America is the land of opportunity and any American can go as far as his drive and willingness to work will take him. I have no sympathy for those who prefer to blame society for their miserable circumstances and then stick their hands out for government assistance.
America is the most benign super power that has ever existed on the face of the earth. We rebuilt Europe and Japan after WWII, pouring billions into their war ravaged lands, leaving them to self-determination, and then removing their debts. No other power in the history of the world has shown this kind of compassion to its vanquished. Today, we pour billions into impoverished, third world countries. The Blame-America crowd can find themselves some nice, little, marxist third-world country to move to.
The rich are rich because they had the wherewithal to grab the bull by the horns and take advantage of all the opportunities this bountiful country of ours has to offer, and no one has the right to determine how rich the rich should be. It is because of the rich that America is rich. Your employer is probably rich, and, without whom, you wouldn't have a job. The rich don’t owe it to society to support the poor.
The money I earn belongs to my family and me. I pay taxes to support those institutions that protect my family and me, provide education for my children, and provide public works. I think it is reprehensible that my hard-earned money also goes to support worthless, alcoholic, druggies whose only contribution to society is to produce more of themselves, or to the arts that make a mockery of values that decent Americans hold dear.
English should be declared the official language of America. English is the international language and the reason it is the international language is because it is the language of the most powerful country on earth – the United States of America. You cannot be an airline pilot unless you speak English. You cannot be employed on a cruise ship unless you speak English. English is required in schools around the world. Why shouldn’t English be required of every American – because it is "racist" to propose such a thing? The story of the Tower of Babel is one of the oldest stories in the world and it perfectly illustrates where this country is now headed. Once we lose our ability to communicate with one another, we cease to exist as a nation. "Ebonics" is utterly absurd. It is just another in-your-face-America attempt by malcontents with an axe to grind to undermine our great nation and to excuse laziness. Instead of pushing "Ebonics", community leaders should be encouraging people to master our native tongue, which will provide them with the verbal skills needed to compete in our society.
Terms like "diversity", "sensitivity", "multi-culturalism", and "tolerance" are code words for government handouts.
Dan Quayle took a lot of flack and ridicule for attempting to make a campaign issue out of a TV program, in which Murphy Brown considers having a child out of wedlock. His message, however, was clear - It was the Hollywood version of Clintonesque moral relativity. The moral behind Dan Quayle’s message is this: A nation is only as strong as the people who comprise it – so goes the family, so goes the people, so goes the nation.
I am not a slave owner and neither was my father or my grandfather. You are not a slave and neither was your father or your grandfather. Slavery was a cruel, immoral institution, which a moral society finally destroyed. So get outta my face with your “reparations.”
The Boy Scouts of America has every right to protect the children in their charge.
Our founding fathers are not “dead, white, males.” They were giants who, against all odds and great hardships, defeated one of the world’s mightiest powers and founded the greatest country the world has ever known. Their pictures should adorn every school and every government facility in the nation, and their praises should be sung from the highest roof tops. Our children should be taught everything there is to know about these great men and the revolution that gave us our freedom. How many Americans really appreciate how tenuous our revolution was? George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, et.al, overcame insurmountable odds with nothing more than an under-equipped, under-fed, rag-tag army, bravery, and determination. If they had failed in their endevour, they would have all been hung as traitors, there would be no United States of America, and our revolution would be nothing more than a footnote in world history.
Everyday we should light a candle and say a prayer for those brave men who, at this very moment, are in war's hell defending us from Terrorism.
"Self-esteem" has taken over math, history, and English as the prime objective in American schools, and, unless we get back to educating our children, America is doomed.
I don’t believe Bill Clinton fought to save the Constitution. I believe he fought to save his miserable @ss and that he would have never been able to do so without the unrelenting pressure from the power-hungry Hillary.
- Shenandoah, September 1, 2002
- rickmichaels, September 1, 2002
Freedom to choose my own direction in life as to health and happiness due me by the fruits of my labor.
Freedom to CHOOSE who I will associate with and share the fruits of my labor with.
