Americanism
NEW JERSEY ELKS ARE GREAT AMERICANS
As the dawn of the 21st century is upon us, we should reflect on the
crucial lessons of the 20th century. We found ourselves plagued by numerous
ism’s: Communism, Fascism and Nazism. Communism promised prosperity, security
and equality but delivered hardship and a freedom equal to the security known
by inmates of our state prisons. Fascism and Nazism promised that in return for
unlimited state power, a paradise on earth. They delivered only death and ruin.
Children have been taught that VOTING = FREEDOM = VOTING. But voting does not
equal freedom. It is a peaceful procedure to register your preference among
thousands for one of a small number of candidates to represent you. The chance
that your vote will decide the outcome is practically zero. You do not pick
your representative as you would pick a job, a house, college or a spouse. Now
let us inject strong property rights into the equation. VOTING + PROPERTY
RIGHTS. In our every day life, we routinely exercise our private property
rights as we make choices that count. If you want a Ford rather than a Chevy,
your choice. What you get among the available options does not depend upon the
choices of others. You get what you want. Not so in elections.
You
get only what the majority of the voting group wants. So what the majority of
the voters want decides every election, each is a slave to the majority, mob
rule. This has to be balanced by strong property rights so that you may
construct and live in a life of your choosing. So we have VOTING + STRONG
PROPERTY RIGHTS = FREEDOM. Freedom to do what? Should we become a Nation of
individuals that declare if one wants to do whatever, they should have the
right to do that? I do not think so as then we would have anarchy, not freedom.
And the last time I checked, Anarchy is not good for children and other living
things. Which brings me to the final equation, VOTING + PROPERTY RIGHTS =
FREEDOM + FOUNDING IDEALS = PATRIOTISM. Patriotism is not Love of Country, if
by “country” you mean scenery – amber waves of grain, purple mountains majesty
etc. Almost every country I know has pretty collections of rocks, water and
stuff that people grow and eat. If that’s what patriotism is all about then
Americans have little that is special or unique.
And
surely, patriotism cannot mean giving your life for a river or a mountain.
Patriotism is not the simple act of waving a flag or pledging allegiance.
Patriotism is rooted in ideas that gave birth to our Country. The same ideas
that our founding fathers put their lives, prosperity and honor on the line for
in 1776. Read the Declaration of Independence again. It’s all there. All men
are created equal. The Creator endowed all Americans with certain unalienable
rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s what almost everyone
who has ever lived on this planet has hungered for. I know that this is an
American view but we are Americans. I do not know how to be patriotic for
Brazil or Iraq. I can only hope that they aspire to similar ideals when they
wax patriotically.
As
Elks, is our duty to keep alive the principals of our Founding Fathers in all
citizens. That is our heritage. This is Patriotism. In Truth and Unity.