INDEPENDENCE IS NOT A DAY

It's only appropriate to give thanks for our freedom on this past Canada day in Canada and The Fourth of July in America by contemplating our liberty. Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.” 

The meaning of the word for ‘Crisis’ in Chinese is 'Opportunity'.  Many people feel that western civilization is on the edge of a freedom crisis.  How we respond today may determine how the next generation lives tomorrow. It is advantageous to respect our past history and learn from the great minds who went before us.  The LIFE business subscriptions have made a wealth of knowledge available under the 'Freedom' genre .  A great example is the Oliver DeMille CD called ‘Freedom Matters’.  With the apparent shortage of leaders in the government sector, leaders from the private sector need to fill the gap. We can increase the knowledge from the LIFE subscriptions by developing communities using the Team system.

Read the following words from the ‘Declaration of Independence’ and think about how far western culture has deviated from it's principles. “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,[76] 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. 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”.

John Adams said, “The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people….This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.”  Have we lost the principles, opinions, and sentiments of a free people?  Have you seen the erosion of your liberties? Read those words and contemplate what the role of the ‘progressives’, (who believe in ‘big ‘government’ and ‘social engineering’) has done to us and our liberties. 

Some are thinking that we are becoming a nation dependent on government entitlements.  According to Matthew Spalding in his book ‘We Still Hold These Truths’, “The new progressive view rejected outright the very idea, at the heart of the Founders’ way of thinking.  The progressives held that there were no fixed truths- certainly no objective or unchanging standards of right to guide politics.  All truth claims are contingent, merely personal “values” relative to other equally valid claims.  It made no sense to say anything was a “self evident” truth.  This relativist view renders meaningless the whole American political tradition.”  This means that ideas of the past are relevant only to the past. Liberty was no longer a condition consistent with human nature and an exercise of God – given natural rights but an evolving concept to be achieved and socially constructed. In this new conception of the state, government is unlimited, subject only to perceived wants of the popular will, under the forward looking guidance of progressive leadership.  One of the founders of the progressive movement,  Woodrow Wilson wrote, “ In fundamental theory socialism and democracy are almost if not quite one and the same.”  This flies in the face of what great historian Thomas Babington Macaulay felt.  He insisted that people thrive when they are free.  He insisted that government intervention would make millions miserable --- and it has.

If you believe that the classically educated founders of America had the character and a working knowledge of how to apply principles of liberty, then dig deep into history.  I can think of no better way than to attend the LIFE leadership and personal development convention in July and hear top ten world's leadership guru and best selling author Orrin Woodward and educator, historian, and author Oliver DeMille.

People of character and principle believe that what is right and true doesn't change because of popular opinion. Perhaps James Montgomery Boice sums it up best with these words, “There are few things more characteristic of our age than this. At no time in the history of the world have more things been known by more people.  Education is a major industry.  Yet, at no time have people seemed more to lack understanding.  Millions do not even know who they are, let alone why they are, or what they are doing."  Or, we can learn from great minds like 

Jonathan Edwards who was a Christian preacher and theologian. Edwards is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian.

 

 

en.wikipedia.org

Test out the LIFE business products and see if the words of Jonathan Edwards ring true,  “Knowledge is pleasant and delightful to intelligent creatures”, or as Proverbs 2:10 says, “When wisdom entereth the heart, knowledge is pleasant to the soul.” I’m looking forward to learning what Oliver DeMille, Orrin Woodward, and the rest of the Policy Counsel will teach us at the July conventions. Come join the quest to preserve liberty. God Bless,   George Guzzardo