Freedom to defend myself and family with what ever is the best tool for the job.
Freedom is what has made America great and we owe all those who have fought for freedom the greatest amount of dignity and respect.
- dax zenos, September 1, 2002
- tall_tex, September 1, 2002
- All men are created equal under the law.- Government exists to serve the people.
- Freedom is worth dying for.
As an American I believe God has blessed my family and me by allowing us to enjoy the blessings of this great nation.
As an American I know I will defend her to my last breath.
- dpa5923
, September 1, 2002
I don't believe in what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- Lowell
, September 1, 2002
- Lauratealeaf
, September 1, 2002
I believe that declaring that America's enemies are evil and should be destroyed is merely common sense. Those who call it "jingoism" or "cultural imperialism" or merely "insensitive" are siding with our enemies and should be treated like them.
I believe that anyone who in any way aided or showed sympathy for the barbarians who murdered thousands of our countrymen on Sep 11, 2001, is an enemy of our country and should be treated as such.
I believe God loves America, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying that either.
- irv, September 2, 2002
Americans give more in chartible causes then any other nation on earth, a fact overlooked by the UN and other countries whose envy or down-right hatred for the US is overwhelmingly evident.
Even with our world-wide charity it's never enough for the blame America crowd. Politicians constantly have their greedy hands out demanding we give more and more every year, we are forced by these same people to give financially to terrorists (Arafat and his crew as an example). We pledge millions of dollars to the UN to fight the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the UN says it's not enough. Europe screams the US does not give enough around the world, yet most of those very countries wouldn't exist without the sacrafice of American citizens. To this day, let a problem happen anywhere in the world and one question is always raised "What will the US do about it?".
I believe it's time the US received the respect it deserves.
- Brytani
, September 2, 2002
I am Proud to be an American.. You Bet I Am..I was taught by My Parents to Never Give Up. What ever God hands you in life. To get off your Duff and get out there and work and to never let anyone tell you.. YOU can't follow your Dreams in what you chose to do with your life. To never take the low road and have someone else do for you What You Can Do For Yourself.
I Thank God everyday..That I can Live In The Land Of The Free.
Oh, Yes, I Am Proud To Be An American. We, Americans Should Stand Tall and Never Give Up on Our Country.
God Bless The United States Of America.
- Sandpaint
, September 2, 2002
- Allig
, September 2, 2002
I believe in individual rights and sovereignty, and that no one has a legitimate claim upon any American's rights or individual sovereignty, but that we make our free associations and communities for no purpose of usurping such rights or coercing any individual to live, believe, or behave other than as he or she will, so long as his or her behaviour inflicts no harm upon a fellow sovereign citizen.
I believe the sole legitimate purpose of a properly construed government is to protect and defend her free and sovereign citizens from predators at home (real predators, if you please, and not mere vicemongers) and enemies real and prospective from abroad.
I further believe that a government that extends itself beyond that sole legitimate purpose ceases to be a properly construed government and becomes an improperly consecrated State, which imposes itself upon her citizens by extorting from some to bestow upon others to create a dependency class, rather than protect and foster an independent citizenry. And I believe in hand that the United States government has been not a properly construed government but an improperly construed State for a very long time, whose derelictions in sole legitimate purpose - derelictions borne well enough before the decade just past, alas - on behalf of the dependency classes left the United States and her citizens entirely vulnerable to the atrocities of 9/11, thus failing its legitimate mission of protecting and defending her citizens from enemies from abroad.
I believe there is no legitimate purpose to a new and separate department of Homeland Security, because the proper and legitimate questions that must be asked and demand answers include, "What the HELL do we have a Defence Department, a Federal Bureau of Investigation, and even a Central Intelligence Agency for in the first place, if they were not for protecting and defending American citizens and their sovereignty and rights to life, liberty, property, from predators at home and enemies from abroad." I believe that any further aggrandisement of the State on behalf of "Homeland Security" or any such rot is nothing short of a further encroachment upon American citizens who had every damned right on earth to have expected their government - their well-enough financed government, which finances itself by extortion of their hard-earned dollars and productive labour and enterprise - to have spent less time appeasing the dependency classes and fatting the political classes and more time securing and nourishing the proper and legitimate protection of America's citizens and guests alike.
