“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny.  When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” –Thomas Jefferson

09.12.09 – Some are calling it the beginning of the Second American Revolution.  Yet the hope is (for now at least) that this “revolution” will be fought with words rather than guns; on the battlefield of ideas rather than in bunkers all across the fruited plain.

I, for one, was there – a witness to history.  I’m still trying to figure out the progression of events that led to me to the west lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., at precisely 12:12 p.m. on 09.12.09.  I am a 34 year-old American; a father of 3; a small business owner; and a husband to the most ordinary-in-mind, yet extraordinary-in-thought, woman in the world.  I graduated from a small high school, grinded my way to an undergraduate degree; suffered through 3 long years of law school; lived in Missouri my entire life; and, somehow, someway, on 09.12.09, I found myself there – in our nation’s capital – standing face-to-face with hundreds of thousands of Americans, unified in purpose and message: “Don’t Tread on Me.”

It was amazing; historic; momentous; unbelievable and indescribable.  In fact, at one point during the march from Freedom Plaza to Capitol Hill, I sent out a “tweet” from my phone: “I literally have no words to describe this right now.”  Even now, I’m not sure that I do…or ever will.  And yet, when it was over, and we had returned to our hotel room, anxious to view the “postgame” coverage on all the news channels, it was as if nothing at all had happened.  Feverishly flipping through the cable channels and local news stations to find something – anything – about this unprecedented march, it was as if it had all been a dream, a sweet escape from the realities of the harsh condition which has befallen us.  But, I was there! I witnessed it with my own eyes – the passion, the resolve and the sheer determination of hundreds of thousands of individuals acting as one: “e pluribus unum.”

My first reaction was one of disdain and disappointment: “Here we go again…the ‘mainstream media’ buries another story that doesn’t promote and advance its agenda.”  Disgusted and defeated, I was on the verge of throwing in the towel; but then, the strangest thing happened.  I went to dinner with my wife and met up with some fellow 912 marchers and began to discuss the day’s events.  Before we knew it, others in the restaurant were overhearing our conversations; we were overhearing theirs; the bartender was asking questions about ‘all of these people’ who had invaded his city: “What was this all about?” he asked.  “Let me show you our pictures,” we said.  “Wait a second,” the others replied, “take a look at ours.”  We ate, we drank, we exchanged stories, photos, videos, and before the night was over, people from other tables wanted to join in the conversation.  College football games dominated the televisions; Serena Williams dropped F-Bombs at the U.S. Open; the NFL season was set to kick off the next day; it was Saturday night; and nobody wanted to talk about anything but “this movement.”

The next day (09.13.09), before boarding a plane to head back to Missouri, my wife and I decided to “do the touristy thing” and take in a few sites.  We took the long stroll up to the Lincoln Memorial and spent some time reflecting on our Sixteenth President’s words which are literally engraved in stone on the walls of one of the greatest monuments in the world.  I had been there before.  I had read Lincoln’s words on numerous occasions.  But, on this date – at this moment – these words from his Gettysburg Address jumped out and jolted me:

“that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

I think it was at that moment that my revelation occurred – this is no longer about Democrat vs. Republican; Left vs. Right; Liberal vs. Conservative; or Blue vs. Red.  This is about We the People vs. Them.  This is about liberty vs. tyranny. This is about a “sleeping giant” who has been poked and prodded one too many times by an overreaching, overly intrusive federal government and we…have…had…ENOUGH!  Don’t Tread on Me!

So to all you politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative – in the words of President Obama, “Let me be clear” -

“We the People” are done with broken promises; we are done with bailouts; we are done with so-called “stimulus packages;” we are done with you making a career out of being a politician; we are done with you mortgaging our children’s future in order to buy votes to get re-elected; we are done with you creating one set of rules for us and a different set for you; we are done with you apologizing to the rest of the world for America being America; we are done with you calling us “uneducated,” “uninformed,” and “ignorant;” we are done with you not having to balance your checkbook the same way we have to balance ours; and most importantly, we are done with you pitting us against each other!  At the end of the day, we are all Americans, and we are sick of your games.  We refuse to play.  We will start a new game with our rules.

My revelation is that the revolution has begun.  All of this talk of “hope” and “change” – I have finally come to realize that WE are the HOPE; and we ARE the CHANGE.  We the People are the ones who will give “new birth to freedom.”  No one in Washington can do it – not Barack Obama; not any Democrat; not any Republican; not the media – only us.  You and me.  With each day that passes, Democrats and Republicans are becoming more and more irrelevant.  The “press” is becoming obsolete.  They are being replaced by talk radio, internet bloggers, twitter and other social media outlets.  They (a) think we’re too stupid to figure out on our own what’s really going on; and (b) are only concerned about their own financial security and advancement.  Why do you think they spend so much time looking down their noses and demeaning all of these mediums?  Why do you think they try to ignore hundreds of thousands of Americans converging on our nation’s capital to say “we have had enough”?

