I have heard a lot of Americans talk about how hopeless they feel right now. They wonder if they will ever be able to believe again. America put their belief in a president that said he could give them hope, he could bring about a change that would save America. Our hope was betrayed and many of us now simply have sat down, too confused to now how to move forward.

We are losing the freedom to hope, to dream, to believe in something bigger than ourselves. But hope is not lost. We are still Americans! Our parents and our grandparents have seen hard times before. They have fought in world wars and stood in breadlines, waiting for a chance to feed their families. Yet somehow America has prevailed. She has always picked herself up off the floor and pushed forward into the future. Are we going to be the generation that just gives up? Are we going to be the ones to throw in the towel on the American Dream?  What about our children and grandchildren? What will they think of us if we give up?

There are those in our government that will tell us that they know best, that we should simply sit still and wait for them to fix all the world’s problems. They want us to lose hope in ourselves, and put the hope in them. Our President had the right idea when he campaigned on Hope. He knew that was exactly what the American people needed. The issue is that instead of telling us to believe in ourselves, he asked us to let him change the world for us. Our Country was built on the backs of people like you and me. Her past issues were solved not because one charismatic leader swooped in to save the day, but because collectively the American people said, we will survive! Americans strapped on their boots and went to work, they believed in themselves and this gave their children a future to hope for.

Do we have enough faith today to believe, or are we simply resolved to watch our dreams float away? American is still a great land. It is still a place where everyday Americans can take responsibility and move this country forward. Currently, we are cowering under the covers and hoping that our government will scare off the monsters in the closet. But, if there is one thing that I know for sure about the hearts and souls of all Americans, it is that we don’t hide for long.  Our parents and our grandparents chased their own monsters out of the closet, tackled them to the ground, tied them up and then put them behind class at the history museum so that we would not forget that we have the power to do anything. 

Ask yourself today: what kind of American are you? Are you going to continue to believe that hope is gone, or are you going to stand up and realize that hope has not left us? We have been looking for some great leader to show us the way. The problem is that each one of us holds hope in our hands. We must learn to believe in ourselves, to have faith in our American communities, and to look first up to our God and then to our own feet to find the power to tackle our own monsters.  Let us walk together into a strong and meaningful future!

Have you noticed that people seem more stressed lately? Life just is not fun anymore for a lot of us. Granted, with the economy the way it is, I can understand people’s concerns, but I have begun to wonder if there is not something deeper to their current state of gloom.

As I watch and study people’s reactions to the current state of our world, I have noticed something in the hearts of Americans that I have never seen before, and this realization scares me to death! We have become apathetic. For the first time in the history of our country, I am hearing more “I don’t cares” or “I just have to look after myself and my family” or “Sure, I am concerned, but I just don’t have time to worry or get involved”. Simply put, this attitude is un-American. I would even venture to say that it is anti-American.

There is a core freedom that has been stripped from the American population and that freedom is our freedom to care: to care about those around us, to care about our futures, to care about our children’s future. We have bought into the idea that the Government is taking care of us so we don’t have to worry. They will provide for our future; we just need to worry about ourselves. Just in case I am not being clear, let me clarify that I am saying we as Americans have traded in our honor and our sacred privilege to help those around us and we have become selfish. We have decided that being politically correct is more important than simply being correct. We would rather look the other way in the face of opposition than stand on the principles that, for so many generations, have made this country great. We are told that it is wrong for us to share our beliefs, to talk about our views, or to care about politics in general. Do we really believe that? Do we really buy into the fact that in order to be a good American we must stay silent? More importantly, the apathy that we are taught to have at work and at school has caused us to stop looking around for ways to help. Our hearts have hardened for the sake of our jobs or our grades and the result is that we have forgotten what it means to care to the point that to even hear someone have passion raises red flags in our brainwashed minds.

What is this apathy doing to our society? Because we have been told not to care, we don’t know our neighbors. “How are you doing?” has become a greeting rather than a question. We busy ourselves with selfish pursuits, never stopping to ponder the consequences that our lack of caring has upon ourselves and those around us.
We can talk about political change until we’re blue in the face but until we jumpstart our ability to care, change will be impossible. Ultimately our selfish, politically-correct, self-preserving, auto-pilot, “don’t get in my way”, “I can’t wait till the end of the week”, mindset gives no room for progress, and even less room for hope. In the end we are stressed, not because we have too many meetings, not enough money, and too large of a mortgage: we are stressed because we are alone. You don’t care about your neighbor and your neighbor does not even know your name, and that, my friends, is not how we were made to live. Regardless of what pop culture tells us, the important part in life is not how high you climb the ladder. The real meaning of life, of progress, of success, is how many steps we did not take because we stopped to help up the person next to us.

Let’s take back our freedom to care even if it means (yes, I will say the scary word) “sacrificing.

Today everyone most likely knows someone yelling about how America is going down the drain and how we are all going to end up as slaves to the government. There are so many issues out there and it is confusing to figure out exactly what it all means for me as an individual. There are people angry about government healthcare, higher taxes, bank bailouts, gun control laws, federal takeovers of the auto industry, public schools, foreign wars, the failing American dollar, H1N1 virus conspiracies, and the list can go on. If you are like me, you end up getting overwhelmed and start ignoring everything just to keep your sanity. We end up telling ourselves that, although these issues may be important, “they don’t affect me personally and there is nothing I can do about it anyway”.

