Posted on 02/23/2009 5:53:43 PM PST by Kaslin
An increasing number of recent letters and e-mails from readers strike a note, not only of unhappiness with the way things are going in our society, but a note of despair.
Those of us who are pessimists are only a step away from despair ourselves, so we may not be the ones to offer the best antidote to the view that America has seen its best days and is degenerating toward what may well be its worst. Yet what hope remains is no less precious nor any less worthy of being preserved.
First of all, the day-to-day life of most Americans in these times is nowhere near as dire as that of the band of cold, ragged and hungry men who gathered around George Washington in the winter at Valley Forge, to which they had been driven by defeat after defeat.
Only the most reckless gambler would have bet on them to win. Only an optimist would have expected them to survive.
Against the background of those and other desperate times that this country has been through, we cannot whine today because the stocks in our pension plans have gone down or the inflated value that our houses had just a few years ago has now evaporated.
In another sense, however, looming ahead of us — and our children and their children — are dangers that can utterly destroy American society. Worse yet, there are moral corrosions within ourselves that weaken our ability to face the challenges ahead.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Hey, America had a good run. But the mob is at the gates and its leader in the White House.
The barbarians are within, not just at the gates.
tcrlaf, I think the quote you posted on the Jim Quinn thread is appropriate here?
“This quote explains EVERYTHING that Obama is trying to do:”
“Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive,
affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people.
They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost,
so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future.
This acceptance is the reformation essential to any Socialist revolution.
-Fyodor DOSTOYEVSKY
Barbarians never overthrow civilisations; they only inherit the decaying remnants when the denizens of an exhausted civilisation no longer have the self-respect to challenge the barbarians for control.
None of these stupid plans is going to work. The house of cards can not stop falling. We are going to rock bottom. Only then can we rebuild. Denial will make it worse.
Exactly!
ping
All indications point to a brown shirt movement (ACORN) that Obama and his ilk want to use to take over the political process. Do you want them to win? We lose when we quit. I am not a quitter. I am an American. Americans are not quitters. Are you?
The only hope is to cut government spending, not increase it.
#5 is more correct
A 90% cut and cancellation of all welfare oughta do the trick. Elimination of income based taxation and all government agencys. The problem is government.
Yes but they were doing something, and they believed it better to die trying than to submit to tyranny.
Today, we submit. We pay our taxes no matter how grievous, and without that money the government could not oppress us.
Sanction of the victims, Rand called it.
What despair when a poll today (another thread) shows most Americans support the Indonesian’s so-called plan, when some doofus on Free Republic proclaims everything is hunky dory because 90% of Americans are employed, when there are 800 posts on a Oscars thread here, worshipful of the same Hollywood that is undermining our morals? My, your despair or the despair of the Wall Street traders doesn’t count for a bag of beans.
:-)
Winter life wasn't much harder for most Americans than Valley Forge.
They had the satisfaction, if not pleasure, of killing Royal troops.
They could always head west a few hundred miles, and fairly easily, start again.
So true.
If America is Rome, what year of the Roman Empire is it?
Ouch. Well, I don't think it's quite over, yet. As is evidenced by our current military, there are still those who are willing to lay their lives on the line.
A lot of this will depend on them. If a large portion of our military decides to do what they're told (which I'm afraid will be to put down rebellion [against this evil that is gestating]), it's gonna be a rough ride.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2136635/posts
“Are you looking for a job?”
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