I still do not understand the progression of events that led me to Washington on 09.12.09.  I still cannot comprehend the historical significance of what I witnessed.  But I do know this – my wife and I arrived home on Sunday evening, 09.13.09, just in time to kiss our children and put them to bed.  As we walked through the door, my 3 year-old came bursting down the hallway, jumped into my arms and said, “Where were you, daddy?  I missed you!”  I squeezed her tightly and kissed her on the head as I replied, “Mommy and daddy were in Washington, baby.”

“Why were you in Washington, daddy?” she said.

“For you, baby.  For you.”

To view footage of the 912 March on Washington, go to: http://www.politicalmommentary.com

Dear Mr. President:

I write to you today in an attempt to address an ongoing problem which seems to be plaguing your administration and this country as a whole.  This crisis first came to my attention during your historic primary election against (then) Senator Hillary Clinton.  At the time, I assumed that the calamity of which I speak simply was a byproduct of your pandering to the far left-wing of the Democrat faction – a perfectly understandable phenomenon given the fact that you stood virtually no chance of winning that storied contest without capturing the votes of the angry, anti-Bush militants who are firmly ensconced within said faction.  Thus, at that time, I put this emerging crisis into the back of my mind and chalked it up to ‘politics as usual.’

However, after your nomination as the Democrat Presidential candidate, and with the debate which later ensued with your Republican counterpart, it became apparent that your conduct was far more problematic and could no longer be dismissed as the mere musings of an aspiring politician who was seeking to exploit the current political environment for his own gain.

And now, sir, I must confess that, with your speech to the Arab World on June 4, 2009, wherein you confirmed my greatest fears as an American citizen, I simply can no longer stand idly by and watch you dismantle over 230 years of American greatness.  This problem of which I speak, of course, is your absolute refusal to acknowledge the very simple fact that, in this world of ours, there is the undeniable existence of “good” and “evil.”

You see, Mr. President, I am of the (increasingly outdated) belief that the United States stands for all that is “good” in this world.  Despite what you and the “enlightened” members of your faction profess, I – like many of my fellow Americans – still believe that all of us are, in fact, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.  I am also of the belief, sir, that when a nation and its leaders begin to surrender the moral high ground to a bunch of evil – yes, I said it…evil – dictators and terrorists, we surrender along with it our very Americanism.  America is good.  America is just.  America is righteous.  Why can you not acknowledge these very simple tenets?  Any intelligent and honest person who has examined the writings of this nation’s founders and studied the circumstances which led to the birth of our great civilization cannot reasonably deny the influence and the involvement of our Creator in its conception.  Likewise, Mr. President, I shudder at the thought of an America that is considered to be the moral equivalent of those same dictators and terrorists you seem so intent on wooing.  Consider the writings of one of our greatest founders, Thomas Jefferson:

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.”

Mr. President, I, like millions of other Americans, watched your recent speech to the Arab World with great interest.  I hoped and prayed that you (for once) would stand up for me – that you would stand up for America and all that is good and right in this nation.  And I, like millions of other Americans, watched you make apologies for us.  I watched you promise to “seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons.”  As if the holding of nuclear weapons by America was for the same design and purpose of Iran or North Korea holding those same weapons.  I watched you parse words over Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, knowing full well (from Iran’s own statements) that they are pursuing those weapons in order to wipe our greatest ally in the region, Israel, off the map and to intimidate the United States.  And, with unmatched sadness and regret, I watched you marginalize our nation’s suffering and response to one of the greatest tragedies in our history when you said this:

“Nine-eleven was an enormous trauma to our country.  The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals.  We are taking concrete actions to change course.  I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year.”

First of all, Mr. President, by my estimation, there is nothing “contrary to our traditions and our ideals” about defending ourselves from evil acts of terrorism.  Additionally, your insinuation that acts of “torture” were occurring at Guantanamo Bay prior to your taking of the Oath of Office have not only been proven false, but your rhetoric in this regard does nothing more than to lend comfort and credibility to our evil enemies abroad (you know – the ones who would continue to kill us and terrorize our citizens).  In fact, I watched your entire speech and then re-read the transcript, and (oddly enough) did not find one mention of the words “terror,” “terrorism” or “terrorist.”  It was as if the events of September 11, 2001, were nothing more than (to borrow a term from one of your colleagues) an “inconvenient truth” for you.

Thus, it is with great honor and an overwhelming sense of duty that I must inform you that, today, my purpose in life has become much clearer.  For today is the day that I commit myself to restoring my country to its rightful place in my Creator’s design.  I shall educate, inform and convince my fellow Americans that your denial of the existence of “good” and “evil” in this world is not only contrary to the teachings of our Creator, but hazardous to our very existence as a nation.