And, I believe as did Edward R. Murrow in 1954: "As a nation, we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, what's left of it in the world. But we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." The proper and legitimate American government's job is to protect and defend her citizens as described above and nothing further, with no further legitimate business except staying the hell out of their business until or unless one citizen obstructs or abrogates a fellow citizen's equivalent rights. And any political candidate who refuses to stand upon that proper and legitimate American government mission should be refused an American citizen's vote no matter which damned political party he or she belongs to.
I also believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in Gibson guitars, Mont Blanc fountain pens, the legalisation of the spitball, the legitimacy of Israel, and the sanctity of real grass baseball fields.
I believe the Curse of the Bambino was really the Curse of a Boneheaded Baseball Owner more obsessed with producing Broadway musicals than baseball games.
I believe most best-selling authors couldn't write their way out of a fifth-grade composition class.
I believe that reviving The Beverly Hillbillies for a movie is the second stupidest idea out of Hollywood behind every other old television show they've made movies out of two or more decades later.
I believe asking the government to teach and enforce morality instead of the sovereign synagogue or the church compares to asking Attila the Hun or Joseph Stalin to teach and enforce respect for human rights.
I believe police work is honourable and necessary but that crooked or abusive cops should be rousted out and prosecuted before they have a chance to stain their profession further.
I believe that it is every member of Congress's responsibility to know whether the legislation they propose is Constitutionally permissible; I believe the President's duty is to know whether the legislation he is about to sign is Constitutionally permissible; and, I believe that any Congressman or President who just shrugs and says, "Well, it's Constitutionally tricksy but that's what the Supreme Court is for," is derelict in the duty implied by their oath of office and should be held fully accountable for that dereliction, and I don't give a damn what the issue is or who the Congress or the President are.
And I believe that no team should have the right to play for a championship until or unless its butt was parked in first place at season's end, and that those who would defend a system letting anyone but first place finishers play for the big prize is a closet welfare statist.
Most of all, I believe that you've heard (well, read) enough of my blathering for one evening...(or morning)...
- BluesDuke
, September 28, 2002
As an American, first and foremost, I am thankful to and for my God, who has given me life and my free will. I am thankful to and for His Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior. He has marked the path and showed the way regarding how to live my life and use my free will in such a way as to further His plan of salvation, enrich others, and to overcome my own weaknesses and mistakes if I will but accept His atonement, repent of those failings, and strive to live as He would live. In doing this, over, and over, and over gain, continually striving to improve as I go, and picking myself up again when I fall, always holding that bright hope before me, I know that I will ultimately hear the one phrase which will make all else worth while in the end, "Well done thou good and faithful servant". Therefore, I am eternally grateful, beyond words for His sacrifice on my behalf to make this possible, and for His Father’s, my Father in Heaven’s, willingness to suffer His Son to go through what it took in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross on our behalf.Beyond this, I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, which establishes a pattern for life which, if freely accepted and lived, strengthens and liberates all those who are faithful in following it, be they individuals, families, groups, societies or cultures. I am thankful for the very essence of it, which is to love God with all one’s heart, might and mind, to love one’s neighbors as one’s self and to promote and live moral and virtuous lives, to stand up for what is right, to un-ashamedly proclaim it, and to have patience with those seeking to find and learn of it, from where ever they may come.