As you may know by now, this blog is not about dotting lines between special interest groups, corporations, and government officials to create conspiracies. This blog is not about issues. This blog is about us, Americans, our livelihood, our faith, and our ability to maintain our way of life. There are plenty of other sites that will tell you why you should fear the government; read them if you want. This blog represents the bigger picture. Thus, before I can talk about what is at stake, you must understand why it is even in danger. We get bogged down by the multitude of issues surrounding us and it becomes difficult to recognize the real problem. Let’s strip away the issues for just a moment. If we take away all the debates and all the new government programs, we are simply left with people. Herein lays the real issue: I am surrounded every day by individuals yelling at the people in charge of our government. Then, when the government does not accept our directions, we yell louder. We all run around seeing issues everywhere that we must fight off, but below the issues are people, people driving the issues through our lives and into our homes. We must start ignoring the issues and look at the bigger picture. Who is running our government? Do we agree with them? Are they working for us? Has public service begun to mean that the public serves them? If we don’t like the issues coming out of our government, then is it not reasonable to think that it is because of the people within our government? Your congressmen would like you to think that they are fighting for you on the issues that matter, but your congressmen are the government. They make the issues; they direct the course that America is on. We chase after the issues like a dog after a bone, and yes, the government threw the bone. In truth, as Americans we will never agree on all the issues and we end up dividing ourselves because of issues, oddly enough. However, everyone I have talked to from all different walks of life agrees that congress is not representing the people, nor are they following the Constitution. In reality, no amount of issue fighting, protesting, letter writing, or yelling will change that. But the solution is very easy. Vote for different people. Vote for fresh faces. Vote not on issues, but by the integrity of the person running. Let us stop chasing after irrelevant issues and instead turn our attention directly to the source, the people running the government.

Let’s stand up and take back our government by telling our elected officials that they are fired. This is still our right, but this right is at stake. We have begun to believe that the government is too powerful for the people to change it, yet every 2 years the House of Representatives has to be reelected. Every 4 years the Senate must be reelected. We the people have just forgotten what Election Day means. It does not mean that we choose the least of two evils; it means that we protect our right to choose our representatives by voting for people willing to follow the Constitution or we run ourselves. Election Day is not a ritual or a privilege to take for granted it: is our duty. We are losing our right to elect those that we want to see in office, not because of any government conspiracy, but because everyday Americans won’t run for office. We leave the “dirty work” to the very people we say we don’t trust. Perhaps it is time that the everyday American gets their hands dirty. In the end, our freedom to choose good, honest representatives is at stake, merely because the good and honest people (that’s you and me) refuse to stand up. Our inability to govern ourselves has put our country, our faith, and our very lifestyle in grave danger. There is a lot more at stake, a lot more to be lost if We the People do not awaken to the fact that we must take control of our own lives by taking back control of our own government.

In ancient times, invading armies would win wars by surrounding a walled city and trapping the people in their own homes, cutting them off from supplies, water, reinforcements, and safety. The invading army, however, could hold out as long as the needed, easily resupplying and reinforcing their own forces. Eventually, the besieged town would have to make a decision. Though starving and outnumbered, they could make a futile attempt to fight off the invaders or they could lose heart and simply surrender their town, praying for mercy. A well-fortified town could be protected on the inside by a force 1/10 the size of the invading army, but on the other side of the wall, a well-supplied army could simply wait for the town to starve or to bring their smaller forces, in desperation, to an open battle where the larger army would have the advantage. In most cases, a besieged town's only hope was to have gotten out messengers before the town was surrounded. If the messengers could just reach their allies, there could be a victory for the town. This, of course, meant that the towns’ people would have had to see the advancing army well in advance. They would need to have been watching the horizon for distant threats and, once a threat was seen, they would have to take quick and decisive action to save their town.

Today, American Freedom has been besieged. The enemy has completely surrounded it. Because of the Constitution, it is well fortified but it is ill-supplied and desperately under forced. Freedom is strong and it will not back down but the problem is that its allies have lost heart. Freedom sent its messengers but we are too busy to come to its rescue. It would take too much for us to stop our lives a few hours a week to protect Freedom. Perhaps we believe that Freedom is old and antiquated or that if we simply ignore Freedom's call for help, once it is destroyed the enemy will not come after us.

I personally think that Freedom has simply been too easy for our generation. We have not yet had to sacrifice for it, we do not understand life without it, and thus, we cannot comprehend its true importance. We have also become a selfish people. We pass by broken down cars, because we are late for our own meetings. We look the other way when our neighbors need a helping hand, because we have to mow our own lawn. We now ignore the value of life, closing our eyes to everyone but ourselves. Why would we protect Freedom? Why should we? What has it done for us recently?

Where are the good men and women of this country? They are too busy. They don’t want to get involved. They think someone else will take the fight. They think that the threat does not really exist. The battle to protect Freedom will be lost, not because we are lazy or inadequate or unprepared. The battle will be lost simply because no one showed up, because it is easier to believe that the threat does not really exist. It is easier to say that “politics” are just for politicians. It is easier to say that we don’t pick sides. Are we just complacent? I really don’t think so. We simply do not know what is at risk.

The next few posts will help you understand what is at risk. Read them slowly, let the reality sink in, and once you fully understand what we all could lose, I believe that you, as an American will step up to the challenge.