I leave you, sir, with this:

“God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this.” –Benjamin Franklin

All the Best,

Brent Teichman

You can read more from Brent Teichman at http://BrentTeichman.wordpress.com

Something is happening.  You can just…feel it.  It’s not anything that can be defined or explained or even put into words at this point, but it’s there…and you can feel it.

While the President of the United States is wrapping up his European vacation, fresh off of poo-pooing American ideals and insulting capitalist principles, anger is building across the homeland.  An awakening to the left’s true socialist agenda is beginning to take place.  And a groundswell of support for the idea of American individualism is once again brewing in this nation.  Roughly 2 ½ months into his Presidency, Barack Obama’s approval rating continues to hover right around 60% - a very typical number for any President at this stage of the game.  According to most polls, a majority of Americans purportedly approve of the President and the job that he is doing, but still…it’s there, and you can feel it.

Americans have been in a daze since the end of World War II.  Over that period of time, we have been induced into a semi-cognitive state by our own leaders and left-wing activists, whose overarching goal has been to grow the size of government, making as many people dependent on government as possible, thereby rendering the private sector, charitable organizations and, yes, the family, irrelevant.  Unfortunately, we, as Americans, have been all too willing to follow along sheepishly, not too concerned about where it was that we were ultimately headed.  All we knew was that we were safe and protected from the rest of the world, our economy continued to grow, and our nation prospered as a whole.  And all the while, the subtle march towards socialism continued…

Then came September 11, 2001.  For an ever-so-brief moment, we were suddenly roused from our slumber.  It appeared as though America was poised finally to open our eyes, shake off the drowsiness and awaken once again to the principles that made this the greatest nation in the history of the world.  But alas, in the weeks and months that followed that fateful day, the ensconced forces of collectivism were allowed to weave their way back into the hearts and minds of a dazed and confused populace, creating doubts about our greatness as a nation and our unmatched compassion as a civilization.  Once again, Americans were convinced that it was all just a bad dream and that it was we who were the problem.  So back to sleep we went…total darkness.

And then it happened.  I can’t tell you exactly when or how, but for the first time in my life, I truly began to feel it.  I think it was sometime between Obama’s European tour with his address to the 200,000 swooning Germans in the summer of 2008 and the overnight smear campaign that was kicked into gear in order to destroy the (then) obscure and unknown Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin that following September.  All of it made me a bit fearful – fearful of where we were headed as a civilization.  Then, fear began to turn to frustration, and frustration to anger.  And I began to feel it…burning deep within.  Since that time, it has continued to burn; and with each day that passes, it begins to burn a little brighter and a little hotter.

You see, I believe that America is still the greatest country in the history of the world.  Despite the fact that a majority of our leaders (including our current President) seem hell-bent on apologizing for America, I am not ashamed of the wars that we have won, the lives that we have saved, the civilizations that we have freed from tyranny and oppression or the overall prosperity that we have spread throughout the rest of the world.  What I am ashamed of are the leaders of my country who feel the need to apologize for America being, well…America.  Unfortunately, the majority of Americans, who have now grown up in a nation wherein they have been taught and conditioned to believe that government has (or is) the answer to every problem, continue to follow along that path, sleepwalking into an even darker future.

The good news is that millions of Americans (albeit a minority) are now wide awake and fully aware of the dangerous path upon which we march.  There is a reason that thousands of “tea parties” are springing up all over America.  At last count, the grassroots organization, TEA (which stands for “Taxed Enough Already”) estimates that over 2,000 organized tea parties will occur on “tax day” (April 15^th) alone.  The latest cable news ratings came out last week, and according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News Channel owned all of the top 7 slots.  Fox News now has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined.  Their 3 most “controversial” (mainstream media code for “conservative”) shows – Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck – are the top 3 shows on cable.  No other show on any other network is even close!  Did you realize that Glenn Beck (considered by all to be the most “controversial”) took over the 5:00 p.m. ET timeslot in January, and according to Nielsen, Fox News’ ratings for that timeslot are up over ninety percent from one year ago? Ninety percent!  Conservatives are catching on to the new media outlets.  Sites like Facebook and Twitter are becoming bastions of hope and support for a disenfranchised minority. 

