Monday, December 01, 2003

Reminders of what we must teach our children

"We have failed our children if we have not passed on to them a
realistic perspective of government. We must insure that they know that it is
not okay to raid people's paychecks and steal their property, even if
doing so seems to be in the best interest of society. We must not take
it for granted that our children know the importance of spiritual things
and understand the foundations of traditional morality. We must insure
that they do. Walt Disney would not know the company he founded only a
generation ago. He would roll over in his grave at what those at the
helm of Disney today have made of his dream. Henry Ford would turn away
in disgust at what the Ford Foundation is doing with his fortune. I am
certain that the Founding Fathers would be distressed at the way we have
allowed their carefully constructed, much debated words...twisted so as
to kick God and the Bible out of our schools and to protect the
purveyors of obscenity. They would wonder in disbelief at the income taxes we
allow to be confiscated from our paychecks today and the property that
is stolen without compensation by means of egregious land use
regulations. In their day, they would have hung the government official who told
them that they could not build a deck on the back of their house
without a government permit or could not own a gun without the government's
consent.... Today, 'church going' Walt [Disney] would not even be
welcome to sit on the board of directors of his own company. Today, neither
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, nor James Madison could
be elected to Congress in any of the states from which they hailed two
centuries ago. That's what happens when a generation or two fails to
pass on to their children and those who work under them the values and
traditions that form the very underpinnings of their society. Precious
things slip away, for the price of liberty really is eternal vigilance."
--Bill Sizemore

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