The founding of our country should be a lesson for all of us, but unfortunately it is not. In America's battle for independence people longing for liberty and self determination risked their lives, their property and their eventual freedom to fight for those God given rights that all men are born to.

They went up against the most powerful nation in the world and endured endured extreme odds in their fight to be free. When they were finally victorious and essentially placed themselves on the verge of becoming the most powerful and prosperous nation the world had known, they did what no nation on earth had ever done before; they wrote and adopted a constitution denying themselves power.

Rather than live by this inspiring example, our country seems willing to give it all up to serve politicians who have taken citizen service and disgraced the ideals expressed in our Constitution in order to create power and wealth for themselves.

I was raised with the simple ethic handed down to me by parents who had lived through the great depression:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".

Now I see a world gone crazy and an America that is neglecting its responsibility as a stabilizing force for good. I believe basic truths should be taught in grade school that would serve our coming generation much better than lessons about man made global warming.

"A man's admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him." -- Alexis de Tocqueville

"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not... the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army ... Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms."
(From a speech by Abe Lincoln at Edwardsville, IL September 11, 1858)

...and now we've come to this-