Yes – minority.  We are still a minority – a very large, informed and lethal minority.  But you know what?  That’s all it takes.  The birth of this nation is evidence of that very fact.  Samuel Adams, one of the most influential (although less-widely talked about) “founding fathers” once addressed the concerns of his fellow revolutionaries, who were fearful of the lack of overall support in America for revolution.  It was no secret that only about 40% of Americans were strongly in favor of throwing off the British government and establishing in its place an independent, self-sustaining and limited form of government.  In a letter to his dubious colleagues, Adams simply replied:

“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

Isn’t it amazing – the profound timelessness and stark imagery of the writings of those great Americans who established our nation?  Adams realized then (as is the case now) that real, meaningful change only comes about through the vigilant and relentless actions of an energized and motivated group of people, regardless of size.  So we’re a minority.  So we’re facing the challenge of waking up an entire nation that has been sound asleep for the better half of the last century.  So we’re up against a world full of socialists and fascists who want nothing more than for us to fail.  So what?

Somewhere, somehow, sometime last summer, a brushfire began burning inside of me.  And now it’s my job, and yours, to begin lighting brushfires in the hearts and minds of others.  It’s time to grab our gas cans and our matches and to create as many brushfires as we can.  We need to be pyromaniacs.  We need to build fires.  And soon, we will be a giant, raging inferno all across this nation that cannot be ignored and cannot be extinguished.  Something is happening.  Millions of fires have already been lit…some are just tiny embers or flames which need to be stoked and fanned; and some are furious, rampant wildfires which simply need to be spread.

I can feel it.  Can you?

Something is happening.  You can just…feel it.  It’s not anything that can be defined or explained or even put into words at this point, but it’s there…and you can feel it.

While the President of the United States is off campaigning in Europe, poo-pooing American ideals and insulting capitalist principles, anger is building across the homeland.  An awakening to the left’s true socialist agenda is beginning to take place.  And a groundswell of support for the idea of American individualism is once again brewing in this nation.  Roughly 2 ½ months into his Presidency, Barack Obama’s approval rating continues to hover right around 60% - a very typical number for any President at this stage of the game.  According to most polls, a majority of Americans purportedly approve of the President and the job that he is doing, but still…it’s there, and you can feel it.

Americans have been in a daze since the end of World War II.  Over that period of time, we have been induced into a semi-cognitive state by our own leaders and left-wing activists, whose overarching goal has been to grow the size of government, making as many people dependent on government as possible, thereby rendering the private sector, charitable organizations and, yes, the family, irrelevant.  Unfortunately, we, as Americans, have been all too willing to follow along sheepishly, not too concerned about where it was that we were ultimately headed.  All we knew was that we were safe and protected from the rest of the world, our economy continued to grow, and our nation prospered as a whole.  And all the while, the subtle march towards socialism continued…

Then came September 11, 2001.  For an ever-so-brief moment, we were suddenly roused from our slumber.  It appeared as though America was poised finally to open our eyes, shake off the drowsiness and awaken once again to the principles that made this the greatest nation in the history of the world.  But alas, in the weeks and months that followed that fateful day, the ensconced forces of collectivism were allowed to weave their way back into the hearts and minds of a dazed and confused populace, creating doubts about our greatness as a nation and our unmatched compassion as a civilization.  Once again, Americans were convinced that it was all just a bad dream and that it was we who were the problem.  So back to sleep we went…total darkness.

And then it happened.  I can’t tell you exactly when or how, but for the first time in my life, I truly began to feel it.  I think it was sometime between Obama’s European tour with his address to the 200,000 swooning Germans in the summer of 2008 and the overnight smear campaign that was kicked into gear in order to destroy the (then) obscure and unknown Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin that following September.  All of it made me a bit fearful – fearful of where we were headed as a civilization.  Then, fear began to turn to frustration, and frustration to anger.  And I began to feel it…burning deep within.  Since that time, it has continued to burn; and with each day that passes, it begins to burn a little brighter and a little hotter.

You see, I believe that America is still the greatest country in the history of the world.  Despite the fact that a majority of our leaders (including our current President) seem hell-bent on apologizing for America, I am not ashamed of the wars that we have won, the lives that we have saved, the civilizations that we have freed from tyranny and oppression or the overall prosperity that we have spread throughout the rest of the world.  What I am ashamed of are the leaders of my country who feel the need to apologize for America being, well…America.  Unfortunately, the majority of Americans, who have now grown up in a nation wherein they have been taught and conditioned to believe that government has (or is) the answer to every problem, continue to follow along that path, sleepwalking into an even darker future.

The good news is that millions of Americans (albeit a minority) are now wide awake and fully aware of the dangerous path upon which we march.  There is a reason that thousands of “tea parties” are springing up all over America.  At last count, the grassroots organization, TEA (which stands for “Taxed Enough Already”) estimates that over 2,000 organized tea parties will occur on “tax day” (April 15^th) alone.  The latest cable news ratings came out last week, and according to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News Channel owned all of the top 7 slots.  Fox News now has more viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined.  Their 3 most “controversial” (mainstream media code for “conservative”) shows – Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck – are the top 3 shows on cable.  No other show on any other network is even close!  Did you realize that Glenn Beck (considered by all to be the most “controversial”) took over the 5:00 p.m. ET timeslot in January, and according to Nielsen, Fox News’ ratings for that timeslot are up over ninety percent from one year ago? Ninety percent!  Conservatives are catching on to the new media outlets.  Sites like Facebook and Twitter are becoming bastions of hope and support for a disenfranchised minority. 

