Richard Pait, Jacksonville City Council, 9/12 Platform

Posted by fl on August 3, 2009 under 9/12 Platform, Inspiration, Updates | 253Be the First to Commenthttp://912candidates.org/fl/2009/08/03/253/Richard+Pait%2C+Jacksonville+City+Council%2C+9%2F12+Platform2009-08-03+14%3A01%3A32fl

Principles & Values                                                        Richard W. Pait

9     Principles

1. America Is Good.

America is defined by her people.  Most people never leave the city they were born in.  I’ve traveled tremendously.  Most of my travels have been throughout the Southeast and South America.  I’ve lived from Washington D.C to Florida.  I’ve had the opportunity to live from San Diego, CA to Charleston, SC and travel from Key West north through upstate New York.  I’ve been straight through the center of the U.S. north through Atlanta, Arkedelphia and to Minneapolis.  Between those travels and 11 years of teaching in 6 schools I can tell you with 100% clarity and conviction; The American People are a great and noble people.  We are generous in our time, money and forgiveness.  The American spirit is healthy, capable, determined and willing to follow impossible dreams if someone would just step up and “boldly go where no one has gone before.”  America just doesn’t want to be lied to.

• America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. ~ Alexis Charles Henri
• America represents something universal in the human spirit. I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, “You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won’t become a German or a Turk.” But then he added, “Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.”Ronald Wilson Reagan
• Simply put, freedom is the absence of government coercion. Our Founding Fathers understood this, and created the least coercive government in the history of the world. The Constitution established a very limited, decentralized government to provide national defense and little else. States, not the federal government, were charged with protecting individuals against criminal force and fraud. For the first time, a government was created solely to protect the rights, liberties, and property of its citizens. Any government coercion beyond that necessary to secure those rights was forbidden, both through the Bill of Rights and the doctrine of strictly enumerated powers. This reflected the founders’ belief that democratic government could be as tyrannical as any King.
  Few Americans understand that all government action is inherently coercive. If nothing else, government action requires taxes. If taxes were freely paid, they wouldn’t be called taxes, they’d be called donations. If we intend to use the word freedom in an honest way, we should have the simple integrity to give it real meaning: Freedom is living without government coercion. So when a politician talks about freedom for this group or that, ask yourself whether he is advocating more government action or less. ~ Ron Paul

2.  I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

 When Moses asked God to tell him His name, so he could tell Pharaoh, God simply said, “I am.”  Not “I was” or “I will be”.  “I am” is the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the end.  God is the architect of life.  He is the redeemer of life.  He is the foundation of freedom and the creator of our Constitution.

I’ve leaned on God’s strength more times in my life than I can count.  It’s easy to rely on God’s strength, peace and comfort in stressful and painful times but how many of us continue to praise Him when the times are great?  That’s the time that should make us trust and rely on Him even more.

• “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” ~ Psa 14:1a
• For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.  1 Th 2:13
• But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. ~ Hbr 11:6
• Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ~ 1 Th 5:16-18

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

 We all lie, everyday.  Let’s just call it what it is.  Whether it’s the smallest ‘untrue’ to protect your loved one’s feelings or the lie you have to tell to keep your job.  A lie is the same as murder in God’s eye.  It’s all sin and sin separates us from Him who loves us.  No one should ever trust anyone in public service.  Anyone in public service should be willing to have their life open to scrutiny and questioning.  Teachers and Postal workers are held to a higher moral standard than politicians yet receive a fraction of the pay.  That just seems odd.

• For all have sinned and fallen from the Glory of God ~ Rom 3:23
• If we say that we have no in, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ~ 1 Jo 1:8
• For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. ~ Ecc 7:20
• “No man has a good enough memory to make him a successful liar” ~ Abraham Lincoln

 4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

 Most people associate the word sacred to do with religion.  As it happens the family unit under government control does have pre-imminent authority under Ancient Israelite and Anglo-Saxon common law, which is what our Constitution is based on.  The 12 tribes of Israel was broken down into 60,000 groups of 10 families.  Moses wanted all the problems settled under the authority of the families.  He also wanted the matter settled as close to the source as possible.  He wanted the families to handle their problems.  Even the Iroquois Indians had a Common Law based on the family unit as the source of ultimate responsibility.

