My World View - Amended

This has been a memorable few weeks. It has been filled with events of deep significance for us, beginning with the Christmas holidays when we spent a lot of time together with our family.

We had a special treat the first Saturday in January. Patsy had always longed for a sleigh ride with all the kids here at the Ranch, so I connected with Kim Richins out of Coalville, and he brought a matched team of black Percherons and hitched them to his twenty-passenger sleigh for two hours of fun. It was so great! Andrew and Jessica were taking some holiday time off from the rigors of medical school, and their visit was the catalyst for getting everyone here.

Next up was three weeks of business-related travel for Packsize that took us out to the Eastern Caribbean for the annual sales meeting aboard the Carnival Freedom cruise ship. Our ports of call included San Juan in Puerto Rico, Antigua, St. Thomas, Nassau in the Bahamas, then on to Germany for a week of training with the sales team in the the European Business Unit at Herford. What a cultural feast this past month has been!

The day after our return last week, Jake and Heidi were blessed with yet another miracle baby, Vivienne, who was born three months early, weighing in at 2 lb. 6 oz. at a length of 13 inches! Mother and baby are doing well. You can read all about her and their journey through the vicissitudes of infertility and anencephaly by clicking the link to their blog.

When you travel, if you are like me, you spend a few hours in various ports of call and you come away with distinct impressions that last a lifetime. This last month for me was particularly meaningful because I got to return to ground I had not seen for 46 years!

My parents came to England in 1969 to pick me up from my mission. They had not seen Europe, and thought it would be a memorable time to make that trip, even though it was winter in early February. Our itinerary included England, Holland, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Portugal. High on their list of things to do was to visit historical sights, including museums, cathedrals, and even a night at the ballet in Paris for me and Mom. Dad wasn't interested in ballet.

My purpose in recalling that memory has everything to do with my week in Germany last week. I had a chance to return to Berlin.

When I was there in 1969, Berlin was a divided city, and Germany had been partitioned after World War II. It was divided among the Allies who defeated Hitler to assure that Germany never repeated that debacle. The Berlin Wall was the iconic symbol representing the worst features of the Cold War raging between America and the USSR. We had just come from Amsterdam and Poland where we reviewed the history of the rise and the fall of the Third Reich, and it was a chilling and sobering chapter. We rode trains from Amsterdam to Poland, where the highlights included visits to Anne Frank's home and Auschwitz. We then went to Dusseldorf and Berlin on trains.

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin

My youthful mind was filled with those images and, frankly, Germany scared me. As the miles on the crowded trains flew by with my parents I wondered if we would somehow get trapped behind enemy lines and never return to America. Remember, it's 1969, and nothing's really going on in Europe except the Cold War and there's a war in far-off Vietnam nobody cares anything about. I knew as I prepared to return home I would have to go into the Army, but I wasn't nearly as concerned about that as I was about getting out of Germany that day.

The memories of that visit to Berlin in 1969 persisted into my adult life. We went through the Berlin Wall into East Germany on a two-hour visit permit. The warning posted at the checkpoint, "YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR," did nothing but chill me to the bone. On the other side of the Wall, it was so disheartening to observe firsthand the effects of Communism on the buildings, the people and the cold winter scenes we witnessed. People in the streets were huddled around barrels burning whatever they could find to stay warm and scrounging for food. Our guide drove slowly and ignored the pleas for help. "If you help one, you have to help them all," he informed us. Everything was old and dilapidated. There had been little progress under Communist rule since the War had ended. The oppression, the fear and the menacing overhang of soldiers everywhere was foreboding to me. The concrete tenement buildings for the workers were drab and uninviting. Today some of those tenements have been reclaimed and updated as upscale and pricey condominiums, but you get off the main thoroughfares and our tour guide talked about "open ownership" to properties that no one has claimed and they remain as dilapidated as they were in 1969 when I was there last. I couldn't wait to get back out of there. Freedom had never been so precious to me.

