Dear America,

We can take the kid out of the socialism but we can't take the socialism out of the kid.

We are the product of our parents -- mostly the biological ones -- up until we reach such an age of independence that is...guessing around thirteen...when we slowly meld into the wide, wide world of all others that grow on us, influence us, shift us and mold us into an adult and ultimately carry with us to the end of our days.

Sure, the daughter of a conservative -- who responsibly cared for her every need all the days of her life -- could ultimately blow out of the house and freely leap into some kind of liberal paradigm -- perhaps even go so far as to raise her own children in a commune, live off the land, sing songs, and pretend the rest of the world does not exist -- at least figure they got it all wrong -- holding tight to her new found enlightenment that the rest of us are simply out of touch with the real thing, man -- that peace, love and Woodstock is where it's at -- leaving every shred of evidence of the contrary behind.  It can happen.


ah the rise of the Utopian generation (again... every century has one or two), if everyone could just share everything -- not even to have one more thing more than another -- than the whole world would get along just fine...

Even if this conservative gave the opportunity for his so-called conservative girl to be able to live on a hill overlooking the valley with a pool in the backyard and horses she could ride.  Perhaps, this little girl went through some emotional valleys, feeling a distance from a father who was seriously working all the time -- he may have been reserved when it came to expressing his love for his family -- or it may be that he was just too busy, traveling the globe for reasons of purpose and pleasure, whisking even her mother away at times, leaving her to a babysitter with the rest of her three siblings in the big house on a golden hill in the best neighborhood money could buy. 

Oh, the cruelty, of having pretty much everything you ever needed from a provider who in his day knew no better...  He was just working; doing what he felt he needed to do to earn a living and provide for his family -- and a very good living indeed.  He was just acting as a father to the best of his abilities;  and for the way it was back then, that was defined as how well you kept a job -- usually the same job for thirty or forty years -- and the ability to pay for the needs of your family and accumulate wealth from it.

Yes, admittedly, she was of an age where most women were told to 'just find a nice boy and get married.'  And when she found such a man, everyone was happy in the big house on the golden hill -- that is everyone except her, the end.

America has seen a lot of that in her day -- this girl wasn't the only woman in the world held to the standard that the best place for the woman is in the home, taking care of the children, leaving the bringing home of the bacon to the man of the house. 

But that was then.  This is now, man.

Here we are; America 2010; having a generation or two since the days where women were expected to grow up to be teachers, nurses or better yet, just find a doctor, honey, and get married and make me some grandchildren.

Oh yes, but that poor girl -- that one who was raised right and to the best of her father's abilities -- that poor dear...

Even if this conservative, who she grew to loathe and resent, provided the ability for her to get a college education and even, dare we say, go abroad for schooling at the age of sixteen, allowing her to get a feel for just how wonderful and perfect the Europeans do it...yes, their natural openness and freedom of expression, their beautiful landmarks and countryside, revealing in every nook and cranny a society of culture... refinement yet so chic; dated, yet so cutting edge; heavy heart and history, yet modern and forward thinking and always and often ahead of their time.  Now THEY are people who know where it's at, man.

The thing is, raising children, it's complicated -- and yet again

Raising children to become active, responsible, accountable, charitable, successful, solvent, kind, compassionate, enlightened, learned, appreciative, grounded, honest, good, productive, motivated, ambitious, hard working, happy people just takes work. 

It does not happen naturally or without effort or without our absolute attention -- it takes work.  And by example, even a girl with everything can grow up and take a look back and come away with nothing, even if only in her own mind.

In the macro sense, America has had plenty of time now to grow up -- to expand our horizons, spread our wings, get a taste for the good life and the not so much.  WE have liberated ourselves from a past that only kept us back!  We have seen the light and see that those founding fathers of ours man  -- boy do they have it all wrong...what were they thinkin? 

"A government of laws and not of men"

John Adams

(why, John, do you know something we don't know pray tell?)

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. 

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John again.

(got that right, man)

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary"
James Madison

(his version of utopia, I'm sure,
but knowing full and well it can't be done
-- man is human and to err not so divine)

"Dependence begets subservience and venality,
suffocates the germ of virtue,
and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition" 

Thomas Jefferson

(now that is heavy, man)

"Do not separate text from historical background. 

If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution,

which can only end in a distorted,

bastardized form of illegitimate government."

back to James

"It is much easier to suppress the first desire
than to satisfy those that follow."

Benjamin Franklin

(bend over once...bend over a thousand times)

"It is the working man who is happy,
it is the idle man who is the miserable man" 

Ben again.

"Tell me and I forget.  Teach me and I remember. 
Involve me and I learn."

yet another Ben

"The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness,
only the pursuit of it.

YOU have to catch up with it yourself."

 oh Ben, talk to me...

It is ONLY in America where we have created a system where everyone is raised under the same principles and values set forth by our founding fathers based simply on a limited government and with respect to all that is required to be in community with one another and instill order and freedom for all . 

The age of learned men and reason came to conclusions about how best to raise it's citizens upon thousands of years of teachings, natural laws already divined by the grace of God that were UNIVERSALLY accepted and believed by every citizen, but holding to ONE key ingredient -- the ability for INDIVIDUAL MAN to continue to be of good nature -- virtuous and kind, simple and hardworking, and promote the wherewithal to keep it going one generation after the next.

In this age where "a learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one" (Ben again, and speaking frank), even a PhD does not give someone enough common sense to live by and grow the next generation -- as evident by all the talking heads today.

Hypothetically if we threw out all books and taught our children just one, let it be The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.

Back to the opening line and considering that our own American President was raised by self proclaimed socialists... continued to broaden his family's liberal belief system with a Harvard education (studying Constitutional Law, go figure) ...ultimately teaching others what he learned based on his allegiance to both his parental influences, Utopian ideals, communing with anti-American radicals along the way, and attaching himself more firmly to all paths of social engineering and regulation than to the paths furthering greater independence and principles of freedom...now sits in the highest office of the land --  just how far back is he willing to take us?

The irony really!  You know, being that the very idea of the redistribution of wealth was considered ARCHAIC! in the hearts and minds of Franklin, Madison, Jefferson, Adams, Washington... you know, based on civilizations past -- based on human nature and the laws that bind, naturally.

Isn't it fair then to question our dear young President of his intentions?  A president who by all appearances and actions thus far, clings to an age old wisdom now clearly obsolete --  an unobtainable ideal that isn't even fiscally possible let alone socially acceptable -- by American standards that is. Just how can a society based on unlimited freedom and prosperity for all NOT make any sense to a learned man of such high education and well rounded background?

Unless, he's not exactly well rounded.
Unless, you are missing something. 
Unless, you look upon the work and the efforts of our forefathers with doubt -- ignorant to the deeper message that they teach us -- or that which they stood for, fought for, gave over ever ounce of their being to create the American dream for, that extra-ordinary something that only comes along once in every five thousand years or so.

It was all for you -- you silly girl --

so that you
could sit here today
forgetting any and all value
to that which came before you
before you got here. 

and now that you're here -- you know, that place where you have everything -- you can look out from your ivory tower with every freedom in the world, man, and every need taken care of, effortlessly and without strain... it's so cool... and resent him -- a father who just did the best he could in the day in the life of your childhood

-- leaving you
with the very foundation, with all capabilities and opportunities, for you to go out and make a life for yourself, any way you like it.

It was all for you.
No need to say thank you; but, counting your blessings wouldn't hurt... gotta start somewhere.

Make it a Good Day, G