Do you have to have an anti to go with your pro?

Based on what I've seen and heard over the past few years, I've come up with some pro-anti questions:
Does being pro bacon and eggs make me anti-cereal?
Does being pro automobile make me anti-horse?
Does being pro biscuits and gravy make anti-biscuits and honey?
Does being pro recliner make me anti-sofa?
Does being pro Google make me anti-Yahoo?
Does being pro Coke make me anti-water?
Does being pro chocolate cake make me anti-pecan pie?
Does being pro coffee make me anti-tea?
Do you see where this is going?
Do you see the pathetic silliness in what is being propagandized?

Civics Slap 1

When individual citizens of the United States stop being responsible for their own actions, want to blame society for all of our ills, and demand government do something about it, we will cease being a country of free men as the founders of this democratic republic envisioned. We will, instead, have made ourselves willing slaves of the state. If you understand this and don't see a real problem with it, then you are the worst kind of idiot - one by your own choice - a willful idiot.

A Call to Arms...So to Speak

We just recently celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence that took place 236 years ago. On July 4, 1776, fifty-six men, willing to lose all for the freedom of this country's individuals, signed a document that would be the foundation for all future documents of The United States of America. Here are the first two sentences of the 2^nd paragraph from that document:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Fifty-six men risked life, health, family, wealth...everything for one truth and one truth only - “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This one statement is the very foundation of “The American Dream.” Our forefathers knew that if an environment were established that could protect what every man was given from the very beginning, life, liberty and his pursuit of happiness, every man could achieve his dreams. Every one in the United States has the opportunity to achieve what he wants to and live his life to the fullest with liberty while pursuing happiness.

This Declaration of Independence, along with the continuation and victory of an ongoing war with England, allowed us to break free and “to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

A new country, The United States of America, was formed with a new form of government, a democratic republic, penned and spelled out in a new document, The Constitution of the United States. Our Constitution, coming thirteen years after The Declaration of Independence, was drafted with the idea that the more the liberty of individuals was protected, the better the country would be because countries should be built by individuals full of life, living free, and pursuing what makes their life happy. The Constitution was written intentionally to limit the size of a federal government so that free people could govern themselves more locally in their towns, counties, and states.

So, what has happened in the last 220 or so years. Somewhere along the line we decided to quit governing ourselves (read that we quit being individually responsible) and gave ourselves over to bigger federal government and more restraints on our individual liberties (read that we got lazy, decided to let someone else do it, asked the government to provide for us, and, as a result, had to give up some liberties). This has led to a situation where we have a growing beast of a federal government that keeps growing because we have not figured out how to stop feeding. I have the answer. It is in the next couple of sentences of that 2^nd paragraph of our beloved Declaration:

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.” 
 

Am I proposing an overthrow of our current government. Yes, but not in the sense that you may think. You see, that wonderful Constitution of ours gave us the way to radically change our government. It is called the election process. You change who is making the laws and governing and you change the laws and the government function. Remember a few lines back I suggested that we, as a people, had stopped taking responsibility for ourselves, become lazy, was willing to let someone else do it, and gave up some of our liberty? That has to change. You can no longer sit on your hinder parts and not pay attention to elections, be they local, state, or national. The United States of America is at a crossroads. Where it goes depends on what future direction government takes and that depends on you. Whether you vote or not, you will determine our nation's direction. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness begins with your vote.

Unfortunately, over the last 20 or so years, men and women of character, integrity, experience, knowledge, and faith have not been as willing to run for elected as before. The character assassination that the media and opponents rage against them, their families, their businesses, and their past mistakes very well makes one reluctant to run for office. We seem to be faced with always only voting for the lessor of the two evils. This election, however, I feel like I am in a unique position in that I know more who I am not going to vote for than I am about who I am voting for. Never before have I been more motivated to vote some out than I have to vote some in.

In my opinion, and since this is my blog, I state my opinion, the current executive administration and any elected official supporting the the philosophies and goals of the current administration has to be voted out. I am a Libertarian, not Republican or Democrat. The Democrats have to go. They have already proven, more in the last four years than any other time I know, a blatant disregard for the Constitution as a rock solid, definitive document that is to be adhered to, not ignored, changed, or seen as a document to “grow” with the times. Our democratic republic is under attack and those who want to change it, need to be run out of town on a rail. Am I thoroughly convinced that the Republican candidates will greatly reverse the tide of big government, big spending, and doing what is best for the country. No, but I know they can't be as bad as what we have now. Remember “...it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Here is my plea to you: please learn the candidates and their positions, their histories, and their visions, choose wisely, and vote for those that you think would have willingly risked all and signed the Declaration of Independence had they been around in 1776 and would have voted for The Constitution in 1789.

--Terry Hawkins, July 15, 2012.

No reward, no risk.

