San Diego
|
The Summer Of Our Discontent
by Larry Stirling 7/4/07 |
On this Independence Day, it is worth reflecting on our heritage and (apologies to John Steinbeck) our summer of discontent with each other.
Mathew 12:22 says, " ... Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every house divided against itself shall not stand."
This passage provided the central sentiment of Abraham Lincoln's speech given in June of 1858 at Springfield, Illinois when he accepted the state Republican Party's nomination as its candidate for the U.S. Senate.
"I believe that this government cannot endure half-slave and half-free."
Lincoln didn't win that race and his own law partner attributed his loss to that passage in his talk.
Contributor
Larry
Stirling
Larry
Stirling is a retired judge who authored the book "Leading at a Higher Level." He is a former Army officer, member of the San Diego City Council, the California State Assembly and the State Senate. [go to Stirling index] |
Just two years later, he won the presidency instead. The crisis that he had foreseen immediately plunged the nation into a hugely expensive civil war.
That conflict cost more actual casualties than all of our subsequent wars combined. Compared with today, it would as if we just lost 1 million family members and close friends.
By Independence Day, 1862, war hubris had subsided and bloody reality had set in.
The North had entrusted huge resources to politically well-connected, but otherwise incompetent generals, the outcome of which was inevitable.
Highly motivated Southern warriors and superior generalship allowed the South to punch well above the military weight that its morality, economy and population size should have produced.
On Independence Day 1862, the prospect of Washington, D.C., being taken by Robert E. Lee was real. Had that happened, Britain and France were expected to recognize the Confederate States of America as an independent and forever slave-holding nation.
There were few celebrations on that July 4th as nearly the entire nation's local, state and federal political discussions degenerated, as they have today, over the frustration that accrued because its existing political/military establishment was completely flummoxed by this domestic enemy.
In the North, the Democrats of that day, just as they do today, advocated cutting and running leaving the blacks to their immoral fate aggressively advocating "peace at any price."
The parallels between the Independence days of 1862 and 2007 are substantial and call for a thorough soul-searching re-evaluation by all of us of our values, our competence and most importantly, our will.
"Character is destiny." What is our character?
Are we still the "Land of the free and the home of the brave," or the land of the freeloader and the home of the Copperhead Democrats?
If we cannot get consensus, we will remain a house divided and we will fall.
Once again, we find ourselves up against a determined enemy whose very religion demands its adherents forgo allegiance to any constitutional government such as ours.
Their Qu'ran tells them killing and dying for Allah is their greatest honor.
They are instructed "Allah" wants them to convert, subjugate or kill anyone that disagrees with them.
And while not every Muslim acts on these Quranic injunctions, I hear only a few that dare criticize those Muslims that do. American Muslims are unnervingly silent on the Jihadist slaughter carried out in the name of their faith.
This is a far cry from the Christian Bible that directs its adherents to love their neighbors, turn the other cheek and treat everyone equal.
Muslim Jihadists are proving once again the old rule that slaughter ensues when warrior aggression meets deference.
Just a few days ago, shouting "Allah, Allah," well-educated, middle-class Muslims crashed their bomb-laden car into an airport terminal.
This was just a few days after two car bombs were found in London and traced to English Muslims.
These disgusting displays of nihilism are simply the latest in a 1500-year-old jihad by Islamacists against the rest of the world.
How do we know that? They shout it at us loudly and clearly. Visit any one of their hundreds of Web sites and shiver at their aggression.
A small cult that started out in Mecca now number around 1.3 billion and are presently the governing majority in 46 nations.
This week, top American officials warned of a "Summer Terror Spectacular" in the United States to be executed by murderous Muslims.
Why do we not hear what they say or see what they do? They announce they want to kill Americans; suborn the constitutional government of the United States; enslave the world to the rules of Shariah.
Even so, the current-day Copperhead Democrats in Congress demand we capitulate abandoning millions of innocents to their fates.
We no longer have "Uncle Abraham" to lead us out of this current brawl.
Will we prove the despots right, that self-governing democracies don't work?
Or can we again confirm, as Lincoln did, that democracy " ...(O)f the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth." CRO
copyright
2007 Larry Stirling
|
