"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence." Quote From Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
When the TwentyFirst Century began, it didn't start off quietly. It's arrival was preceded by the famous Y2K scenario when everybody thought all the computer systems would crash because of the calendar anomaly, and the Millenial New Year was filled with warnings about terrorist bombings. Then came the attacks on our own soil on September 11, 2001, and the world has been in turmoil ever since with no sign of easing. America is now at war, the global economy is generating changes in nearly every country, our planet's survival appears threatened by global warming from our own activity, and the spread of nuclear weapons is starting to look worrisome!
Now here we are in 2008, and a Presidential election is coming up. This election is a rarity in that the sitting Vice-President of the outgoing administration is not in the running, so the field is literally wide open. This field includes the first Black American and the first woman who are considered truly viable candidates. It is also the first election cycle where the internet is having an extraordinary influence. Most of you have grown up with the internet just as we baby boomers grew up with television. TV however, never offered an individual the opportunities that come with the internet, and you guys seem to be making the most of it.
The 21st Century is going to be a dynamic and challenging one. In the past, younger people tended to not take part in the voting process, but that has changed. Many of you are very aware of the issues and anxious to participate, and that is good news. After all, this century belongs to you! So, to all of you then, a hearty welcome to your future! With that welcome, I would like to say a few things about that future.
Obviously, I am an independent candidate for President, and I want you to consider voting for me. But I don't want to use this space to go over all the issues of this election, the rest of the site explains how I see things. What I do want to say to all of you is that your future is brighter than it might appear sometimes because you are the recipients of an inheritance unmatched in human history. You were born into a nation that was founded upon the principles of inalienable rights and freedoms for each person that no matter what any ruling power says or does, will always be yours! Your one and only obligation is to see to it that no one takes away those rights and freedoms, from you or from your kids or from the generations that will follow.
I am of your parents generation, and we grew up with a lot of material possessions, many of them the result of technological breakthroughs that were developed for World War II. The portable transistor radio allowed us to hear our favorite music wherever we went, and we thought we were doing well with 5 or 6 TV stations to watch. Our parents lived through a time very different from that of us kids. At home entertainment for them was the radio, and for some, even a phonograph. Not every household had a telephone either, and the idea of cell phones, I-Pods, and the internet were the stuff of science fiction movies.
Ok, so maybe now you are asking what the past has to do with the future, and that is what I want to talk to you about. Because material benefits made life much better for us than for our parents, when we got older, we wanted to make your lives better than what we experienced. We really did have good intentions, but we made one big mistake that is now having an effect upon you as well as us. I want to explain to you what I believe that mistake was because how well and in what way we, together, make the necessary corrections, will play a large part in your future. For that reason, it is vitally important that you understand that mistake and share in the decision making process and the election of 2008.
Most of us boomers were not rich kids, but there was a certain sense of entitlement that crept into our thinking. We heard the stories of the Great Depression from our parents and grandparents, but we felt far removed from those times. Nothing like that could happen to us, and when we got older and began to hold the reins of power, we decided to make sure that those hard times would not come again. The best way to do that was to create a large, powerful government that could intervene to stop any hardship and protect the people. The model we used was the so-called New Deal that President Roosevelt initiated during the Depression. This government would, with the best of intentions and led by wise men, develop programs and enact legislation to do for the people what they used to do for themselves. We would be protected from bad economic times, get aid to pay for housing and food or medical attention. In effect, we voted ourselves free benefits paid for by the government, apparently forgetting that the government doesn't have money of its own. Whatever it has it got from us. That idea turned out to be a huge mistake.
Not surprisingly, it doesn't take too long for people to start getting something for nothing, before it becomes expected. In other words, an entitlement. Economically, the times were good and it seemed a sure bet that the federal government would always have enough money to do all these wonderful things. We boomers were doing well and having a great time, and we left the governing of the nation to the politicians. The politicians began to think of more and more things they could do "for the people". Of course they soon began to ask for more money from us to pay for these things they were going to do, and little by little, they got it. After this started happening, the train really went off the track as the politicians started considering how to make an even more perfect society. All of a sudden, there began to creep into the nation laws telling us things we must do, and even some things we would not be allowed to do.
Along with this growing government was a naturally occurring side effect. The two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, began to see this control of the nation as an opportunity to gain even more power. Since we weren't paying attention, they began to move into more opposing partisan positions, and soon, the partisanship began to interfere with real leadership. The two parties were so engaged in partisanship that they failed to notice that they weren't providing solutions. One of the most glaring examples of this is the oil embargo of the 1970's that should have made us aware of the energy crisis to come, but it didn't. The bickering politicians did nothing and that is the reason for our energy problems and the discord in the Middle East today.
Even more important though, than the out of control government spending and lack of leadership is the diminishing of our basic rights and freedoms. I mentioned to you earlier that your one and only obligation is to preserve the freedoms of our birthright for yourselves and future generations. It has now come to the point in our great nation, that the rights of the people are constantly being infringed upon by the government. Your right to own property free from government taking it away is now in danger. Your right to own a gun is under attack by powerful forces. Recent laws passed to regulate political free speech, such as the McCain/Feingold Act are ruled as Constitutional by the Supreme Court and accepted by the elite politicians. Laws are being suggested that will oversee how you raise your children. Moreover, our government has become so powerful and unafraid of the people that they engage in internationalist activities that squander our resources and mortgage the future, the future that belongs to you.
As I stated earlier, you can evaluate these various policy issues on other pages of this website. The point I want to emphasize to you is that our nation cannot remain free if we continue to give more power to the polticians. Every time that we ask the government to do something for us that we can and should do for ourselves, we surrender some more of our rights. Eventually, we will wind up under the control of elite aristocrats who will decide what we can and cannot do to such a point that we will cease to be a free people. We are now dangerously close to that precipice.
The future belongs to you. My generation will have passed on and you will be in the prime of your life. Whether you are a nation of free men and women will be determined by how much power you grant to the government versus how much effort you are willing to expend to retain your freedoms. Once again, I believe that many of you see this situation coming and are therefore anxious to participate in this election to begin a course correction that will preserve the founding principles of the country. Those principles are explicitly defined by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. I urge you to review them if you haven't done so recently.
I also hope you will spend some time on this website to learn how the elites have accrued so much power to themselves. This page only touched on that, and I explain it in much more detail throughout the site. Remember, you are the inheritors of inalienable rights and freedoms, but if you are not vigilant, they can be lost. We boomers made the mistake, but you are our children and we love you very much. We can and must work together to reclaim the birthright of freedom that has been stolen from us. Think about it. Thanks, Joe
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