• In truth a family is what you make it. It is made strong, not by number of heads counted at the dinner table, but by the rituals you help family members create, by the memories you share, by the commitment of time, caring, and love you show to one another, and by the hopes for the future you have as individuals and as a unit. ~ Marge Kennedy
• The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy. ~  Sam Levenson
• When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. ~ Mark Twain

 5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

IF only this were true in America today.  I agree with these statements 100%.  The theory is sound on paper but in practice it is an entirely different scenario.  We are finding this out when we elect an adjunct Constitutional Law Professor and lawyer as President who then completely ignores the Constitution with violent spending and nominations of unqualified and unaccountable Czars.  He also nominates people, who don’t pay their taxes to be in charge of collecting taxes!  The political elite class in this country is certainly ‘above the law’ and that has to end.  It can end if we elect the right people with the right moral and constitutional backbones.

• Somebody recently figured out that we have 35 million laws to enforce the Ten Commandments.  ~ Attributed to both Bert Masterson and Earl Wilson
• This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.  ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• The trouble with the laws these days is that criminals know their rights better than their wrongs.
• Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.  ~ Edmund Burke
• It is not a Justice System.  It is just a system.  ~ Bob Enyart
• The United States is a nation of laws:  badly written and randomly enforced.  ~ Frank Zappa

 6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

 My dad used to tell me, “You can have anything you want, you just can’t have everything…choose well.”  I tell all my students, “If you don’t control yourself and then stand up for yourself and what you believe in then someone else will be more than happy to do it for you.  It will be another person, company or government.”  You have to figure out what you want in life.  Prioritize your convictions then follow your passion.  You’ll make what you’re supposed to make as far as income is concerned.  Everyone should have the same opportunity to show up for the same audition.  It doesn’t mean you’re going to make the band.  If you really want it practice more than everyone else.

It’s your life and you can make it whatever you want.  In America you can even have as many chances as you’d like.  I know many people who have gone through the process of losing it all and worked hard to gain their lives back.  It gives you perspective to know that the physical properties we cling to are easily just dust in the wind.  No two people are equal.  I have an identical twin brother.  We are genetically identical yet we were born slightly different.  I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve that required surgery.  If I, as an identical twin, can say we are not physically born equal who can say it’s true?  Our end result is the ultimate compilation of a lifetime of morning choices as we put our feet to the floor.  Who am I going to be today?  Every day we choose our future with that simple question.  How will I treat the least among us? Is the second most important question we ask ourselves as we head out the door.

• All the wars ever fought, All the holocausts ever perpetrated, All the plagues that ever raged, All the bombs that ever dropped, All the famines that ever laid waste to the land, put together, have not killed the number of human beings wiped out by abortion. ~ Father Frank Pavone

 7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

 Government can force us to be charitable.  They do it every day.  We are even so charitable we now fund abortions in other countries.  See how charitable we are?  IF government is going to be in the social services business we have the technology to allow people the ability to allocate where their money is to be directed.  If the government is going to steal money and give it to people at least give us a chance to say to whom it goes.  We have the technology.  It’s called a bubble sheet.  It’s also called transparency.

• The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity there is no excess, neither can angel nor man come in danger by it. ~ Francis Bacon

 8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

Accountability 101.  It is a long lost art in America.  The church I grew up in had a ministry where people had accountability partners.  People who were given express permission to set their partner straight on any subject.  Where has that been lost to?  Political Correctness.  Politeness.  Joe Moore said, “The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.” 

Some people believe in Lao Tzu’s philosophies and the ancient Chinese proverbs of staying quiet and not fighting the natural world.  Lao Tsu taught that all straining, all striving, are not only vain but counterproductive. One should endeavor to do nothing (wu-wei). But what does this mean? It means not to literally do nothing, but to discern and follow the natural forces — to follow and shape the flow of events and not to pit oneself against the natural order of things.  The Taoist sage has no ambitions, therefore he can never fail. He who never fails always succeeds. And he who always succeeds is all- powerful.  Wow.  We have leaders that actually believe this.  We elect these people.  This is a difficult concept to explain to Americans who want to engage in debate. 