Yes – minority.  We are still a minority – a very large, informed and lethal minority.  But you know what?  That’s all it takes.  The birth of this nation is evidence of that very fact.  Samuel Adams, one of the most influential (although less-widely talked about) “founding fathers” once addressed the concerns of his fellow revolutionaries, who were fearful of the lack of overall support in America for revolution.  It was no secret that only about 40% of Americans were strongly in favor of throwing off the British government and establishing in its place an independent, self-sustaining and limited form of government.  In a letter to his dubious colleagues, Adams simply replied:

“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

Isn’t it amazing – the profound timelessness and stark imagery of the writings of those great Americans who established our nation?  Adams realized then (as is the case now) that real, meaningful change only comes about through the vigilant and relentless actions of an energized and motivated group of people, regardless of size.  So we’re a minority.  So we’re facing the challenge of waking up an entire nation that has been sound asleep for the better half of the last century.  So we’re up against a world full of socialists and fascists who want nothing more than for us to fail.  So what?

Somewhere, somehow, sometime last summer, a brushfire began burning inside of me.  And now it’s my job, and yours, to begin lighting brushfires in the hearts and minds of others.  It’s time to grab our gas cans and our matches and to create as many brushfires as we can.  We need to be pyromaniacs.  We need to build fires.  And soon, we will be a giant, raging inferno all across this nation that cannot be ignored and cannot be extinguished.  Something is happening.  Millions of fires have already been lit…some are just tiny embers or flames which need to be stoked and fanned; and some are furious, rampant wildfires which simply need to be spread.

I can feel it.  Can you?

If you’d like to read more, please check out my posts at http://BrentTeichman.wordpress.com

America is going through an identity crisis. No doubt about it. From the election of Barack Hussein Obama, to the imminent adoption of the latest “stimulus package,” to the closing of Gitmo and the “re”-funding of foreign abortions, this great country of ours is at a crossroads. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans seem content to shuffle through their i-pods and update their “My-Space” pages while corrupt politicians (from both ends of the political spectrum) continue to chip away at our individual rights, substituting in their place what they label as acts of “governmental compassion.”

Make no mistake about it, folks…America’s prosperity finally has caught up with us, and we are teetering on the brink of total collapse. You see, unlike most of the civilizations which have risen and fallen before us, America began as a collection of INDIVIDUALS who realized the prudence of establishing a LIMITED form of government in order to protect all of us from foreign enemies who would do us harm. The formation of this country truly was the greatest of all governmental experiments in the history of the world. None of the “Founding Fathers” really knew whether it would work. Fortunately, it has worked so well that America has become the most prosperous nation in history. Unfortunately, it has worked so well that America has become the most prosperous nation in history. Such is the paradox of America–our identity crisis, if you will.

I am convinced that the vast majority of Americans have lost touch with the sense of rugged individualism which was inherent in the minds, bodies and souls of the people who created this nation. Gone are the days of families taking care of their own. When grandma lost her mind in the revolutionary era, do you think that mom and dad signed her up on the government dole and carted her off to a nursing home to be taken care of? When dad lost his job in the Pennsylvania steel factory in the 1850s, did he collect his unemployment check and drag the family down to the welfare office to apply for every type of government assistance that was available? Of course not. Families took care of their own. Churches and religious organizations filled in where there were shortfalls. We certainly did not have a massive, over-intrusive federal government whose raison d’etre was to act as comforter and provider for these families and individuals in need. America, though, has become a country of thumb-suckers and whiners. From the time we are born, we are taught that all of us are ENTITLED to live the “American Dream.” That wonderful rhetoric very rarely is accompanied by a lesson about hard work and sacrifice, the two tenets (and very foundation) of that Dream. No, instead we are taught in public schools (another creation of the almighty federal government) that no one person is greater than another; no successes should be celebrated too much (we don’t want to hurt anyone else’s feelings); and no failures should be scoffed at (again, the “feelings” thing).

Is it really any surprise, then, that we grow into adults who espouse that same type of gut-rot, communist garbage? After all, if a child grows up being taught (and believing) that he has a RIGHT to live in a bigger, more expensive home than his parents; that he has a RIGHT to a job that pays him to take a vacation every year; and that he has a RIGHT to medical care without having to pay for it–how can we reasonably expect that he will one day turn into a rugged individualist? You see, it is a whole lot easier for we human beings to become more dependent than it is for us to become more self-reliant. Unfortunately, our nation’s timeline has born witness to this phenomenon.

