"Putting The Emphasis on
America's Good Side"
from "In Defense of Rural
America"
By Ron Ewart, President of the
National Association of Rural
Landowners
and nationally recognized author and
speaker on freedom and property rights issues
Ó Copyright Sunday, October 5, 2014 - All Rights
Reserved
As published on
Newswithviews, October 1, 2014
This article is also
available on our website at:
"In spite of all of our individual and collective faults, there
is a 'great good' that exists in a very large number of us. That good is
personified in a wide range of human traits and behavior including private and
public achievements, sacrifice, industry, creativity, empathy, generosity,
spontaneous volunteerism and spirit, either as individuals or as a society.
Unfortunately, due to the 'distorted window' through which we view our
information, that 'great good' in us seems to be eclipsed by an over-zealous
emphasis on that which appears to be 'bad' within us."
Ron
Ewart
In our last column we took on the "shallow, hollow and
just plain stupid Americans" that make up over half of the population.
But these people we described do not represent the true nature and substance of
America and in fact are an outgrowth of failed social policies over the last 100
or so years. The failed policy is Progressivism that is just another word
for socialism, under the guise of compassion in exchange for votes.
Progressivism has spawned things like rising unemployment and sagging economies,
the war on capitalism, rapidly expanding debt and deficits, open borders,
unchecked illegal immigration, social justice, radical environmentalism,
sustainability, smart growth, rapid transit, cap and trade and the fraud that is
man-caused global warming. Sadly, liberals are the standard bearers of
Progressivism.
The current administration under Obama has aided and abetted
this rising degradation of our American culture by apologizing to the world for
some of the dark days in America's history. By so doing, he has seriously
diluted America's rightful leadership position in a troubled world. As a
result, the American glue that was holding the nations of the world together
from eating themselves and others in religious and territorial wars has been
dissolved in a cesspool of apologies an undeserved criticism.
Yes, America has had some dark days upon which we should take
no pride. But there is a positive side to America. That positive
side must be emphasized in our families and in all of our institutions if
America is to have a future in individual liberty. If we continue to
consume ourselves in guilt over past transgressions, not only will America and
freedom succumb, but the world will be thrust into chaos from which it could
take centuries to recover.
As many of our readers know, our previous articles have focused
on what is wrong with us as a people and as a government and what we can do
about it. However, in a sharp departure from that weekly focus we are
going to emphasize the great goodness that lies within most of us and build on a
previous article we wrote in December 2011. We hope that it brings
some pleasant and reverent thoughts at a time in America's history that appears
to be rather bleak. Perhaps maybe, in retrospect, this time is not so
bleak after all, but just another mountain to cross. Americans are great at
crossing mountains and fording rivers, or even going to the stars. Won't
you join with us as we explore ......
"What Is Good About Us"
It is very easy to criticize or find fault with anything and
everything and it seems to be a negative human trait. Most of the time our
verbal or written criticism is offered, without a request, for ego-driven
purposes, to make ourselves look bigger, better or more perfect than the thing,
or the person, or group we are criticizing. We'd like to reverse the trend
and reflect on those things that are great and good in us, either as individuals
or as a collection of individuals.
To us nothing epitomizes what we are capable of as individuals
and as a society more than the sight of a large commercial jet liner (say a
Boeing 747) lifting off from a long airport runway with a roar of immense
power and speed, defying the force of gravity and arcing, bullet like, towards
an unknown destination. Only the vision, perseverance, skill and guts of a
large number of individuals could have wrought such a successful and safe
venture.
Just a mere 150 years ago, a blink of time in the life of our
planet, we were crossing the new land on foot or with wagons, horses, mules or
oxen. It is hard to imagine the spirit and courage that it took for those frail
people to cross the wilderness with unspeakable injuries, illness and suffering
awaiting them. What took the pioneers three to five months or more to do,
we now traverse in 3 to 5 hours. From the days of Wilbur and Orville Wright at
the infamous Kitty Hawk, we have pole-vaulted the technology of flight to
unimaginable speeds and heights. What a great land we live in.
Yes. We are a people full of flaws and yes, we tend to
get in our own way from time to time like we are now. But look at what we have
done.
Look at the cars of today with their aerodynamic design, their
beautiful, bright colors and advanced instrumentation. Do you remember
when tires only lasted 20,000 miles? Now they last 50,000 or more. Do you
remember when an engine was burned out at 50,000 or 60,000 miles? Some
engines now last over 300,000 miles.
Think of the dams and the great power generating plants that we
have built to provide power for our cities and towns. Think of the
buildings we have built to house our people, our businesses and our
factories and to continue one of the most awesome commercial and economic
engines that ever occurred on the face of the earth ….. if Progressivism doesn't
kill it.
Just think of the wide range of scientific research going on
right now in the areas of energy. Yes, there is wind and solar power, but
other sources being researched now will deliver many factors of energy more
than the current alternative sources.
Think of the research in food types and production to increase
our food supplies. How about the research in and use of fiber optics, or
the research in rubber, plastics, rare metals and new materials and
fabrics? This research is fueled by the fires of commercial enterprise and
in some cases, from the moneys that are collected by our government for taxes,
as in the NASA space program that has taken us well above our atmosphere and
beyond.
Look at the progress we have made in the world of medicine,
even with all of its problems. But look what we take for granted for
medical care in this country. We provide medical services in the United
States that can only be gotten here, unless Obama Care screws it up.
Think of the research in genetics to unravel the mysteries of
inherited diseases and other conditions and what part that research will have in
finding the root causes of these conditions and their respective cures.
