"What part of 'maybe' don't you understand?"
“There’s no easy answer,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently in a story on the crisis in Egypt. “… it is playing with fire to not raise the debt ceiling,” said Senator Chuck Schumer (D – New York) recently in a story about the spending bill that is currently funding the government. “The majority of high-school biology teachers don’t take a solid stance on evolution with their students, mostly to avoid conflicts …,” stated a recent story about a national study.
These are just three fresh examples of the dangerous effects of political correctness, over-diplomacy, and fuzzy logic that are seeping into our daily lives, threatening the very fabric of our nation. Whether it is a story about failing US foreign policy, failing US economic policy, or failing US educational policy, myriad facts confirm that we are in a crisis of morality. This has been a long time coming.
The United States of America will continue its sad decline until our founding virtues are restored. You know … thrift, independence, respect, accountability, responsibility, honesty.
Wait a minute! In her careful and measured diplomacy, wasn’t Hillary Clinton being a champion of responsibility and independence? In his urgent call to warn against Republican recklessness, wasn’t Chuck Schumer being a protector of thrift and accountability? In their thoughtful silence, weren’t the majority of those high-school biology teachers modeling respect and honesty for their trusting students?
In a word, “No.”
What is missing throughout are the good old-fashioned American traits of common sense and integrity. These imply respect for truth, respect for independence, respect for property, and respect for freedom. Tolerance is not a virtue when it betrays these others.
The disease of multi-culturalism, which is a particularly virulent strain of the fatal form of cancer known as irrationalism, has swept our nation in recent decades. The effects of this malady on the body politic have been exacerbated by a half-century decline in educational rigor, as can be seen by the common symptoms of poor judgement, indecision, and hopeless squandering of public monies. This disease morphs and changes, seeming to defy simple analysis and treatment. Like a nice sun tan or a new hairdo, it takes on different looks in order to impress and fit in. Showing up as tolerance one week, inclusivity the next, it may quickly mutate into open-mindedness, or kid-friendliness.
Is this going to be our legacy? Will we go down in history as the generation that sold its soul to federally-mandated homogeneity and forced equanimity?
White is no longer okay, but apparently brown is. Masculinity is no longer okay, but femininity is. Gender is no longer okay, but androgyny is. Proof is no longer okay, but consensus is. Discipline is no longer okay, but chaos is. Gimme a break!
Yep – I’m fed up. I have never been good at hiding my contempt for the compromising and corrupting of society. I guess it’s because I see the root cause of all this madness, and it’s not what Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, the Democrats, or the Republicans think it is. It has to do with the forfeit of responsibility to judge for ourselves the facts of reality. While our ‘leaders’ huddle together and compete for different ways to mumble that most insulting and pathetic of all questions, “Who are we to judge?” – decisions back up in a traffic jam of reality, demanding attention.
Well, I’ll say it. “I am a judge!” I have a brain, a spine, and a mouth – thank you very much. My convictions and my guts empower me to call a spade a spade, and to call bullshit on the state of our leadership. The recent influx of fresh faces in Congress seems to be a step in the right direction, but I have seen these two-faced demagogues before. To keep these new leaders accountable, and to make sure they show up at the scheduled Tea Party, we need to speak up and speak out. As many citizens as possible need to stand up and cut to the truth.
Here are some battle cries I suggest: “No more foreign aid – we’re broke! No more foreign meddling – we’ve got our own problems!” “Raise the debt ceiling again – are you insane?!” “If you’re a science teacher who doesn’t practice and promote the scientific method, you’re fired!”
Every time I recommit to truth and reality, summoning the courage to stand up for my convictions, I feel a warm sensation in my guts. I experience a strengthening of my spine. It’s even better than working out at the gym. Try it!
The next time the big government moralizers come at you with their brain-melting rhetoric, hoping to sway you into tolerance, which is just a lazy man’s excuse for discriminating respect and commitment to honesty, remember the truths that you know – independent of what anybody says. Call them on their lies – to their faces. Then, turn to your loved ones, your friends, your colleagues, and your neighbors, and tell them what you just saw. Let’s help each other stay vigilant as we push back the flood of insanity.
