasing part of the vocabulary that describes my
personal, religious, and political beliefs. You will
most of the time find me commenting on matters related
to faith, family, and freedom; politics in the United
States, or politics in the state of Georgia.
You’re welcome to contact me at smillican@gmail.com.
I’d be honored to hear from you.
The
Southern Vent
I
am not a conservative