Second, as an American, I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my wife, Gail and our almost 25 years together for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, for poorer, for richer, in hard times, in good times, in happy times, in sad times, and in the many joyous times which are meant to stretch for all time and eternity before us. I am grateful for what she has meant, and does mean to me through it all, and as a result of it all. I am thankful beyond measure for what she has gone through in bearing each of our five children and the critical role she has played in rearing them. I am thankful for her efforts, her patience, for her extolling me, persuading me and helping me through my own weaknesses and hard times as well as her own. I am thankful for her recognizing the prompting of the spirit of God in our courtship which led to our marriage and for that same recognition countless times since. I am grateful for her brightness, her creativity, her loving heart and sharing soul … I am thankful beyond measure to God and to her that she is my wife and companion through life, including whatever hardships, shortcomings, misunderstandings and difficulties which have arisen, or may yet arise. Of such adversity is born strength and a greater appreciation for the good times and joy we are also blessed to live through.Third, I am thankful for and to my five children, Katie, Rachel, Becki, Jeff and Jared and all they have taught me about life, true sacrifice and commitment, humility and learning. I am thankful to have been there for each of their births and before that, through their pregnancies where I experienced for myself the miracle of life in the womb, and saw, felt and experienced first hand their individuality, awareness, sensitivities and life ere they were born into this world. I am grateful for the fuller, firmer understanding of, and commitment to, life and liberty those experiences have given me. I am thankful to have watched each grow and experience both joy and trial through their schooling, through fights with school boards and over school text books, through cheerleading, gymnastics, karate, volleyball, track, football, baseball, basketball, boyfriends, girlfriends, proms, church dances, learning and performing with various musical instruments (piano, recorder, flute, violin, trumpet, guitar and any others I may have missed), heartbreaks, betrayals of friends, the joy of good and true friends, court ships, the marriage of our oldest; and, in essence, the trials, tribulations, joys and comfort of seeing them each grow, learn and experience life for themselves ... and now through two of their weddings and a nearly one year old grandson I am thankful to see them begin having and experiencing the richness of traditional family life themselves. Such a rich measure of gratitude and thankfulness can only be appreciated by experiencing it in all of its rich abundance.
Next, I am thankful for and to my parents. They nurtured and raised me in an environment and in such a way so as to open my eyes, enrich my understanding and to put me in a position to feel this gratitude and recognize the blessings around me, regardless of whatever adversity. They are dedicated patriots to our constitutional Republic and worthy and committed followers of Jesus Christ, and they have striven to raise their children to do likewise. They are the type of people that are the bedrock foundation of our nation and I thank God each and every day for them, irrespective of whatever minor failings they may have. They have been, and continue to be, true, life long, … no, they are eternal friends, whom I could never fully repay for the gifts they have given to me or the loyalty they have shown to me. I can only hope to pass such on to my loved ones. May God bless their names and their lives now, and their memories in the future for all they have done for me and each of their children. Though, like most, I did not appreciate what they did, experienced, put up with, suffered or travailed with while I was growing up and maturing, yet, I certainly was reared in such a way to allow me to be in a position to appreciate it when my time came. If I can do half as well as they did, and teach my children to do twice as well as I am doing … then I am content knowing that my children will be among the most productive and worthwhile people I know, because my parents certainly are.
Next, I am thankful for my brothers Lee, Greg and Paul. We were four boys raised out in the country and we certainly had our share of experiences and difficulties, and as we continue to experience life, as most people, we continue to learn lessons, some painful … yet I know of three solid men I can depend on, whatever else may come, who will support me and give me their best advise … even if I sometimes don’t want to hear it. But, this is the mark of true friends who set their friend’s, and in this case their brother’s, interest and well being over what might "feel good" at the moment and say and do what needs saying and doing. I am thankful to my brothers for the many examples they have given me, among others, to my oldest brother for his great success in business and steadiness in raising four children of his own and in his own commitment to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; to my second oldest brother for his willingness to this day to help those he sees in need of help and to literally give them the shirt off his back if required, and to do strive to do so in the midst of great adversity and personal hardship and travail; and, to my younger brother for his ability and desire to bounce back from tremendous adversity and hardship and to keep his eye on the mark and the important goals while doing so, such that in the end, despite the adversity, he has come off the winner in the eyes of God and those who love him.