Brandenburg Gate today

Fast forward to last week. We picked up a tour bus on a Saturday morning. It was almost the same time of year, once again only two weeks different than my experience in 1969. It was still winter, and Berlin that Saturday morning was very cold with light snow in the air. But this time the difference was there were no soldiers, only their ghosts and my distant memories. We breezed through the streets of the old East Berlin with ease on the tour bus. Because we took that portion of the tour first, our guide let us stop and spend time wherever we chose to do, and we enjoyed that leisurely approach very much.

There are still stretches of the old Berlin Wall left. The tour guide spoke frequently of the "GDR" days and the days since under reunification that began when the Wall finally figuratively disintegrated overnight in 1989. In evidence everywhere is the slow but steady progress that has occurred since my first visit in 1969. However, my colleague in Packsize, Jan Spiekermann, who is a German citizen, informed me last week there is still a deduction from every one of his paychecks for the rebuilding effort that will be ongoing for many years to come.

The train travel has advanced dramatically. We were speeding along in ICE trains at about 125 mph during this visit, a stark contrast to the crowded and slower trains I remembered from my youth.

Victory Column, Berlin

A total of two days in a lifetime spent in Berlin does not an expert make. Let me make that declaration here and now. But the differences in what I observed then and now cannot be denied. These are the reasons I have lamented with amazement so frequently on these pages that America would intentionally embrace socialism and a socialist POTUS in recent years when they could have had Mitt Romney. Didn't we all learn the lesson that Communism was a dismal failure? Did we need any other reminder that socialism, as practiced in Berlin and the GDR in post-World War II years produced nothing but depression and dismal economic failure? Can't we all agree that politicians espousing such economic policies should be ignored and shunned at the ballot box? God help us all that when Barack Obama's term comes to a merciful end in November, 2016, that we never sign up for a repeat of THAT ever again in America.

If you believe there is merit in socialism in the least of its shades and hues to any degree, I'd suggest you study history, then make a visit to Berlin sometime. I think you'll come away from that exercise convinced that socialism offers nothing to those who love freedom. The promise of a better life to the masses by taking from the rich is a lie. It was then, it still is today.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Today in Berlin there are reminders everywhere of the horrors of war. I thought it was no more clearly illustrated than a visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Its bombed-out skeletal remains stand next to the modern rebuilt sanctuary as a reminder that war destroys. Those modern memorials also remind Germans that, after all, Hitler was an Austrian in Germany only long enough to claim citizenship that enabled him to stay there legally. He has been totally disavowed by modern-day Berliners. Our past as nations and individuals can define and advise our future in very significant ways to find a more productive and prosperous way forward if we choose it.

Holocaust museums and memorials are abundant there. Germany continues to prosper under the democracy in place there as the anchor to the European Union. These facts alone should be ample evidence, sufficient to tamp down any thoughts of returning to socialism in any way. But government solutions tend to pop up everywhere despite the lessons of history. That reality dismays me, though I can do little but comment about it. I believe, however, the power of ideas related to freedom ultimately appeal to our Father in Heaven's children wherever they live on this earth.

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin

Sadly, however, mankind seems almost incapable of remembering and taking a different course. Conflicts around the globe today persist. We don't call them wars these days, and the current administration in Washington seems reluctant to admit we are in a war with a radical strain of Islam. Make no mistake, however, there are still people out there who would kill Americans if they could. The enemies of freedom will persist because Satan inspires some to think they can conquer and subdue the human spirit by compelling them into bondage that takes many forms. We may not think we are at war with them, but they have no other desire than to topple America and the freedoms she stands for around the world. The ancient and ever-present war between good and evil will always be with us.

It was my children in 1989, who informed me upon returning from school one November day that "some wall in Europe came down today." I said, "You mean the Berlin Wall?" "Yeah, that's it," was their answer. I was stunned. Overnight a miracle had happened, and just that fast the end of the Cold War came without a single shot being fired. The total collapse of the Soviet empire had come to an unbelievable, swift and merciful end.

Ronald Reagan, 1987

Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II had been right to confront the evil of their day. Reagan's bold demand at the Brandenburg Gate to Gorbachev to "tear down this wall," had been miraculously fulfilled. It was shocking. Berliners on both sides of the wall took to the streets in celebration. Freedom at last!