I encourage everyone to question everything about people seeking to represent them.  NEVER believe them.  Never believe any of us.  Assume we are all lying to you and question us.  The truth is the truth.  It can handle questioning and debate.  If a leader assumes you are attacking them because you are asking questions about their reasoning or motives then you should start raising red flags immediately.  I’ll give you my opinion.  Sometimes my opinion is wrong, that’s why it’s an opinion and not a fact, Jack.

• The actions of those in power can have enormous consequences – a price that they themselves almost never have to pay. ~ Barack Obama
• It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong. ~ Voltaire
• I’m sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you’re not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we’re Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration. ~ Hillary Rodham Clinton

 9. The government works for the people. The people do not answer to the government, the government answers to the people.

Oh, how I wish this was true in reality and not just a principle on paper.  Our government has been hijacked and bought by Wall Street bankers.  The banks of the Federal Reserve bought this country into slavery in 1913 on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia.  This country was founded by the people and for the people yet we allowed it to become incorporated into a company.  It is no longer a country but a multi-national corporation acting like a country.  Freedom is an illusion for millions of Americans today.  The banks and money lenders are our masters.  It is these groups that we have to place back into their rightful position and retake this country as the leaders.  The will of the people has to become greater than the will of the dollar.  When that happens it will be possible to free our people from the bondage the banks have on us.  The government works for the people but the government works for the banks.  We need the banks to work for the people once again.  That just made me a target.  It’s a good thing I have nothing to lose!  If I die, I die.  Been there before.

• “[The people] are in truth the only legitimate proprietors of the soil and government.” –Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1813.
• “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” –Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776.
• “I am sensible that there are defects in our federal government, yet they are so much lighter than those of monarchies, that I view them with much indulgence. I rely, too, on the good sense of the people for remedy, whereas the evils of monarchical government are beyond remedy.” –Thomas Jefferson to David Ramsay, 1787

 12 Values

1. Honesty

As a teacher I tell my students the same speech every year with few variations or updates.  I tell them, “I give everyone 100% trust day one and it’s yours to lose at your discretion.  You don’t have to do anything to earn it.  It’s a gift from me to you.  I expect to earn your trust and respect but I freely give you my trust without reservation.  Don’t do anything to ruin it.  Once you lose my trust it’s a long and difficult road to earn it back.  That is not a road you want to go down.”  Most kids take that promise seriously and there’s always a few who don’t.  Honesty.  Once lost.  It’s a tough road.

• The people “have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge – I mean of the character and conduct of their rulers.” ~ John Adams
• Teach me how to live, O LORD.  Lead me along the path of honesty, for my enemies are waiting for me to fall. ~ Psa 27:11
• Integrity is telling myself the truth.  And honesty is telling the truth to other people. ~ Spencer Johnson
• No such thing as a man willing to be honest – that would be like a blind man willing to see. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
• I have found that being honest is the best technique I can use.  Right up front, tell people what you’re trying to accomplish and what you’re willing to sacrifice to accomplish it. ~ Lee Iacocca
• “An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
• I am persuaded that in the case of elected officials, the overwhelming temptation is to conclude that it is more important for your constituents that you be reelected than you deal honestly with them. ~ James L. Buckley

 2.  Reverence

 It means Respect, just simple, humble honor given to another.  It’s a deep, unflinching, jaw dropping respect for something other than yourself.  It could be God, a talent, a skill, an art form, an ability, an accomplishment or an event like witnessing the birth of a child.  I’ve stood in awe of many people.  My father, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Bunky Green, Bill Prince, Roger Breland, Jim Henson, George Lucas, Phil Driscoll and just too many others to list.  Musicians who have humbled me in an artistic way that made me proud to be in the same room they were in.  A resounding “Thank you sir, may I have another musical beat down!”  Let me learn from you. I am not worthy.  The second you think you’re good enough…you realize you know nothing.  It’s like that in any industry.  Learn constantly or start slowly dying.

• “In the process of moral decline, reverence is one of the first virtues to disappear, and there should be serious concern about that loss in our times.”  ~ Howard W. Hunter 
• Spend enough time around success and failure, and you learn a reverence for possibility. ~ Dale Dauten
• Let parents bequeath to their children not riches, but the spirit of reverence. ~ Plato
• Reverence for the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.  The rewards of wisdom come to all who obey Him. ~  Psa. 111:10

3. Hope

Hope was the battle mantra shouted by millions of obama’s followers during the elections.  My question was always hope for what.  Finish the sentence.  Some actually answered.  Hope for a better tomorrow.  Hope to get rid of Bush’s policies.  Hope for my family.  Hope for lower taxes.  Hope for relief.  It seemed no one could agree on what they were hoping for.  But they all were sure they were hoping for something to change.  You can have all the hope in the world but if you don’t have the proper discipline to engage that hope, it’s useless energy.

The Definition of discipline does not include corporal punishment to your children.  Discipline means to “To train by instruction and practice, especially to teach self-control to.”  I discipline my students through a method of internal motivation not external discipline like a prison guard or a drill sergeant.  I help the kids find the discipline from within and release that discipline to its full potential.  Once that happens I get out of the way.  They can literally ‘will’ themselves to a much farther place than I could ever command them to go.  I just need to give them the motivation and the tools to do it.

• Discipline your children while there is hope.  If you don’t, you will ruin their lives. ~ Pro 19:18
• “Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.” ~ Ronald Reagan
• LORD, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me. My only hope is in your unfailing love and faithfulness. ~ Psa 40:11
• There are three things that will endure – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love. ~ 1 Cr 13:13

 4.      Thrift

 Stop spending money you don’t have.  Read the bill before you sign it.  Throw away your credit cards unless you are disciplined enough to only use them in emergencies or you pay them off every month.  My wife is the thriftiest person I’ve ever met.  She can go into a store and purchase $30 worth of products for $2.23 because of coupons and buy one get one free offers that she looks for.  But there is an Art to being frugal and thrifty.  You can’t just be frugal.  You have to practice at it.  You have to discipline and organize yourself to that way of thinking.  It can’t just be an occasional hobby, it has to become a way of life and an extension of your complete personality.  Money isn’t a bad thing.  Profit isn’t a dirty word.  People end up thinking that these words are somehow evil.  Greed and extortion for money is wrong.  Doing whatever it takes for money is wrong.  Loving money more than your agenda is wrong.   Earning what you are worth is called capitalism.  Believing you are worth more than you really are is a mental disorder and you need medication.

 “You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.  You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.  You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.  You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.  You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.  You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.  You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.  You cannot establish security on borrowed money.  You cannot build character and courage by taking away men’s initiative and independence.  You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.” ~ William Boetcker 1916

• When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan. ~ Pro 29:2
• Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.  This too is meaningless. ~ Ecc 5:10
• No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money. ~ Mat 6:24
• “They will throw away their money, tossing it away like worthless trash.  It won’t buy their deliverance in that day of the LORD’S anger.  It will neither satisfy nor feed them, for their love of money made them stumble into sin. ~ Eze 7:19
• So they come here pretending to be sincere and sit and sit before you listening.  But they have no intention of doing what I tell them.  They express love with their mouths, but their hearts seek after money. ~ Eze 33:31
• For the love of money is the root of all all kinds of evil.  And some people, craving money, have wandered from faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. ~ 1 Ti 6:10
• Stay away from the love of money; be satisfied with what you have.  For God has said, “I will never fail you.  I will never forsake you.” ~ Hbr 13:5

 5. Humility

I truly despise this word, it means to know where you stand in the ‘pecking order’ order of life.  It’s the ignorant battle cry of class warfare.  I had to learn this lesson the hard way, twice.  The first was from the world’s perspective and the second time through God’s perspective.  The world views humility as a quiet meekness that knows his place and rank in the world.  You don’t boast about your greatness but you let others do it for you.  In order to be humble you have to be humiliated and that sort of thinking is just so wrong on so many levels.  The second chance I got to learn about humility was when I faced my own mortality twice and was given the chance to continue on this earth.  I then realized that without people better than myself I am no better than the person next to me.  I seek out counsel in people I feel are superior to me in many different ways….always.   To me humility means realizing what you don’t know but not being too arrogant and still be receptive and willing to learn all you can. 

