We Have Forgotten the Wisdom of Our Founding Fathers
I hear a lot of bellyaching on social media and elsewhere about the condition of the country. Government corruption and outright criminality. A two-tiered system of justice. The invasion at the southern border. Election interference by government officials. Declining living standards. Failing schools. Moral decay. Cultural rot. Constant lying about everything. These are but a small sample of the problems that plague America today.
Here is the magic question: Whose fault, is it? The answer is that it is our fault. It’s our fault because we have forgotten the wisdom of our founding fathers. We have become complacent while the signs of tyranny are growing around us. It is time to remember their words and heed what they say. Here is a quick reminder of some of their teachings.
“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.”
― Patrick Henry
“What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”
― Thomas Jefferson
“When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensable of duties.”
― Marquis De Lafayette (French General who commanded troops under General Washington)
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
― Thomas Jefferson
“A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous, they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.”
― Samuel Adams
“The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.”
― Thomas Jefferson
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
―Thomas Paine
“We need a revolution every 20 years just to keep government honest.”
―Thomas Jefferson
“Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.”
― Patrick Henry
“Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect - We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die.”
― George Washington
“If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.”
― Thomas Paine
“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
― Benjamin Franklin
“I have not yet begun to fight.”
― John Paul Jones
“Give me liberty or give me death.”
― Patrick Henry