So based upon their tortured past with major wars in nearly every century of their history, let's take a lesson from the Germans - recovering from the effects of wars takes many more years than we can imagine, and the drain on productivity and progress is almost impossible to calculate.

Not All Presidents are Created Equally

Back in the day when I was a little boy in school, we celebrated two birthdays of former US Presidents in February. On the 12th, everyone knew it was Abraham Lincoln's birthday, and the 22nd was George Washington's. For some reason this morning I was thinking about my 4th grade Social Studies class with Mrs. Baker. Her lessons about these two great men might be my earliest recollections of them and what they believed.

My teacher shared my enthusiasm for them. I remember her walls in the classroom were adorned with their portraits, and I mean all year long not just in February.

Last November, we were in Washington D.C. and visited the sites where Washington and Lincoln are enshrined. I have wondered again this morning what they would be thinking if they were alive in America today. There is a conversation going around America these days about "inequality". It is being framed by the current POTUS, a man defined only by his ideology founded in his need to make government the dispensing machine for righting all the societal wrongs and assuring economic "equality" for all Americans. As the first black POTUS, we all hoped for so much better than he has delivered. The hard fact is it is he alone who is defining all the terms. It is he alone who is dictating how laws will be applied and how they will be interpreted. It is he alone who seems willing and more than able to do whatever he wants in the execution of the duties of the government and all its branches, not merely confining himself to the duties of the executive branch.

The bastion of his false beliefs is stamped all over the Obamacare legislation known as the Affordable Care Act. The underlying premise is that it is a right for all Americans to have affordable health care coverage. He seems to be the only person who thinks his definition of "affordable" is accurate. The wrecking ball has swung wildly in all directions. So far there seems to be no distinction about whether or not one is an American citizen to qualify, only that you live here. I remember when George W. Bush was mocked as "King George" and was accused of operating an imperial presidency. Boy, those were the good old days in comparison, weren't they?

The redistribution of private wealth and capital, even private ownership of property, is being promoted as never before by this government. Our current POTUS would assert his definitions of "fairness" must mandate that all Americans be treated equally. If you fall below certain income levels, the government will be there to provide not only a social safety net, but will make the attempt to give you more than you might receive if you were gainfully employed. The net result of this attempt has been more inequality and more unfairness than ever before. Pitting the economic classes and the ethnic races against each other has been given new stature under this POTUS. We have a record number of Americans who are on food stamps. It has become a widely recognized entitlement program if your income drops below a certain annual level. The minimum wage has been given a boost and mandated at a higher rate for all government contracts, supposedly to "level the playing field". Access to health care through Obamacare and Medicare and Medicaid for all Americans equally has become a political mantra that will likely never be reversed. Instead, it will have to collapse under the weight of its towering false assumptions.

All these efforts hearken back to the "war on poverty" waged back in the sixties by the Johnson administration. Like the "war on drugs" and the previous attempts to level the economic conditions of Americans, Obamacare will fail to deliver its promised results because socialism as defined and administered by government is so badly flawed in all its attempts to equalize the worker with the owner.

Equality between the sexes is another area where public policy has run amok. There are those hailing the recent court rulings that essentially have left us with a "genderless" definition of marriage. I read yesterday of a college in America that gives people 56 different options for the "gender" question on admission forms. Really? 56? Hard to believe, but that's the silliness of men's wisdom on display for all to see. Back in 1996, in Power and Covenants: Men, Women and Priesthood, we attempted to thwart the onrushing wave of false doctrine on that issue, many would say to no avail. But we tried. Inequality in this life is a reality. Equality is a myth of man's making. How does one attempt to equate the LGBT agenda with marriage between a man and a woman? Only through suborned courts and judges. Only in the feeble attempts of men's reasoning.

In days gone by, and even today in some cases, Americans who are the risk takers have always been rewarded with success when they invest capital for the benefit of those whom they employ. I never worked for an impoverished employer. They have all been successful because their business risks were rewarded with success to the degree they had enough capital to employ others. The employees have it within their power to create the capital for their owners - work always precedes the acquisition of the capital. In countless countries around the world when the working class was dissatisfied with their condition they rose up in rebellion. It happened in Russia, it happened in France, and it happened in America. If they are dissatisfied with their daily wage, workers the world over are free to access the markets with their skills and talents and see if they can earn a better return for their labors.

