I currently display the following bumper sticker on my primary vehicle:
I picked this up over at LibertyStickers. I do agree with the tongue-in-cheek sentiment of this slogan but I realize that I must be careful so as to not be painted into the complete sentiment of LibertyStickers collection of offerings.
After all, the depth of political discourse these days rarely goes beyond superficial. Here is another of their current, and accurate offerings:
“The essence of freedom is the proper limitation of government.”
I came upon this Alan Dershowitz article at another publication but now see that it has been picked up at Frontpagemag. It is a very good article, but I shall particularly critique the title, at least on this version.
The article is titled “The Right to Defend” spoken in the context of Israel’s military action in Gaza. Certainly this is a “right,” and coming from a high-profile lawyer, perhaps this is the term we should expect. However, I will take this one step further.
Israel has something much more compelling than a “right.” Israel has an OBLIGATION to protect its citizens from attack by an agressive and violent entity. This obligation exists on a much higher moral plane than does the issue of what “rights” a sovereign nation has within the construct of some words that might exist within a text of international law.
Over the past several days, many Americans, myself included, are becoming more deeply concerned about the future of America and our place in it. One thing that the election has taught me is that perhaps I have put too much faith in the *enduring* exceptionalism of the character of America. Now, I believe, it is imperative that those of us who treasure the gift of Liberty (a.k.a. Freedom), must begin anew to make the case for policy and leadership that will sustain the gift of liberty.
As one first step, we must recognize that history demonstrates that the liberty that we are accustomed to today, is not a natural occurrence, it is a privilege, it must be nurtured through the application of our character and foundational belief in a moral code much greater than any government could be. These are some of my thoughts about Deserving Liberty.
Over the next few days, I will develop my thoughts on what actions, thoughts, and beliefs we much embrace in order to deserve Liberty - while realizing that those things do not guarantee success in fulfilling our desire.
Seeing that the West is made up of civilized beings of distinguished reason, the enemies of the West are attempting to appeal to our common sense and have asked us to JUST GIVE UP! Should we be surprised at the audacity of this suggestion? No, we should not be surprised. There are several societal factors (social suicidal tendencies) indicating that we do not intend to continue on.
Many Westerners would disagree that they exhibit suicidal tendencies, and instead, are just interested in doing what pleases them, within the “ME” generation. However, the view of an outsider might lead one to a different conclusion.
The self-absorption of the general populations of the West provide indicators that we wish this to be our last generation. Low birth rates, lack of religious conviction, abdication of the raising of children to for-profit and government institutions… and the list goes on.
Are there only a few of us remaining that make daily choices that indicate our vote to the continuance of our civilization?
So, maybe I posted the previous post too soon because here I am writing about an election season topic. This is an adaptation from an email dialog I am having with someone.
The time is upon us when the talking heads will analyze every inch of gossip, every twitch, burp and breaking of wind of each candidate - as if any of those things would really be the prime indicator of which team should be chosen to lead the executive branch.
Since I started paying attention to such things a while ago (years), it has been my conviction that we should do our best to make this selection based on the character of these individuals and here is why: