We have always agreed the core of Americanism is Liberty. And, we have always agreed that to breathe life into Liberty it is required we share certain principles and duties. Liberty is a living thing, it requires nourishment.
We have always agreed Liberty requires faith and fidelity: that free men and women volunteer to fulfill the duties of citizenship. Liberty calls us to step up willingly, without coercion, to take the oath of loyalty.
Faith in each other requires a shared faith in God, faith that supplies the love and virtue necessary for Liberty to thrive. No one transcends natural selfishness without the help of God’s power, and no Republic will long endure unless we call upon that power, for there is no other way to achieve the restraint required of self-government. Without the ability to govern ourselves we have no Liberty.
To be self-governing requires limited government for it has always been true: as government expands, Liberty contracts. Self-government can only work if The People restrict the government to limits on power and its exercise. This is called the consent of the governed. Sadly, and tragically, government today has grown so far beyond the original limits imposed by the Constitution, government no longer seeks our consent, or respects it. This must change or Liberty will die.
Liberty will die without the rule of law, another traditional point of agreement, preserved by the devotion of law-abiding citizens motivated by love and virtue. Love of country and one’s fellow man is absolutely necessary, for without them, we are forced to bow to the enforcement of order from the top down. Either we live by the rule of law via voluntary cooperation and respect for the law, or we live by the raw power of dictators imposing order by force. That is the stark choice constantly confronting us.
And what are our remaining duties?
We are called to protect and defend the Constitution from all enemies—foreign and domestic. Never have we faced so many enemies from within, and without.
We are called to live out the Declaration of Independence, word-for-word. In doing so, we revere the principles breathing life into Liberty. In doing so, the national conscience was pricked to repent of the sin of slavery, ending it by a great civil war that claimed the lives of more than 600,000 people.
We are called to promote faith, freedom and fidelity by walking with the God of love, and to prove that faith by caring for the hungry, the orphan and the widow.
We are called to sacrifice for the sake of others, and to do so willingly, joyfully. We are called to serve in our communities, to stand for God & Country at every opportunity.
We are called to teach our children our true history–the good and the bad–knowing that honesty and integrity are vital to enduring Liberty.
People of good will inherently understand these duties and principles but they must be passed on daily as we encourage one another in the right way, remembering without boast or brag, these principles, lived out, have given Liberty life, explaining the greatest outpouring of charity ever known in this world, at the same time combining to defeat tyrants worldwide on many occasions, the blood of Patriots spilled for strangers, in the name of Love, Liberty, and Justice, for ALL.
Image: photo credit: Curtis Gregory Perry American Flag via photopin (license)