History tells us Washington and Lincoln believed in these principles. For that reason they were singled out for recognition in our national celebration of their birthdays. I'm still of the mindset to single these two out above all the other generic Presidents. In a previous post entitled "A Calf's Tail" I highlighted many of their notable quotations along with several other occupants of the White House. Today, I add a few more gems to the collection.

President George Washington

Said Washington, warning about government's power:

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

With regard to the need to preserve and sustain the right to bear arms, Washington counselled:

"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good."

Washington believed morality in the public square could not be imposed by government. It was solely dependent upon religion:

"Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

President Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln comes along over a hundred years later and offers this counsel to help us judge political sophistry unerringly:

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."

No one believed more firmly than Lincoln that the American people were capable of making correct choices. The backbone that holds the skeleton of the Constitution together is the collective wisdom and judgment of the people:

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

So powerful were these ideas in Lincoln's mind that he dared to state unequivocally:

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."

On this Presidents Day 2014, let us keep sacred and long remember the wisdom of these two great Presidents. It should be obvious their meaning of equality had little to do with the way the terms are being defined in America today.

And, sadly, it should be obvious we are not seeing men of their stature approaching "equality" with them either.

The Most Intelligent SOTU Speech

Call me stupid if you wish, but the most intelligent speech last night didn't come from the POTUS. I didn't even bother to tune in to any of it. This morning, I downloaded Senator Mike Lee's response, and I believe (without even referencing BHO's "official" SOTU speech) there couldn't be a more well-thought-out approach than Lee's.

The only question remains whether "lofty rhetoric" from an empty suit will continue to persuade Americans or not. I pray IT WILL NOT.

"I Am So Grateful. . ."

We have returned home from our trip to Washington D.C. where we picked up Sister Merilee Goates. She was released into our care and keeping a week ago on Thursday morning at the final transfer meeting. I take today's title for this post from Sister Goates.

If there were one phrase I heard repeatedly more than any other from our daughter, it was this one - "I am so grateful for. . ." and then she would cite a specific blessing she had received. The list included her testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ as she witnessed the dramatic changes that had come into people's lives whom she had taught.

She referred again and again to members of the Church with whom she had labored to teach their friends, many of whom eventually joined the Church.

I heard her express gratitude for ALL the people who had changed her life for the better, including her mission president, Matthew Riggs, and his wife and their children, the senior missionary couples who had influenced her, her companions, and all the leaders of the Church she had met, including President Brian Swinton of the Washington D.C. Temple. We had a chance to renew our boyhood ties as we concluded an endowment session last Saturday morning. She mentioned several occasions where he had given sound counsel to missionaries and members.

There was a stranger she met on the Metro as we rode back from the city that day, an engaging black lady who was a grandmother and lifelong government employee who was full of light. After their brief encounter, Sister Goates expressed gratitude for putting that wonderful woman in her path that day so she could invite her to join our Church. She was a Southern Baptist, who knew much about the Mormons and had visited the Washington D.C. Temple in times past.

Gratitude was on her lips for a pair of shoes someone had sent to her on her mission, and for a sweater an investigator had given her when she needed warmth during her first bitter cold winter in Virginia. I also heard gratitude expressed for Honeycrisp apples to which she was introduced. She was never without one thereafter, so grateful for the discovery.

The weather was also on the list. We were at Mount Vernon on a November day basking in 70 degrees when she said it. She also spoke of green trees, so dense that in summer it was impossible to navigate because of the canopy of leaves on all those trees. And then her gratitude was for the fall colors of the leaves that were still clinging to their branches. And then it was for barren trees that made it possible to discern our surroundings more clearly.