How does a trumpet player kill himself?  He climbs up his ego and jumps off.  People have tried to ‘teach me humility’ my entire life not realizing you have to be arrogant to play the trumpet.  A trumpet should never play an uncertain sound.  It is the instrument that calls the armies together.  It’s the bugle call to arms.  It’s the TAPS at the end of the day.  A trumpeter has to be full of confidence and sure of himself and his art.  Some consider this an ego trip.  Humility comes in many forms but one thing I’m most certain of; you cannot look at someone else and decide that that person should be taught humility. 

You cannot teach humility to someone.  It has to be earned.  Humility finds the student when the student is ready to learn.

• “True humility is intelligent self respect which keeps us from thinking too highly or too meanly of ourselves.  It makes us modest by reminding us how far we have come short of what we can be.” ~ Ralph W. Sockman
• Assuredly, Loving Souls, you should go to God with all humility and respect, humbling yourselves in His presence, especially when you remember your past ingratitude and sins. ~ Alphonsus Liguori
• Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation. ~ Saint Augustine
• The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do. ~ John Ruskin
• Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. ~ Pro 29:23
• You younger men, accept the authority of the elders.  And all of you, serve each other in humility, for “God sets himself against the proud, but he shows favor to the humble.” 1 Pe 5:5

 6. Charity

Another word for charity is love.  But charity is love in action.  Charity is a gift freely given by some and reluctantly received by some.  Some people are great givers but horrific receivers.  Unfortunately the way in which we receive charity from someone can either ruin the blessing for the giver or can reinforce the blessing they receive by being a giver.  I have been on the receiving end of charity and I am not a good receiver.  It is a fault of mine.  I am horrible at requesting donations to this campaign.  It is the most difficult portion of this entire dog and pony show.  Asking people for money.  I would rather beg for money to build a music program.  Charity is a two way blessing street; one side for the giver and one for the receiver.  If either engages in charity without a pure motive the blessing becomes cursed and soured.  I would rather teach a man to fish than to just give him some fish.  Education will help a person for the long term only if that person is willing to learn and apply that knowledge.

• “Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.” ~ John D. Rockefeller
• “True charity is the desire to be useful to others without thought of recompense” ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
• I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience; and the last to be more than the first. ~ Rev 2:19

 7. Sincerity

This is the art, or the disciplined practice, of speaking the plain truth regardless of the consequences.  It’s the ability to tell a parent that their child isn’t good enough for a solo in a school play and have the parent thank you for understanding!  It’s the ability to be able to accept criticism because you have earned the right to give criticism through honest and forthright critiques in the past.  It’s the history you’ve developed with people who seek your counsel because they know you will shoot straight with them and not play games or play a part in deceptive tactics.  What you say you, you mean, and you will follow through.  Your word is your bond and it doesn’t require a signature on a piece of paper.

• I have been given the authority over you, and I am not the best of you. If I do well, help me; and if I do wrong, set me right. Sincere regard for truth. ~ Abu Bakr
• If you write songs and if you write music that’s very sincere and very honest, it’s pop music, but it is pop music with a lot of honesty and a lot of heart. ~ Jon Secada
• Not compromising the music, but there is a way, by just showing the people that you’re sincere and honest with what you’re doing, and by talking to them. ~ Chuck Mangione
• Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
• We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have been honest and sincere in all our dealings.  We have depended on God’s grace, no on our own earthly wisdom.  That is how we have acted toward everyone, and especially toward you. ~ 2 Cr 1:12
• But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure.  It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.  It is full of mercy and good deeds.  It shows no partiality and is always sincere. ~ Jam 3:17

8. Moderation

 This is another one of those words I dislike because of the constant word-smithing that takes place.  It means so much too so many people.  To some it means to not try too hard and not to be too successful.  Excess is greed and that’s a sin.  You can actually have too much of a good thing which makes it bad.  To me it means on your journey to your goal of success don’t be in a hurry.  Take life one day at a time.  Take time for your friends and family.  Your job is important but not to the sacrifice of your family’s future.  Don’t worry about tomorrow when today has enough problems of its own.  Moderation as an excuse is a grave fault of character.  Moderation as a temperament to keep from rushing into ideas or situations is an art form I work on daily.  It also means don’t take advantage of the generosity of other people.

