Choose Your Values Carefully

By Greg Hoffman

Let’s go back a few hundred years and ask a simple question. Why would fathers and mothers take their kids leave their homes, friends, family and country, get on a rickety over crowded wooden boat with hideous sanitation, stale water and rotten food and take a perilous journey that could last for months to an unknown land in which they had to forge a new life with nothing but brute strength and their iron will, facing starvation, disease and Indians and knowing that their chances of survival was brutally low? 

Simply put, Freedom and Liberty were more important to them than life itself.

Let’s ask another question.   Why did George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, Samuel Adams as well as the rest of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor for a cause that by all rights was impossible and was likely to end with a hangman’s noose? 

Simply put, Freedom and Liberty were more important to them than life itself.

Why did thousands of Colonists line up on the battlefield opposite the best trained army in the world and exchange musket fire?

Simply put, Freedom and Liberty were more important to them than life itself.

Throughout this nation’s history men and women have risked their lives and personal property because they valued Freedom and Liberty. Freedom and Liberty were their core values. It is why Americans crossed the Atlantic Ocean, Smokey Mountains, Mississippi River and ultimately the Rocky Mountains to forge a nation out of the wilderness. It is why they braved the unknown, brutal winters, starvation, disease and possible Indian attacks. But these are not our core values anymore. America has a new value, namely Security. America wants the guarantee of a comfortable life, the guarantee of an income, freedom from failure, medical care and retirement.   Security is our new core value. This is what is driving the current health care debate. This is the driving force of the welfare state. This is why we have deficits that are going to collapse our economy, this is why unemployment is close to 10% and this is what is driving us towards socialism.   Freedom and Liberty are meaningless values to this generation and too many are willing to trade those values for the guarantee of security.

Those that value freedom and liberty are what made this country great. They are the ones that created this nation out of the wilderness. They built cities in the wilderness, created the transcontinental railroad, built industries, and invented most everything we take for granted.   They cleared and cultivated millions of acres of land to make this country the breadbasket of the world. They fought for freedom and liberty for the slaves and at times for those in foreign lands. They fought for this country in times of need and many lost their lives. They were the risk takers. They believed in the Free Market and Capitalism.    They believed in personal responsibility.  They were not afraid to fail and they certainly were not looking for the government as their safety net. They depended on their own ingenuity, strength, courage, neighbors and faith in God. They understood that freedom was a gift from their Creator and they derived their core values and moral strength and courage from that same Creator.   They were a strong people that are often maligned by those today who believe security is more important than Freedom and Liberty. 

In contrast, those that value security will sacrifice freedom and liberty for themselves and others. They do not take chances, do not create, and despise those that do.  They are afraid of failure. They despise the Free Market and Capitalism heaping insults and threats on those that make a profit. (A really bad word to them) They will not defend the rights of others especially those that have worked hard to make it in this life. They despise personal responsibility and continue to blame all of their woes on others. They want their health care and they want it now!  They want their fair share without earning it.  They want their government check and now! They want a guarantee that they will not be laid off. They want a guaranteed retirement. Their chief value is security and political elitist cultivate, encourage and propagate such destructive values for their own political and financial gain.    Both parties do this, some to a greater or lesser extent.

If security were the chief value of those that came here from Europe and Asia, they would have never left.   If security was the chief value of those that signed the Declaration of Independence that document would have never been written. If security were their chief value slavery would still be a part of this nation’s social fabric.   

My question is simple. What is it that you value most, Freedom and Liberty or security? If our chief value is security we are doomed to mediocrity and we will continue to lose the Freedom and Liberty that so many before us fought and died for.  

What has happened to us? How is it that we went from being a self-reliant, strong, proactive, people that celebrated success to being a group of whiners, afraid of failure and demanding that all of our needs be met by those that are successful?

The Democratic Party and to perhaps a slightly lesser extent the Republican Party have both pandered to those who value security over Freedom and Liberty. They have preyed upon the fear of failure. They have given lip service to Freedom and Liberty but actions, legislation and deficits speak louder than words. But we are at fault for we keep voting them into office. “Ask not what your Country can do for you but what you can do for your Country” has become “what must my Country do for me.” How pitiful a people we have become?

Self reliance, innovation, investment, personal responsibility, productivity, Capitalism, Free Market, these all stem from the values of Freedom and Liberty. Poverty, fear of failure, dependence and class envy arise from the value of security. 

Forget Democrat or Republican. This is a battle between Conservatives who value Freedom and Liberty and Liberals (Progressives, Socialists) who value security. Liberals, progressives, socialists and even Marxists, Fascists and Communists are all closely related philosophies which promise security to their people but they are all ultimately incompatible with the Democratic ideals of Freedom and Liberty.      

Choose your values wisely America you’re going to have to live with them for a long time.

The good news is that there are still many in this Country that value above all else Freedom and Liberty and are still willing to fight and if necessary die to protect those values. I don’t believe those that value security are willing to pay the same price to take Freedom and Liberty away from the rest of us. 

Again, what do you value most? How valuable is it to you? Is it worth your life, possessions and sacred honor? It was to those who came before us.

“Freedom isn’t free” Korean War Memorial Washington DC

“Those who value security over freedom deserve neither” Benjamin Franklin

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have” Thomas Jefferson

May God help us