Her citizenship in the United States also made the list of things for which she is most grateful. Living in that history-rich environment had heightened her awareness of all our blessings as free people, and the incredible price for freedom that has been paid by so many hundreds of thousands for that precious gift. It is hard to visit those stirring memorials on the National Mall and not be moved. The inspired quotations chiseled in granite, marble and other stones remind everyone of the cost to overthrow tyranny. The World War II Memorial honors over 400,000 lost in the global conflict. The price of freedom is always eternal vigilance. May we never forget the sacrifices of so many! The Vietnam War Memorial inscribed with all the names of the dead in that conflict designed to stop the march of communism was yet another reminder.

On a gorgeous fall morning in November, she shed some tears as we stood inside the Lincoln Memorial and I recounted my love for that iconic American leader who presided during a very divisive time in our history. Emotions were also close to the surface as we stood at the base of the statue of Thomas Jefferson at the other end of the Tidal Basin. Reading their words in those sacred precincts is inspiring. Later we watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and soberly pondered how many there must be like that one in our perpetual struggle to remain free. As we visited JFK's grave site overlooking the capital city and stood before the eternal flame burning there, hope of our perpetual freedom in America was rekindled and sunk deep within our hearts. We were there only hours before the commemoration of Kennedy's death fifty years ago. Oh, what memories it conjured up within me!

Iwo Jima Memorial

She admitted her favorite monument was the Iwo Jima statue, since it was not far from her apartment in Arlington and she was able to visit frequently during her stay there. She was so grateful for those sacred times of somber reflection.

Perhaps most impressive was her introduction to us of a young refugee from Egypt, Yousef, a Coptic Christian who was forced to flee to America when the violence against Christians in Egypt seemed to accelerate a couple of years ago. Yousef is on date for baptism into the Church in December. We had a chance to read several scriptures with him, to testify, and to re-commit him to his baptism date. That's really what we spent most of our time doing in D.C. - retracing her steps with people she had met, loved, served and taught.

As we spoke with Yousef he told us how excited he was about the prospects that soon all minority groups, including the Mormons, would be recognized in two months when the new Constitution for Egypt becomes ratified. His desktop background has pictures of Mormon temples that dot the globe now. He loves the thought that someday there will be temple in Cairo. I told him I felt impressed he would be in the vanguard of early pioneer saints in Egypt, all in fulfillment of the prophecy of Elder Bruce R. McConkie in 1980. Yousef, thrilled at the prospect when I explained he would someday be a pioneer for Mormonism in his beloved Egypt, exulted, "Soon everyone on earth will know about the Mormons!" I felt impressed to tell him I believed as part of Elder McConkie's prophecy there would someday be a temple in Cairo, and he would live to see the day come to pass if he remained faithful to his testimony.

As we left his apartment with water bottles he had graciously given to us out of the little he had to give, Sister Goates once again said, "Meeting Yousef has helped me to appreciate so much my citizenship in America. I had always taken so much for granted. He is here to escape death in his own country, where he told me Christians were being slaughtered in the streets. How grateful I am for freedom to worship God!"

Tears silently fell as the aerial view of Washington D.C. faded into the distance on the horizon. Her face now turned West to resume her life again. She will look back with fondness on her missionary experience, but she will also begin a new chapter now with a renewed sense of gratitude, cultivated from her last eighteen months in Virginia. She will never again be the same person she was.

So we are grateful this week before Thanksgiving for all our blessings as a family. As we recount them all, our list like Merilee's grows longer and longer. This year they include being reunited with Merilee, and yesterday we met our first grandson at the airport, Elder Izach Jach, who returned home from the Iowa Des Moines Mission, taller, broader, and a pillar of power after a mission experience filled with happiness and success.

Our cup is running over, and I am so grateful. . .

Why I Celebrate on the 4th of July

There is perhaps no other place on earth where the annual celebration of the birth of a nation is done in such a unique way. We don't line up our armaments and parade them past the White House with everyone in America cheering our collection of long-range missiles with nuclear warheads as thousands of troops goose-step down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Instead, we have picnics in the backyard and we light off fireworks. At least we used to light off fireworks - now Utah is so bone-dry only the bone-heads light off fireworks.

We celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. It was no small feat for a fledgling group of diverse colonies to agree to condemn the sitting King of England in such scathing terms. We opposed what we believed was tyranny and taxation without representation. Funny thing is THAT form of taxation doesn't even hold a candle to the tyranny one could assert now exists in America WITH representation. But that's a story for another day, isn't it?