It will never, ever be possible for everyone to have equal wealth because not everyone will ever put forth equal effort and risk. You cannot provide for everyone to have equal wealth without confiscatory practice or, as I like to call it, stealing. Taking from those who produce is taking their reward. Giving it to those who don't produce is no reward. Where there is no provision for reward, there is no provision to motivate to produce. Where there is no production there is no wealth. Where there is no wealth, there are no jobs. Remember this - governments are funded by the efforts of others who produce. They cannot produce on their own. If government policies stifle the production of individuals, the revenue to governments decreases and so does their ability to give to non-producers to maintain the folly of equal wealth. What happens when governments are not getting enough from their producers? They take total control and become a slave state with only the elite of government having wealth. The best and most fair of economies are those that are built on the efforts of individuals and the rewards to those individuals, not the dictates of confiscatory governments. You destroy the individual; you destroy the community. You take away the reward and no one will take the risk to produce. Be thankful for free enterprise capitalism on this day of thankfulness.

A majority of our citizenry has become too ignorant and too greedy to make a republic work. They only understand the concept of majority or mob rule. Sadly, a smaller part of our citizenry, that understands this selfish stupidity, is relishing in scheming and planning for their elitist group to rule the dumb masses. They see themselves as being needed to guide the "poor, unfortunate lost souls who cannot fend for themselves." Most unfortunately, we have placed one of these elites in the White House and filled the halls of Congress with them. Most disappointingly, the number of our citizenry who see this transition is growing smaller and smaller...daily. I fear for the future of our Republic. Rather than say God bless America, we should say God save America.

What did you do this Sunday afternoon?

My wife's childhood friend and her husband spent this Sunday afternoon lying in a hospital bed with their 16-year old daughter and telling her good-bye. Not for them to leave her to go home, but for her to leave her body and enter into eternity. She was mortally injured in an ATV accident. Her younger cousin was slightly injured. A fun-filled afternoon of riding all terrain vehicles for two cousins ended tragically. A family is making plans to bury a child, a sister, a grandchild, a niece, a cousin, and a friend. A family is holding onto photographs, memories, and perhaps a favorite item while trying to hold each other together without this young member. Thoughts of what was and could have been are running rampant. Things once deemed very important no longer even matter.

So, what did you do this Sunday afternoon? Did you spend it griping and complaining about something that did or didn't happen at church this morning? Was there a time of talking about someone else to someone else? Was a televised race, golf tournament, or ball game more important than anything the children wanted this afternoon? Did you spend time with work you brought home from the office...again...instead of with the wife or husband? Did you give any thought to what you have rather than thinking about what you don't have? Did you do like me and just enjoy a lazy afternoon not giving any thought to anything?

The human species is a strange being. We have this great capacity for learning from experience and yet, this great capacity for becoming complacent and ignorant to those experiences. On December 23, 2004, my youngest daughter was dying in a pediatrician's office and carried to a hospital emergency room by ambulance. A life flight team from the local children's hospital came in, took over, and rushed her to the ICU at the children's hospital. I remember praying for God to let me trade places. I remember her whole life going through my head. I remember going home and telling her three older sisters that they needed to pray because their youngest sister was at death's door. I remember hugging those three sisters as one and realizing that nothing was more important on this earth than them. I cannot tell you everything that went through my mind in that short afternoon. Thankfully, God let us keep our youngest. She was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic after the pediatrician had made a major misdiagnosis. She is very much alive and active. But, seven years down the road and I find myself sometimes forgetting what is important and what really matters.

Life is short and when it ends at sixteen, it never really got started. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. We are not even guaranteed the rest of the day. Our time on the earth is micro-miniscule compared to the time our bodies spend in the earth. I believe in the afterlife. I believe in a heaven where God reigns. I believe the only way to that heaven is through his son, Jesus Christ by grace alone through faith alone. I believe there is no way for me to enter the presence of God except by acceptance of the free gift of salvation by his Son. You may or may not believe as I do. However, if you are a friend, you matter to me and because you matter to me, I want you to know why I believe as I do and share it with you. If I ask to talk to you about Jesus, it is not because I'm some fanatical bubble headed intellectual simpleton, it is because life is short and you matter to me.

How Do You Know You Are Out Of Milk?

My wife and I were in bed and asleep when a knock on our bedroom door awakened us shortly past midnight.

Before I continue this very informative and groundbreaking discussion, allow me to provide a little background. My youngest daughter (age 12), Skylar, is a Type 1 diabetic. Her blood sugar level can plunge too low just as easily as it can spike too high when she is not careful with her insulin management. When her sugar level is at the bottom level of normal and dropping while she will be sleeping for the night, she needs to eat something that will be long-lasting in her system such as a protein or a dairy product. Now, back to the topic at hand.

As the both of us answered, “Yes?” to the infiltrating disturber of our slumber, Skylar informs us that, “My sugar is 83, dropping, and we are out of milk.” My wife answers, “How can we be out of milk? I just bought some.” Not necessarily the best response to a young master of sarcastic hilarity.

From the mouth of that 12-year old bundle of wisdom came the answer to today’s question, “Okay. Here’s how it works. If the gallon jug is empty and in the trash, you are out of milk.” Needless to say we went back to sleep chuckling after it trickled down from laughter. Oh, we did suggest an alternative to her.