Our Founding Fathers feared this and, indeed, warned of it. Any student of American revolutionary history must concede that the writings of Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, et. al. were wrought with cautionary rebukes against allowing an intrusive federal government to control too many aspects of the individual citizens’ lives. Fast forward nearly 250 years and, ironically, this concept now seems as foreign as the enemies those revolutionary Americans were attempting to overthrow. I challenge you to live one day of your life without being directly taxed by our federal government. Do you drive a car? Perhaps you could walk or ride a bike for that day. Don’t smoke a cigarette or have an adult beverage. Don’t watch television or talk on the phone. Don’t mail a letter or log on to the internet. In fact, don’t use any electricity or natural gas. Don’t make any investments in the stock market or allow your savings account to gain interest. And while you’re at it, you may as well stay home from work because a significant portion of those wages will be headed to Washington, too.

The bottom line is that everything our Founding Fathers feared about a unified federal government has come to fruition. Our way of life in this nation has become a vicious cycle of dependency fueled by corrupt politicians who seek to utilize their positions to redistribute wealth to the most needy among us in an effort to garner these individuals’ votes in order to stay in power. With the passage of Obama’s latest “stimulus package,” over 70% of Americans will no longer be paying any federal income taxes. Well that’s a good thing, right? Weren’t you just saying, Brent, that we pay too much in federal taxes? The problem is that the amount of money going into the federal coffers each year continues to rise, outpacing inflation five-fold. That money is then redistributed to various congressional districts throughout the country in the forms of “earmarks” and “pork-barrell” spending. Folks, we are creating a giant welfare state wherein fairly soon NOBODY will appreciate or understand the concepts of hard work and sacrifice. We are becoming firmly ensconced in the idea that government IS the provider and caretaker–for all things. We are becoming more and more dependent upon government. This has a name–it was once known as socialism; apparently, it is becoming the new Americanism.

Do you realize that Obama’s “stimulus package” will require the government to “borrow” about $850 BILLION (that’s BILLION with a “B”) from us–the citizenry. Astoundingly, that is more money than the federal government borrowed from “the folks” during the ENTIRE period that spans from the Revolutionary War until Jimmy Carter’s presidency. For those of you who aren’t very good with history, that’s a period of 200 years. Obama’s budget proposal would double our national deficit in the next 5 years and triple it in the next 10 years! Are you kidding me? If those statistics are not evidence enough that this system is broken, I’m not sure what is.

Our country is going through an indentity crisis. If we don’t figure out who we really are and what we want this nation to be for our children and grandchildren, it will cease to exist as the world’s lone beacon of hope and prosperity for all of its individual citizens. It will be replaced with a giant “nanny-state” where we are told by the almighty federal government what kind of car we can drive, what type of house we can live in and how many children we are allowed to have. I, for one, do not want to subject my children to that type of existence.

Do you ever have one of those moments when you feel as though you have taken a left turn off of the reality super-highway and merged right into the twilight zone?  My moment occurred last Sunday when my wife and I were enjoying our morning coffee and reading the newspaper (if you consider the Kansas City Star a paper containing actual “news,” that is).  The kids, hyped up on chocolate milk and cinnamon rolls, had apparently decided that it was a good opportunity to reenact the final battle scene from The Chronicles of Narnia—I don’t know, all I heard was screaming children and swords hitting the basement walls.  Hey—as any experienced parent will attest, holes in the sheetrock of the basement are a small price to pay for 30 minutes of uninterrupted java consumption and the opportunity to read something other than Dr. Seuss.  My wife, who hates the morning and all of its inconveniences (like sunshine and alarm clocks), was still wiping the sleep out of her eyes and beginning to rev her engines over the editorial headlines.  To this day, I cannot understand why she feels compelled to start her daily newspaper reading experience with the editorial page.  Why not ease into it with the “FYI” section or a good dose of “Travel and Entertainment”?  All was not lost, however, for given her near comatose state, I was able to get away with having ESPN on the television in the background.

As I was perusing Saturday’s box scores and bracing myself for the first “This-woman-is-absolutely-out-of-her-freaking-mind” comment from the other side of the table, I heard this little nugget come flying across the air-waves from the ESPN anchor:  “The U.S. Center for Disease Control released its study this week which shows that 40% of the children born in the United States in 2007 were born out of wedlock.”

WHAT did he just say?

I furiously began sifting through the sections of newspaper strewn about the table, searching for the DVR remote to rewind that clip, certain that I had misunderstood the quote, when I was hit with the next one: “The study also revealed that 71% of African-American children are now born out of wedlock.”

“Did you just hear that?”

“This woman is absolutely out of her freaking mind.”