I celebrate the glorious gift of freedom on this July 4th. I celebrate the ability to put some thin-sliced marinated beef briskets on the grill with chocolate brownies and congo squares and grape ice cream for dessert. I remember and I am grateful for the sacrifice of so many men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for my family so we could enjoy one another's company as we gather at the Ranch this weekend.

I'm grateful to all those who fought in the heat of the summer and the bitter cold of a Valley Forge winter during the Revolutionary War to give life to the words of the Declaration of Independence.

It was 150 years ago this week in which the bloodiest battle of the Civil War was fought in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Both sides fielded courageous advocates for what their version of freedom looked like.

War-worn and long-postponed plans for life were the common lot of my father's generation. Some called it the "Greatest Generation." That global conflagration, once considered the war to end all wars, was only the prelude to a sustained period of years that saw unparalleled growth and expansion of freedom's blessings worldwide.

As I grow older it is increasingly more difficult to take the hard work and sacrifice of all those who came before me for granted. I stir with emotion every time I sing the National Anthem. I tear up when I think about the flag that flies a few feet from my home and realize what it represents in blood, toil and courage.

I checked the other day about who reads this blog. I've had readers represented in 22 countries so far. To them I would say, don't give up on the ideals America represents. I pray all may remember the sacrifice of so many who have gone before to make freedom a reality beyond the ideal.

I have freedom to get up every day of my life in America to try and make something good happen, something that but for me would not exist.

I have the unrequited joy of seeing my children and grandchildren succeeding and prospering as adults who are making a contribution for good to their own families, their country, their Church and their employers. They are amazing people who emerged from a simple idea, "Patsy, I love you, will you marry me?"

I am only beginning to understand what it means to be a father, but understanding the meaning that goes behind "Grandpa" is so much easier and fulfilling.

My wife of 44 years is growing older at my side day by day, and as we laugh about our deteriorating body parts, we can share not only that but so much more together in relative peace and tranquility compared to so many others in our strife-riddled world.

Oakley, Utah, not far from where we live, puts on a stellar parade every year. The highway is closed all morning long, then the fabulous new rodeo arena sponsors the Oakley Rodeo at night for a continuous feast of Americana at its best. There is nothing to compare with John Wayne's booming voice over the loudspeakers declaring "America, Why I Love Her."



The Woodland Ward sponsors the annual 4th of July breakfast, complete with flag raising ceremony and a huge American breakfast of pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon, ham and all the fixin's any way you want it.

I will never tire of celebrating the 4th of July. To be sure, America has her problems, and many predict her demise, but I choose to remain optimistic about her future. As long as God's children can muster enough gratitude for blessings received, we will continue to find a majority who value the cause of freedom. .

Happy 4th of July!

Want a Free House?

I am loathe to pass along most everything I see from an anonymous source on the Internet. However, this morning I make an exception to my longstanding rule. I know a good piece of writing when I see it, and this qualifies. See if you don't agree:

I was in my neighborhood restaurant this morning and was seated behind a group of jubilant individuals celebrating the coming implementation of the health care bill. I could not finish my breakfast. This is what ensued: They were a diverse group of several races and both sexes. I heard a young man exclaim, "Isn't Obama like Jesus Christ? I mean, after all, he is healing the sick."

A young woman enthusiastically proclaimed, "Yeah, and he does it for free. I cannot believe anyone would think that a free market wouldn't work for health care."

Another said, "The stupid Republicans want us all to starve to death so they can inherit all of the power. Obama should be made a Saint for what he did for those of us less fortunate."

At this, I had more than enough. I arose from my seat, mustering all the restraint I could find, and approached their table. "Please excuse me; may I impose upon you for one moment?"

They smiled and welcomed me to the conversation. I stood at the end of their table, smiled as best I could and began an experiment.

"I would like to give one of you my house. It will cost you no money and I will pay all of the expenses and taxes for as long as you live there. Anyone interested?"

