Stand Up America!

     When did we become a nation where virtue has been made a slave to the vice of instant gratification and political expediency? When did we become a nation where individual Liberty surrenders itself to the despotism of equality? When did we become a nation where religious bigotry is so much more easily accepted than religious freedom? And when did we become a nation where the ethic of hard work is dishonored by the reverence for slothfulness?
     When did we become a nation that sees the benefit of a prosperous society exemplified by income diversity as an evil to be dispensed with by more centralized power in the federal government? When did we become a nation where political grievance is a substitute for individual responsibility? And when did we become a nation where science is a tool of tyranny used to oppress the soul of Liberty? 
     I say we can be a nation that lives the values of Ozzy and Harriet without the bigotry of Jim Crow. We can be a nation that feeds the better nature of our angels, while starving the temptations of dependence. We can be a nation that honors diversity without allowing our unique American culture to be swallowed by it. We can be a nation where the legitimacy of government lies in its ability to do less, not more.
     We can be a nation that fulfills the charter of Madison, Jefferson, and Franklin instead of the dictates of Marx, Lennon, and Mao. We can be a nation where the measure of a man's worth is in his own accomplishments not in his ability to mitigate the accomplishments of others. We can be a nation that respects the sanctity of religious conscience for the benefit to society that it is. We can be a nation where wisdom is revered above education, and where tolerance is applied equally to all points of view.
     Stand up America! Gain your passage back to what you once were; a beacon of light, a compass of morality, and a vessel of hope to the world. Stand up America! Live free without the encumbrances of a master government. Break those chains and once again make government your servant. Stand up America! Increase the worth of your freedom by devaluing the importance of government in your daily life.
     Stand up America! Save the precious gold of your founding, do not bury it under the unsanctified soil of oppression that shamelessly presents itself as fertile ground for a better society. Stand up America! Heed the admonition of Abraham Lincoln that it is within your grasp to "nobly save or meanly lose this last best hope of man on earth." Stand up America! Stand up America! Stand up America! Because if you do not, who will?