Never mind…

ESPN (yes, my friends—ESPN) was doing a story on retired NFL running back, Travis Henry, who played for the Buffalo Bills and, most recently, the Denver Broncos.  Henry, who is single and still lives in Denver, apparently decided at some point in his life that it would be a good idea to father NINE children by – count ‘em – NINE different women.  Throughout the course of the interview with Henry, it became apparent that he wants all of us to feel sorry for him due to the fact that his various child support obligations currently total a staggering $17,000 per month.  You see, while he did make in excess of $20 million during his brief NFL career, most of that money is now gone (financial genius), and he simply cannot afford to continue paying child support at that rate.  Thankfully, he did have enough money to go hire himself a lawyer who is in the process of filing numerous motions with the various courts (all over the United States where his children and their respective mothers are located) in an attempt to lower all of these support obligations.  To further complicate Mr. Henry’s life, it appears that, after the ESPN story initially aired, yet another Baby-Mama has surfaced in Florida who claims that she has 2-year old twin daughters by Henry, and she has produced the DNA tests, which now means this thirty-something former African-American sports star will have to grapple with 10 different mamas over the care and support of his 11 kids.  And, oh yes, by the way – he has never been married to any of them.

Look, I’m a practical person.  I understand that the days of chastity belts and virgin brides are long gone.  Heck, my wife was seven months pregnant on our wedding day.  In fact, I am certain that, in this day and age, most of us would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wasn’t having sex with their partner before they were married to that person – except those Duggars (those people are just weird).

Regardless, that’s not really my point here.  During the course of this interview with Travis Henry, I just kept asking myself, “Whatever happened to personal responsibility and holding one’s self accountable for his/her actions?”  I mean, sure, the court system in this particular situation is clearly doing everything it can to force Mr. Henry to be responsible for screwing (apparently) every woman he came into contact with during his professional football career.  But what about Henry holding himself accountable?  Ah yes, wishful thinking, I know.  But is it really?  My point is…why does it have to be wishful thinking?  Why is it too much to expect that an American citizen, regardless of race or circumstance, who lives in the most prosperous and blessed nation in the history of the human race, would want and desire to be a responsible steward of all the riches and blessings which have been bestowed upon him/her?

I am a student of history – American history, in particular.  And I can tell you without hesitation or regret that the type of personal accountability of which I speak used to be the brand and trademark of this nation.  And you know what?  That mindset is what made this the greatest country in the history of the world.  But somewhere along the timeline of history, we lost that mentality.  We, as individuals, have become selfish and arrogant.  I still believe to this day that the ultimate display of that self-centered, narcissistic behavior came to the forefront on January 26, 1998, when our then President stood in front of the American people, looked us in the eye, and with finger wagging, defiantly told us that “[he] did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”  Of course, the weeks and months that followed that fateful day would prove otherwise (depending on which definition of “is” you use), and America would truly would go on to hit the rock bottom of the accountability cesspool.  Unfortunately, we as a nation are still treading water in that cesspool, waiting on someone somewhere to toss us a line.

Fast forward 11 years or so to last Sunday, when I sat there in my kitchen, and learned the story of Travis Henry – the poster-child for personal irresponsibility (is that a word?).  You catch my drift…

I don’t mean to pick on Bill Clinton.  God knows we have hundreds of other public figures that we could utilize as examples of people who our children should be able to look to as a shining example of everything we want our kids to aspire to be, but who fail miserably and leave us trying to explain how or why it is that we are supposed to admire and respect these clowns.  The reason I use the Clinton example is because I really, truly believe that this was the moment not only in my lifetime, but in the history of my country, when true accountability and personal responsibility died.  Bill Bennett wrote an entire book about it called “The Death of Outrage.”  If you have not read it, you should.

While Travis Henry’s story may be an “extreme” example of the self-absorbed, irresponsible culture we have become, the fact is, we have still become a self-absorbed, irresponsible culture.  And until we correct this insidious, outrageous behavior, and once again start living for something and/or someone other than ourselves, then America’s best days are behind her.  I, for one, refuse to believe that our best days are behind us…call it naïve…call it wishful thinking…call it my own version of “the audacity of hope”…call it whatever you want.  All great movements throughout history started with one person.  And my hope lies in knowing that there are millions of us out there who feel the same way.

I realize that, according to President Barack Obama and the Obamamania Media, all things wrong with America can be summed up in these three words: George Walker Bush. If you had any doubts about that particular line of thought after the first sixty days of Obama’s presidency, all you had to do was tune into that snoozer of a press conference he held last week – which, by the way, preempted American Idol, the most popular show on television (smart political move there, dude). I lost count during that press conference of how many times the Prez referred to “this crisis he inherited” or “that problem that was left over from the previous administration.” All right, already…we get it: “Bush=Bad” and “Obama=Savior.” What I have learned from watching Obama and his willing messengers in the press over the past several months is that George W. Bush and his “failed policies” have resulted not only in the current economic “crisis” (both here and abroad), but also in America’s “diminished reputation” around the world, global warming, AIDS, higher rates of STD’s amongst teenagers, increased oil prices, Hurricane Katrina, the California wildfires, and now…(drumroll, please)…that’s right: FAT kids. Sorry. That was incredibly insensitive and politically incorrect of me…what I meant to say was “childhood obesity.”

