An apology to my children
Published Fri, Mar 27 2009 3:53 PM
On behalf of myself, and of like minded individuals, I hereby apologize to my children, to my granddaughter, and to the children of future generations. I know that I and my generation have squandered one of the greatest legacies ever given to a generation of humanity and saddled you with lifetimes of bondage to the state.
We stood by while the people we elected took the wealth of generations and squandered it, spending lavishly on foolish things. We have rewarded the profligate while demonizing the industrious. In the name of “fairness” we have taken the wealth of the productive few in exchange for a handout from an ever growing government.
Rather than building wealth to pass down to our children as our forefathers did we have sought after selfish pleasures. We would rather sit for hours in front of the television hoping for a chance to catch a “wardrobe malfunction” rather than read and study our history or compare what our Constitution says to what our representatives do. To us the actions of a scantily clad person of the opposite sex are more important than the achievements and sacrifices of those pledged to defend us.
We are a generation that has lost its way. We should know better but we have abandoned the wisdom of those that have gone before us for the seduction of our senses. Looking back we can see countless generations that have gone before us. They survived thousands of years of history, struggling to make their lives and their children’s lives better. We in our generation have decided that their collected wisdom is worthless, after all, we know better — we trust in science (or rather, that superstition that we call science, whether it applies the scientific method or not), not superstition. That is, unless it disagrees with our passions.
How is it that a new generation of humanity comes to be? Nature has shown the way. All it takes is the coupling of a sexually mature male and female of the species and a bit of time. A new generation will almost inevitably follow. Not so in today’s American society. In today’s society men couple with men and women couple with women — and demand their “right” to offspring. We’ve “risen above” our base natures. Risen above that is, unless you agree with the generations that went before that it’s our base natures that have led us to this state of affairs. But then, it’s homophobic, or at the very least judgmental to point that out.
“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking up Arms, 6 July 1775 (as distributed by The Patriot Post.)
We are, each of us in my generation guilty. I cannot offer you wisdom other than that which was passed on to me by my forebears, wisdom that my generation has ignored and yours may never be taught. All I can offer you is my apology — that and my resolve to make amends such as I can. Of course, what amends I can make have to do with educating you, with voting for people that support the values I want to see transmitted to you — individual liberty and individual responsibility, and setting high standards, both for myself and you.
But… I do apologize for where we are today, and for the slavery to our government that you must face thanks to the folly of my generation.
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T F Stern responded with:
 | Some how I'm reminded of the prayer offered at the opening of the Kansas legislative session in which the preacher ( can't recall his name off hand) cut the legs off of nearly every one involved in passing bills which lacked any moral foundation and for destroying the fabric of society as a whole. |
David responded with:
 | Perri,
"All" is such an extreme term. We are most certainly all guilty of something(s), but not all guilty of the same things or necessarily to the same degree. Some have consistently opposed every one of the ills you catalog (while holding their own different, favorite, sins close to their hearts).
Perhaps the America that began being perverted from its principles about the time the ink was dry on the Bill of Rights is to pass into the dustbin of history. I fear, along with you, that my own children and their children will indeed face a more restricted future than I inherited from my parents and grandparents, for I see little on the horizon to turn the tide. But I know that nothing--not even adversity--is permanent in society except that "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," and that even with that inevitable condition, everyone has opportunity for real hope and real change, not just the smoothe words of a slick conman's hopenchange.
In the final analysis, it all comes down not to government or societal pressures, strictures and even bondage but to the title of your site: Individual Liberty -- Individual Responsibility. That's something else that will not change. |
Marshall Art responded with:
 | What more can be done short of puttin' hits on the those that support the very ills we oppose? If we are truly sitting on our asses just diggin' the tube without any actions whatsoever to forestall the pressures of our ideological adversaries, then there is much for which we should apologize. But that isn't the case really, is it? Of course not. Could we have done more? Hard to say that is beyond us. Most likely we could have. Fortunately, time has not run out and there is time to turn things around. That first one hundred days has not yet passed and we can be busy ramping up for a good mid-term election. Do not throw in the towel. Never surrender. |
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