•  Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. ~ Barry Goldwater
• “Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.” ~ Thomas Paine
• I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity?  I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice.  On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation.  No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of a ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the resent.  I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD.  The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.
• If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime. ~ Jack Kerouac

 9.  Hard Work

I was raised on hard work on farms in North Carolina and Virginia.  Hard work doesn’t have to mean hard labor it just means you work hard at whatever you do.  As a musician I worked very hard for very long, lonely hours, perfecting a single tone.  Happiness can come from working towards a single goal.  Sincere pleasure and satisfaction can be had when you slave away at a task endlessly to finally see a result that you’re proud of.  Sometimes you fail in the end.  That’s okay too.  Not getting up from the failure is worse than the failure.  The greatest baseball players of all time failed 70% of the time at bat!  The best and most consistent salesmen in the country fail about 75% of the time!  So even with hard work and great effort you can still expect to FAIL MOST of the time! 

If you are looking for happiness in the final product of your labor you will always be disappointed and discouraged.  True happiness comes from the daily effort we entrench into our lives and into the lives of the people we engage with.

• The kind of commitment I find among the best performers across virtually every field is a single-minded passion for what they do, an unwavering desire for excellence in the way they think and the way they work. Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step. ~ Jim Collins
• The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense. ~ Thomas Edison
• Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave. ~ Pro 12:24
• Wealth from get-rich schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows. ~ Pro 13:11
• Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty. ~ Pro 21:5
• Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. ~ Col 3:23

 10. Courage

It’s what the Lion sought and wanted more than anything else; the unique ability to stand his ground with conviction and determination.  The Lion, in The Wizard of Oz, represented the Politicians who were too scared of the bankers influence over the financial industry.  The politicians wanted the money to be backed by the gold or silver ounce, or oz for short.  The Politicians had no backbone because of the depression and feared losing their jobs.  The story was written as an allegory to the economic conditions during the depression and the country’s effort to back money with the troy oz.  Unfortunately, in history, they failed.  In the story, he succeeds and the Wizard (The President) gives the Lion his courage in the Emerald City.  The City represented Washington D.C. and was green to represent the greenback dollar. 

Today’s politics takes more than ordinary courage.  It takes bullet proof, carbon fiber, stainless steel courage of an iron clad will and a determination to engage the other wing of this three headed eagle we call a Republic.  This bird isn’t going to fly right if the two wings don’t start working together.  Not compromising but understanding and working through engagement and debate.  The compromising has to end.

• Ain’t it funny how many hundreds of thousands of soldiers we can recruit with nerve. But we just can’t find one politician in a million with backbone. ~ Will Rogers
• The word ‘politics’ is derived from the word ‘poly’, meaning ‘many’, and the word ‘ticks’, meaning ‘blood sucking parasites’. ~ Larry Hardiman
• Without precise meanings behind words, politicians and elites can obscure reality and condition people to reflexively associate certain words with positive or negative perceptions. In other words, unpleasant facts can be hidden behind purposely meaningless language. ~ Ron Paul
• Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds. ~  Henry Adams
• No wonder our hearts have melted in fear!  No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things.  For the LORD your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below. ~ Jos 2:11

11. Personal Responsibility

Who is to blame?  Who’s at fault?  Who started it?  Who did it first?  All questions not even worth answering.  It always takes two to fight.  If you are fighting or debating yourself and you lose seek medical attention.  You have a disorder.  Someone has to own their life.  If you don’t control yourself somebody or some corporation or government body will be more than happy to control you, for you, on your behalf.  If you are going to accept full responsibilities for everything that goes right in your life then you must be mature enough to accept full responsibility for everything that goes wrong.