Look at the machinery that has been developed for the world of
medicine. Magnetic Imaging Machines, breathing machines, heart-lung
machines, blood monitoring machines, CAT scanners, X-ray machines and
more. We don't know all of them because we are not in the world of
medicine. All we know is that if something goes wrong you have a place to
go where people care for the most part to see that your medical problem is
resolved the best way they can. No, it's not perfect but it works better
than it did 100 years ago when the life expectancy was 47 years old and is now
77 years.
Let's take a little closer look at technology over the last 10
or 20 years and what the computer has done in providing a continuous flow of
information so that people can learn more and do things quicker. Some of
you may remember the old mechanical Underwood typewriters or the now ancient IBM
Selectric. We've come a long way baby!
Watch how fascinated a child is as he makes keystrokes on a
keyboard of a computer and sees the response on the computer screen. They absorb
it like a giant sponge and love every minute of it. Think of what the
Internet has done to not only the distribution of information, but the
exponential expansion of communications between individuals and groups.
Sure there are social problems with technology but we will adjust.
The Internet and search engines have become a boon to writers
and authors. Before the age of the Internet, when we wanted to research
something, we either had to buy a book or go to the library and read almost the
entire book to find the information we wanted. Now, with a click of a
button on our computer we open up a search engine on the Internet and do our
research right from our own desk ..... in minutes.
There is no crisis here. There are just problems to solve and
challenges to meet. Challenges are solved by enterprising individuals,
working together with other individuals, towards a common purpose, that is if
government doesn't get in their way.
Folks. We are going to the stars one day and nothing anybody
says or does will stop that. No amount of fear of the unknown, or nay saying
about financing will stop our advance into the Cosmos. We will find the
technology and the money. Ever since man first burned himself with fire
and realized he could use it to his advantage, or transported some object by
rolling a log and converted that idea to the wheel, he has been forever driven
towards more knowledge, more understanding and a wider, larger, broader world in
which he can explore. In this quest he has been driven to go faster and
faster, as his mind reaches farther and farther into the known Universe.
The doomsayers will tell us that we are going to run out of
power. We are going to run out of oil. We are going to pollute the
environment with our cars and our industry. Our automobiles are going to
quit running and our airplanes will quit flying and our ships will no longer ply
the open seas. The fraud of man-caused global warming will wipe us all
out. Sorry folks, it isn't going to happen. With all the gnashing
of teeth and the arguing over methods or cost, we will overcome these obstacles
and venture into the vastness of deep space ..... in this century.
Some day in the not to distant future, we are going to develop
power sources that will literally boggle the mind. Our vision is that each
home, each office, each business or building will have its own centralized power
unit. And in that power unit will have the source of power to purify our
drinking water, destroy our raw sewage and gray water, heat and cool our homes
and offices and provide the electrical power for our lights and appliances. One
small unit in our homes, office buildings, or factories will provide all these
uses.
Think of it. Those in your twenties watch how our planet
will shrink in your lifetime. In ten or twenty years there will be airplanes
that will leave the United States, sail up to the stratosphere or higher, glide
at two to five times the speed of sound and land in Russia in a couple of
hours. At 3,000 MPH we can go halfway around the world in 4 hours.
In stark contrast, it took over two months to cross the Atlantic Ocean in
a sailing ship when freedom was born.
Personalized transportation will change dramatically.
There will be air corridors for small, personal air units whether they use the
principles of helicopters and small aircraft, or some new strange power yet to
be discovered. Maybe we will find a way to offset or neutralize
gravity.
CONSCIOUS, SPONTANEOUS VOLUNTEERISM
One of the most commendable of all human traits is the desire
by some to give of themselves in service to others, either as a conscious
effort, such as those people who donate their time to hospitals, churches,
associations, charities and other causes in the name of helping those less
fortunate than themselves, or as an unconscious and spontaneous reaching out at
times of natural disasters or emergencies, small scale or large. It is our
understanding that volunteerism in America, as a percentage of its population,
is higher than in all of the other countries in the world.
If you were to remove this one activity from society, it would
collapse in very short order. No matter what government, churches or other
institutions accomplish in aiding the plight of disadvantaged peoples, none of
it would be possible without the self-sacrifice of these individual
volunteers.
IN CONCLUSION
The problem in this country and every other country for that
matter and every person that exists on this earth is not poverty. It is
not the disparity between poverty and wealth. It is not pestilence or flood,
famine, earthquake or any of these things. What it is, is pandemic
ignorance and too many people lacking the knowledge needed to make intelligent
decisions in life. For those who are willing to seek, the knowledge is truly
there, especially now in the Internet World.
The answer to any of our problems is in the depth of our "point
of reference". A broader knowledge increases our "point of
reference". The answer is to always seek the truth and always leave your
mind open to new information that might alter your knowledge of the truth.
In the end, we also must never lose sight of the fact that, the
reason we as Americans are productive, creative, ingenuous, imaginative,
reasonably happy and oh so generous, is because we are FREE. That freedom
opens the door to our goodness. And the reason we are FREE is because we
have laid down a system of government where individuals have un-alienable,
natural and God-given rights and where the government swears on solemn oath to
preserve, protect and defend those rights. But it is the people's duty to
hold the government to that oath so that freedom never flies away in the night,
on the wings of apathy and indifference. There can be no goodness when
corruption and evil are allowed to exist and where freedom is just a short entry
in some dust-covered history book.
Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on
freedom and property rights issues and author of this weekly column, "In
Defense of Rural America", is the president of the National Association of
Rural Landowners (NARLO) (http://www.narlo.org), a
non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State, an advocate and
consultant for urban and rural landowners. He can be reached for comment at info@narlo.org.
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