Next, I am grateful to and for my ancestors, whose commitment to these same principles have flowed down through the years, and through the blood, and put me in a position to benefit if I will but grasp that opportunity. I am grateful in particular for both sets of my grandparents. They were different in many ways and they came from different backgrounds and cultures, yet all four focused their lives on the same critical goals and taught their children, and their grandchildren, to honor and be committed to God, family and country … particularly this country, the United States of America. As a result of their bloodlines, and the commitment of those who were a part of it, I am honored to be a Son of the American Revolution. I cannot speak of these loved ones who went before without feeling the deepest respect and admiration for their lives and what they wrought. In particular I must send my fondest and most respectful thoughts and wishes to my paternal grandmother, Jewel Darden Head, who was among the most genteel, wise, and steady woman I have ever known and whose patience and commitment to moral principle and virtue blessed all those with whom she came in contact. I am privileged to have known her well and spent some time with her after I reached adulthood and my other grandparents were already beyond this veil, and to have come to know her and take council from her during those, what turned out to be, all too brief visits. I bid her a fond greeting across the veil and though I do not seek to hasten it, yet I look forward to the time when I can be reunited with her and all of my ancestors on the other side of "Jordan" when my time comes to "cross over" … as it will surely come to us all.
I cannot make such a statement of thankfulness as an American without mentioning the third part of the great triad of God, Famil and Country. I am thankful beyond measure to live in a land blessed with the foundational principles of true liberty. Liberty which is based on the absolute recognition of God’s hand, the Creator, in giving us the unalienable rights of life, liberty and free will that serve as the bedrock for this nation. These rights do not derive from any man-made institution, they derive from God. I am thankful for the wise, enlightened patriots who enumerated this to us in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the original Bill of Rights. I am thankful for the words and actions of Patrick Henry, George Washington, Nathaniel Hale, John Paul Jones, Paul Revere, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, John Adams, "Light Horse" Harry Lee and the countless others who set the example and showed through their very life’s deeds how to defend and maintain our liberties. I urge all to read of and understand them, and to read the words and works these men enumerated. I am grateful again for parents who taught me of these things and allowed me to come to an understanding of what Liberty and our nation’s basis and foundation are all about. I am grateful for those original patriots who not only enumerated it, but taught us that those foundational principles were worth fighting for, and sacrificing our very life for to establish and maintain if necessary.I am grateful and thankful that a groing measure of this understanding is still alive in this land today. Though it has been (and is being) severally tested and strained, yet the knowledge and recognition is alive and growing amidst the adversity and designs of those who would destroy it. I pray we are all equal to the task, in both the every-day, sometimes mundane, commitments we must make to vigilantly vouchsafe our liberties, and in whatever more serious efforts we may be called on if necessary to maintain our liberties and our way of life for our children and generations yet unborn.
Finally, I am thankful to have been blessed beyond measure with wonderful friends. People whom the good Lord has brought along in the circle of life who have challenged me, strengthened me, supported me and, in short, befriended me. They are too numerous to mention by name, but I am amazed at the richness of their associations and the impact simple virtue and honor can have, not only on those relationships, but by extrapolation, on the life’s of so many other’s as we each go on in the circle of life and share the results of those interactions and associations. Over the last few years, many of those friends have come by way of my involvement in the issues of the day, and I could not mention them without mentioning the FreeRepublic Web Site. The proprietor there, Jim Robinson has created a modern Ton Square, where people can freely discuss the issues of the day, the threats to American liberty and organize themselves to confront it.
I believe with all my heart that all of these things, though the details may be somewhat different today, are the same principles upon which our founders and the original colonists who came to this land based their hopes and aspirations of liberty upon. They built on those hopes and aspirations through adversity, hardship, struggle, strife, achievement and faith to produce the richest, most free, prosporous and equitable nation on the face of the earth.From this knowledge, I derive simple commitments to dedicate and devote myself to the three foundational entities of God, family and country, and to do so with the principles of virtue, duty and honor in an effort to maintain and restore what they accomplished. I know, in so doing, though I am certainly imperfect and will stumble along the way, yet I know that in striving for it I will be a tool for enriching and bettering the lives of those whom I love … to this I am committed above all else, and for this knowledge, these individuals, these principles … I am thankful as an American.
- Jeff Head
, September 2, 2002