I wrote a paper in college about submission in marriage.  I denied that marriage was a 50/50 split in responsibility.  I argued that marriage was a 100/100 split and both partners had to be willing to carry the entire load if the other ‘fell’ and/or got injured during the marriage.  My professor actually argued against it.  My thesis was that in order for a healthy marriage each partner must accept full responsibility for everything in the household.  Dividing the chores and responsibilities does not alleviate that individual from ownership, or stock, in those activities.  We are to support each other in marriage.  Some weeks your spouse is only going to be able to accomplish 40% of their half of their accepted chores.  What happens to the other 10%?  Does the other spouse sit back and say, “It’s not my job?!”  No!  That would be selfish and disrespectful to that person.  We are to carry each other’s burdens.  In sickness and in health, for richer for poorer…etc.

The chances of no one accepting responsibility for someone’s lack of judgment is an opportunity to step up and be a leader to make sure that the right thing gets taken care of, on time, and under budget.  “Never waste a good crisis”….. of bad judgment to do the right thing.  I believe that that is what the liberals in Washington were trying to say but there is no word to translate the concept “right thing” in Washington at this time.

A home improvement company I worked for had a chronic problem of shifting blame.  First to the Project Manager, then to the Project Coordinator, then to the Finance Manager, then to the Warehouse, then to the Factory, then to the Delivery driver, then to the installer, and finally if it was still wrong they actually blamed the homeowner for being too picky and difficult!!!  No one would assume ownership of the customer’s problem and solve the issue.  I was stunned stupid for almost 5 years of the spin and double talk from everyone including the local building inspectors who passed off on siding that was installed upside down!!!  I would take ownership of the worst case problems and raise the devil, or show the homeowner how to reach the right people, until a resolution could be made.  I just never saw a need for it to go that far.  I expected adults to admit mistakes and make it right by all means possible.  Sometimes it was just an apology yet grown men couldn’t muster the courage to just apologize to a widow.  It was sick.

• “The holier-than-thou activists who blame the population for not spending more money on their personal crusades are worse than aggravating. They encourage the repudiation of personal responsibility by spreading the lie that support of a government program fulfills individual moral duty.” ~ Patrick Cox
• “It’s about food. It’s about your home. It’s about your life. The government is worried about all of the above. All I’m saying is you should be worried they’re worried. Here’s why:  They’re telling you that you can’t take care of yourself.  You can’t be trusted with what you put in your mouth or what you sign on the mortgage dotted line.  So they’ll tell you what to put in your mouth and they’ll save you from what you signed on that dotted line.  Does anyone see a trend here? Personal responsibility has now become government responsibility.” ~ Niel Cavuto
• But in this Congress, accountability is just a catch phrase, usually directed elsewhere. Demands to personal responsibility or corporate accountability abound, but rarely congressional accountability or fiscal responsibility. ~ Melissa Bean
• Our responsibility is never to oppose the truth, but to stand for the truth at all times. ~ 2 Cr 13:8
• If your gift is to encourage others, do it!  If you have money, share it generously.  If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.  And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. ~ Rom 12:8

 12.  Gratitude

 This is the gift that makes immortals out of mortals.  This is the art that truly creates Kings among mankind.  If you can truly show a sincere gratitude towards people who serve the cause you fight for they will move mountains and drain oceans for you.  Unfortunately this is truly a lost art in corporate America.  We are but Human Resources left to be recycled and used over and over again as the market dictates our services on demand.  Layoffs and employment fairs abound.  Humans are NOT resources.  Paper, pencils, folders, disposable napkins, toilet paper, soap, paper clips, ink toner are all examples of resources.  Resources are to be used up until there is no longer an inherent worth them then discarded with no thought of where they go.  Human Assets are a different story.  Human Assets are to be invested in and made into the best employees we can get so that will make the company stronger, faster, leaner and brighter. 

 Gratitude is the attitude of being sincerely thankful for what we have not for what we wished we had or thought we had.  Gratitude only exists in the present not the future or the past.  It is the art of existing completely and fully in the moment of now with a full and happy heart.  Not pining for what should have been and not longing for what is to come.  Ebenezer Scrooge learned a great lesson of gratitude from the spirit of Christmas present.

•  “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” ~ Cicero…. And it is something we often lack though it is the easiest to have.
• “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melodie Beattie
• Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; ~ Hbr. 12:28
• No matter what happens, always be thankful, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. ~ 1 The 5:18
• Are any among you suffering?  They should keep on praying about it.  And those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to the Lord. ~ Jam 5:13