Musings for a Sunday afternoon
Posted by tx on June 28, 2009 under Home Page, Inspiration, US Constitution | 
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I was reading a blog this morning, strangely enough, about a Steve Martin movie. He is not my favorite comedian, in fact he is an actor whom I avoid, even if his movie is the only one playing. The post I was reading was about the movie, “The Jerk” in which the character that Steve Martin portrays, thinks that he is a black man. The author of the post is Jeremy Boreing for Big Hollywood. He writes: “The film revolves around the life of a pale-skinned, white-haired man who firmly believes he is something he is not, despite all evidence to the contrary…..This is, perhaps, one of the most interesting things about human beings: Our unique capacity for deception. Not the deception of others. Most animals are capable of that sort of deceit. No, it is the ability of man to deceive himself that is so remarkable, and not just the ability, but the proclivity to do it.” As the author continued in his post, he began to speak about human nature and eventually about our nation.
When I read and study the Constitution and the Founding Fathers who created this amazing document, I wonder about who these men were. How was it that they were so wise? How were they able to anticipate what would happen in the future and prepare for it? How did they know so much about human nature? How is it that they did not deceive themselves about what they were creating?
The answer to my questions about our Founding Fathers, I believe, lies in their educations. The Founding Fathers read and studied all the important books of Western Civilization. Many of them were self taught, not relying on a professor at an Ivy League college to tell them what to think. They had all led lives of purpose, and many, hard physical labor. They were the sons or grandsons or great-grandsons of immigrants who first settled this land. They were students of history who had seen and experienced forms of government which were either tyrannical or inept. The Founding Fathers were open to new ideas, but not slaves to them, recognizing those which would work from those which would not. They were observers of human nature, understanding much of the how and why of human behavior which they gained from personal experience. They did not wile away their time being entertained and numbed by mindless movies and television shows, but used their brains to think — as men are required by Nature and God to do. When problems arose in their personal lives, they solved them, not waiting or asking for government to solve the problems for them. The Founding Fathers had personal faults, as we all do. But these extraordinary men blamed no one for their failings; they merely dusted themselves off and began again, repeating those steps over and over until they were successful.
Jeremy Boreing writes in the conclusion of his post: “Our Founding Fathers were unique in that they knew their limitations. They didn’t subscribe to the lie that they and all of the rest of mankind were good, but rather took a firm look at the reality of their limitations and sought to create a form of government that considered and could respond to their flaws. It is a form of government that constrains man’s ambition, puts checks on his power over others, but that removes the constraints on man’s potential for growth and self-improvement, and self-betterment both philosophical and financial. It is a form of government that, as has been often said, unlocks the human potential in unimaginable ways, and creates an environment where one man pursuing his own interests can create waves that cause all of the ships on the ocean to rise with him. We ignore their wisdom and self-honesty, and our true nature, at our own risk, for self-governance and self-betterment are not possible for people who do not know themselves truly.” From “lessons from the movies….”.
Did the Founding Fathers realize how great was their accomplishment? They could not fully imagine the immense energy that such a system of government could unleash in its citizens, though they had faith that it would free men to accomplish much. Our Founding Fathers did know that monarchy, dictatorship and even democracy as practiced in ancient Greece were not the answer to the questions which they asked and the problems they were trying to overcome. The Founding Fathers took an amazing and unbelievable leap into the darkness and created the most powerful, most wealthy, most generous and most free nation the world has ever known.
Now, that freedom and that nation these wise men created is under attack from forces within it — the forces of ignorance and greed and laziness and the lust for personal power. The citizens of this nation are the only ones who can correct the evils that have been allowed to grow unchecked within the government and within ourselves. Fixing ourselves begins with the recognition that we are the cause of our problems and only we can fix them – not some one else, not some government agency — us!
Fixing our government will be more difficult. To begin this process, we must find candidates for public office who believe in the Constitution, who subscribe to the principles and values in which our Founders believed, candidates who recognize that unchecked government is a prescription for tyranny. 912candidates is here to help with that task. Join us, won’t you? We must save this remarkable country for our children and all those who come after us. It is a debt, properly owed by us, for all that we have been given.
May God bless America, and may He give each one of us the courage, the strength and the will to repair what has been broken — before it is too late.
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