A return to our roots - respect for God, life, each other, and constitutional rights. A respect for knowledge as opposed to just education. (The two do not always go hand-in-hand.) A return of education to teaching math, reading, and objective analysis, without the indoctrination factor. What will this nation look like in the year 2030?
IF this nation takes the prescription, it will be a safer, saner place to be. If not, I hope to be completely senile by then so that I won't see how bad it can be! Why are you a member/user of Free Republic? How does your being here advance your concerns for your nation?
Short answer: Because I was booted off of Lucianne.com :-)
I need someplace to meet with like-minded people. There are few of them here in Madistan, including my FReeper daughter Ellendra. I like the exchange of ideas, especially when all parties keep it civil and avoid the ad hominem attacks that are typical of, ahem, other groups. FReepers bring many things to my attention that would not otherwise appear on my radar, so that I know when something is coming up or already occurred that will affect me and mine.
What is your prescription for this America?
What will this nation look like in the year 2030?
Why are you a member/user of Free Republic? How does your being here advance your concerns for your nation?
1. Teach REAL American History in our schools. A classical education. Use primary sources like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Teach pride in America, American exceptionalism. In fact, if possible, home school. Teach our children about our great country from the time they are born. Meanwhile, conservative kids need to become teachers (hopefully they don’t get indoctrinated in the colleges).
And, most importantly, get God back into our culture. Remember “American will cease to be great when she ceases to be good”. We are seeing that happen.
2. I don’t know what 2030 will look like. It depends on many things. What are we willing to do now to make it the place we want it to be in 2030? What are we willing to do to save our country? I am afraid of what it will be like if we don’t do something now.
3. I am a member of FreeRepublic because it is a port in a storm. It is (usually) a sane place that reminds me, every day, that there are still people out there who love freedom, America and our history. It is my home on the web.
I encourage all who use it regularly to become a monthly donor. We NEED Free Republic!
Simply put, we need fathers, and the fathers will create families.
When the gender roles started to skew, the families fell apart, and the entire experiment failed.
One of the more significant benefits of the baby boom was supposed to be the liberation of women. I think we have enough evidence to conclude we are worse off for women in leadership positions. This is true in both the government and commercial spheres.
It’s too easy to make a ‘heart vs. head’ argument about why they’ve failed pretty miserably in leadership roles (Yep, Thatcher is the modern exception, as is Phyllis Schafly, who wasn’t really appointed or elected).
My guess is that females historically haven’t had the luxury of being able to make clear, uncompromised choices with their lives. That’s probably controversial, but marriages were arranged for a very long time culturally.
In the one-income household, the division of labor was pretty evenly split, as grueling as it was for most everyone involved.
The seeds of the unraveling probably started originally with materialism, and not women’s sufferage.
Rosser Reeves, more than probably anyone else, is the guy who probably wrecked the family.
He created modern TV advertising. More than that, he made the argument to three generations who had fought WWI and WWII that they deserved a better life. You deserved a new car, freedom from headaches, etc. You work hard, as your fathers did, and you deserve to be happy.
One of the ads based on this that you’ll no doubt remember from childhood was from McDonalds:
“You deserve a break today
So go out and get away
To McDonalds
We do it all, for you.”
We started moving from one income families to two income families through the sixties and seventies, and the rest, friends is history in terms of the damage its done to families.
In Boy Scouting, arguably one of the most sigularly formulated programs aimed at the preservation of the nuclear family, started heading downhill precipitously, and then permanently after the death of ‘Den Mothers’.
The role of a Den Mother was to have a weekly meeting in the home of the Den Mother where a Cub Scout Den would meet, say the pledges, oaths, and laws, and then do some activity related to the curriculum. It would end with a snack, maybe a song, and then you did it again next week.
Today, there are very, very few women who have the time to be a Den Mother. Moreover the concept of having a presentable home, with two parents, available for a group of 5 to 8 rowdy boys, complete with snacks is very nearly an insult to modern mothers.
That’s not their jobs anymore. A clean house, the ability to cook, even the idea of being a role model isn’t something most women see as part of their responsibilities as a mother.
The stark thing about the boomers, is that by the time they are gone, there may be very little left of anything. They will have left like locusts leave an autumn wheat field.
It’s not every boomers fault, but no individual raindrop blames itself for the flood either.
*
Be a living example of freedom. Teach the young people the truth. Be patient. There will come a time when the ridiculous pretensions of liberal statism will seem as passe as the pieties of the Prohibition Era and just as destructive. Speak the truth and don't be afraid, and don't be disappointed or frustrated if no one seems to listen.
What will this nation look like in the year 2030?