Did you know that, according to the “Alliance for a Healthier Generation,” we Americans currently are breeding a generation of “fatties” and that George W. Bush is to blame? You already may have known that our kids are getting fatter, but I bet you did not realize that George W. Bush was the primary instigator and perpetrator of this tragedy, did you? Well, according to a report on ESPN’s Outside the Lines (which is a very good show, by the way, and which has now sparked the inspiration for my last two blogs), we are in the midst of what they call the “Critical Mass Crisis: Child Obesity.” This week, Bob Ley, who is the anchorman for Outside the Lines, did a report wherein he examined the “link between child obesity and the de-emphasis of P.E. in schools.” Ley had on, as his guest, some overly concerned lady (I didn’t catch her name, but it is wholly inconsequential to the conversation, I assure you) from the “Alliance for a Healthier Generation.” Brow furrowed, she and Ley went into a prolonged dialogue wherein she attempted to tie the “crisis” (her word) of child obesity to the passage of Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act” of 2001. I’m paraphrasing, but the logic basically goes as such:

1) Bush (by himself apparently and with no assistance from Congress) pushed for and enacted “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) in early 2002.

2) NCLB forced schools to “divert” their attention from critical subjects, such as music, art and Physical Education, in order to focus on what Bush considered to be the “core curriculum” (for those of us in fly-over country, I think that goes back to that Three-“R”s thing).

3) Due to the schools shifting their focus onto core curriculum subjects and the resulting “de-emphasis” on P.E., children got fat.

Folks, I kid you not. This was the line of “logic” being employed by this overly serious and distraught woman from the “Alliance for a Healthier Generation.” To Bob Ley’s credit, he did ask the question, “How big of a role should the parents play here?” Instead of acknowledging that the parents are the only ones who should be playing any role here, Alliance-Babe chose to use the question to blast Bush for defunding after-school basketball programs, etc., and cited the “stripping down” of these programs as further evidence that Bush’s policies will end up killing our children too soon and will make them “the first generation in our history to not live longer than their parents.” Out of sheer curiosity, I “googled” the “Alliance for a Healthier Generation” and discovered that it is a jointly funded effort by the American Heart Association and (another drumroll, please……….) the William J. Clinton Foundation. Hmm…enough said.

Look, I understand the concern here. Clearly, we do not want our children sitting on their duffs all day, playing video games and stuffing their faces full of Cheez-Whiz and Zingers. (There’ll be plenty of time for that when they get to college). And I do not begrudge the “Alliance for a Healthier Generation” or Bill Clinton or anyone else who decides to pick up the mantle for reducing the rate of childhood obesity and creating a bunch of little lean, mean, fighting machines out there. I just don’t know that the public school system is the place to wage this “War on Calories.” I could go on for hours – if not days – about the failures of the public school system. For once, I am not here to lobby for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education (I will save that blog for when I really want to piss people off). Like it or not, we appear to be stuck with the concept of public schools for the time being. Could we all just step back for a moment, though, and consider the possibility of simply utilizing the public school system for its primary purpose – to educate and inform our children? At what point in our history did it become the job of schools and educators to make sure that our children are eating healthy and exercising? I know, I know…we need to educate kids about a broad number of subjects, both intellectually and practically. But when are we going to draw the line here and realize that the public school system cannot be a substitute for the family? It seems to me that this issue of relying on the schools to teach our children about proper eating habits and physical activities is reflective of the broader problem at hand. Newsflash to parents – If you are not going to take the time to teach these types of things to your kids, STOP HAVING THEM. It is not my responsibility to ensure that your child understands the benefits of a proper diet and exercise. Moreover, my fellow citizens and I who do educate our children about such things should not have to continue to subsidize a public school system that is not equipped to handle the type of “cradle-to-grave” care that your child seems to require because of your ineptitudes! (Sorry…I promised I wouldn’t get into that today).

This type of stuff irritates and enrages me. My independent-minded nation has been hijacked by a bunch of spendthrift socialists who are out to convince everybody that they are not capable of providing for themselves and their families. (“You can’t do it without government,” they say). And the most ironic part of it all is that these proponents of “bigger government” advance their cause in the name of “compassion.” Compassion?!?!? There is nothing compassionate about creating a nation full of thumb-suckers and whiners who cannot figure out on their own, without government intervention, that they need to get off their asses and onto a treadmill from time to time! I need some chocolate…

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