Don't Tread On Me

"Oh beautiful for spacious skies...but now those skies are threatening" sung Eagle great Don Henley in his song "End of the Innocence." I find those words highly appropriate to brood given the date of this blog entry & the distress our nation currently faces internally & abroad.

Tonight after enjoying a grand fireworks display with the fam, I noticed an older gentleman's shirt in the massive sea of people slowly exiting the park. It was bright red with yellow lettering (hard to miss). The caption on the front read... "CHANGE." The "C" in the word "change" consisted of the all too familiar haunting hammer & sickle symbol we saw for decades on the Soviet Union flag. Regardless your political convictions, you would be hard pressed to deny change has indeed come to America, just as promised.

I realize it is human nature to pin blame on those in or seeking leadership (be it the leader of the free world, to the CEO of a major company, right down to the small town pastor in the tiny rural community struggling to keep the church doors open & electric bills paid). Easy targets they are. So if you don't enjoy the sight of your own blood, avoid any form of leadership at all costs.

That being acknowledged, clearly, we are in uncharted waters.

Take just a moment & reflect on a handful of values YOU believe made this nation great. Now ask yourself if our current trajectory will afford those values you listed the proper environment to sustain, grow & thrive. If you answered "yes,'' then rest well. All will be fine. But if there is any room for doubt, education is the answer.

Start by making yourself comfortably uncomfortable. How? Listen to those with opposing views. Discover why you believe what you believe & be able to defend it. Be a student of American history. And whatever the cost gather your source of news from multiple, multiple (& did I mention multiple?) sources. Then draw YOUR OWN conclusions (like a certain cable news station with phenomenal ratings reiterates daily if not hourly). Finally, don't be afraid if you find your viewpoints unpopular. Have courage, take heart & be not afraid to go it alone. To quote my father-in-law "Nothing hard is ever easy." (ha!) Besides, running with the uninformed, uneducated crowd is not only costly, but entirely overrated!

Demand honesty, integrity, transparency, & only the sharpest, creative minds to lead this nation our founding fathers dreamed up 233 years ago this day in that hot & stuffy room in downtown Philly.

What are you prepared to do?

"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

-Thomas Jefferson, July 4th, 1776 (final draft) ;-)