Unknown. The current American ruling class is incapable of introspection and is going to suck the host dry and then blame the host. That lack of introspection and inability to admit mistakes means that their current collectivist, statist direction will not cease short of something catastrophic. That process takes a great deal of time in a system as immense as the economy and political culture of the United States.
I do see worldwide inflation on the horizon as a result of the money the current administration has injected into the system, and those countries least married to the U.S. dollar are likely to survive the best. We're going to have some serious issues in this country as they fall away. It may be that that sort of regionalism will take place in the United States as well; if it does, the federal government will either fall or be severely crippled. But by 2030? Unknown.
Why are you a member/user of Free Republic? How does your being here advance your concerns for your nation?
I am a member of Free Republic for the reasons outlined in item (1) above - as an American citizen I am not able to make people listen but I am obligated to speak the truth as I see it. That is not a luxury, it is a civic duty. Part of our current ideological difficulties are the result of the advent of mass communications empowering anyone with a microphone to promulgate uninformed opinion - we are taking political advice from actors and rock stars? Free Republic was and remains the cutting edge of the empowerment of those of us who do not enjoy access to mass communication on a professional basis. It is our own microphone. That is why it is so hated.
A single citizen is simply not in a position to turn this gigantic cultural monster in a more positive direction, however endlessly the idiotic mantra of "making a difference" is repeated. We cannot allow that to discourage us from speaking the truth and setting an example. That, an individual citizen can and must do.
Boomer bfl.
Born in ‘47. Guardedly optimistic. If America gets fixed, it will be from the ground up because those who broke it can’t be relied upon to fix it. It may take the watering of that certain tree to make it happen.
I have begun to understand that the “United States” and “America” are two different entities.
The “United States” is a political construct. It has become a pervasive, invasive and occupying force in the lives of “Americans.” The “United States” may well collapse. If so, that collapse will have been brought about by its own suffocating government policies.
“America” will always live on. It is a place of the heart and the mind. It is a land of liberty, sometimes geographical, always with a spiritual component. By other names, it exists in little pockets all around the world. Like dollops of mercury, it finds others like itself, and they meld together. It is currently constricting on the North American continent, but there will be a resurgence; what results may be known by a different name.
To the best of my knowledge, every branch of the “United States” government has an armed element. That is not because that government sees an external enemy. It is because it is alarmed by what it recognizes within its own citizenry. The constant drive to liberty and the burgeoning insistence on control will eventually collide.
Hello Xzins
There is only one of your questions I can answer: Why are you a member of FR?
FR saved what was left of my sanity from destruction.
The story is to personal and painful to share here, but rest assured without Jim’s project I think the internal conflict of belief in the true reality of the world and the left wing bombardment we are subjected too would have caused an eventual implosion of the cortex.
Twenty years of thinking that you must need psychiatric help is not good for the soul.
Three cheers for JR and FR!!
Born in 62, big hair chic from the 80’s.....great job,music,Great President,life was “fun”.....Slept very well back then...It’ll never be like that again...ever.
We have gone from a time when we could do almost anything to a time when we can do almost nothing.
As a child I was responsible for my own safety and behavior. We spent our day outside playing, exercising, growing and learning from experience. We would spend all day at the park or school yard playing tag and tackle football or "work ups" baseball where we learned to compete or accept the fact that we couldn't. Life was good and life was cruel - there was no affirmative action. Disputes were settled the old fashioned way and it didn't take long to learn your place and earn your own acceptance or respect.
What is your prescription for this America?
My prescription for America would be to go back and learn from a system that was productive, fair and capable of producing great leaders and citizens. Send our children to church, hold them accountable for their behavior, reward achievement, not intentions and BRING BACK THE DRAFT! Unfortunately, I don't believe we will ever see times like that again.
What will this nation look like in the year 2030?Our This country is past the point of return now that more people vote for a living than work for a living. It is changing everyday and it's changing fast. If we were put into suspended animation today and brought back in 2030 I don't believe we would recognize the nation that will replace the America we once knew and loved. A look at network television or previews at the theater will tell you that our moral values have eroded to the point that respect for life, compassion for others and concern for the future are throw away lines at best.
As violence increases and unemployment lines grow longer, people will be easy targets for government manipulation and I fear that in larger numbers they will willingly give up their freedom for tokens of security such as welfare benefits, food stamps, subsidized housing and even free birth control pills to aid their slide into moral depravity.
Why are you a member/user of Free Republic? How does your being here advance your concerns for your nation?
I am a member here because it is where I scan the news every day and where I can reaffirm that there are others I feel comfortable with as neighbors and friends, even though it is only on line. My concerns for the demise of America are advanced here in part because the people using this site tend to be realists. We disagree on different issues, but we have the same mutual goal - one that I am afraid we will never realize.
I thought they were dead.