They looked at each other in astonishment. "Why would you do something like that?" asked a young man, "There isn't anything for free in this world." They began to laugh at me, as they did not realize this man had just made my point.

"I am serious, I will give you my house for free, no money whatsoever. Anyone interested?"

In unison, a resounding "Yeah" fills the room.

"Since there are too many of you, I will have to make a choice as to who receives this money-free bargain."

I noticed an elderly couple was paying attention to the spectacle unfolding before their eyes, the old man shaking his head in apparent disgust.

"I tell you what; I will give it to the one of you most willing to obey my rules."

Again, they looked at one another, an expression of bewilderment on their faces.

The perky young woman asked, "What are the rules?"

I smiled and said, "I don't know. I have not yet defined them. However, it is a free home that I offer you."

They giggled among themselves, the youngest of  which said, "What an old coot. He must be crazy to give away his home. Go take your meds, old man."

I smiled and leaned into the table a bit further. "I am serious, this is a legitimate offer."

They gaped at me for a moment.

"I'll take it you old fool. Where are the keys?" boasted the youngest among them.

"Then I presume you accept ALL of my terms then?" I asked.

The elderly couple seemed amused and entertained as they watched from the privacy of their table. "Oh yeah! Where do I sign up?"

I took a napkin and wrote, "I give this man my home, without the burden of financial obligation, so long as he accepts and abides by the terms that I shall set forth upon consummation of this transaction."

I signed it and handed it to the young man who eagerly scratched out his signature.

"Where are the keys to my new house?" he asked in a mocking tone of voice.

All eyes were upon us as I stepped back from the table, pulling the keys from pocket and dangling them before the excited new homeowner.

"Now that we have entered into this binding contract, witnessed by all of your friends, I have decided upon the conditions you are obligated to adhere to from this point forward. You may only live in the house for one hour a day. You will not use anything inside the home. You will obey me without question or resistance. I expect complete loyalty and admiration for this gift I bestow upon you. You will accept my commands and wishes with enthusiasm, no matter the nature. Your morals and principles shall be as mine. You will vote as I do, think as I do and do it with blind faith. These are my terms. Here are your keys." I reached the keys forward and the young man looked at me dumbfounded.

"Are you out of your mind? Who would ever agree to those ridiculous terms?" the young man appeared irritated.

"You did when you signed this contract before reading it, understanding it and with the full knowledge that I would provide my conditions only after you committed to the agreement."

The elderly man chuckled as his wife tried to restrain him. I was looking at a now silenced and bewildered group of people.

"You can shove that stupid deal up your a** old man. I want no part of it!" exclaimed the now infuriated young man.

'You have committed to the contract, as witnessed by all of your friends. You cannot get out of the deal unless I agree to it. I do not intend to let you free now that I have you ensnared. I am the  power you agreed to. I am the one you blindly and without thought chose to enslave yourself to. In short, I am your Master."

At this, the table of celebrating individuals became a unified group against the unfairness of the deal.

After a few moments of unrepeatable comments and slurs, I revealed my true intent.

"What I did to you is what this administration and congress did to you with the health care legislation. I easily suckered you in and then revealed the real cost of the bargain. Your folly was in the belief that you can have something you did not earn, and you willingly allowed someone else to think for you. Your failure to research, study and inform yourself permitted reason to escape you. You have entered into a trap from which you cannot flee. Your only chance of freedom is if  your new Master gives it to you. A freedom that is given can also be taken away. Therefore, it is not freedom at all."

With that, I tore up the napkin and placed it before the astonished young man. "This is the nature of your new health care legislation."

I turned away to leave these few in thought and contemplation -- and was surprised by applause.

The elderly gentleman, who was clearly entertained, shook my hand enthusiastically and said, "Thank you, Sir. These kids don't understand Liberty ."

He refused to allow me to pay my bill as he said, "You earned this one. It is an honor to pick up the tab."

I shook his hand in thanks, leaving the restaurant somewhat humbled and sensing a glimmer of hope for my beloved country.

Remember... Four boxes keep us free: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box,  and the cartridge box.

* * *

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the American Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." Henry Ford

What Were You Thinking? You Elected Obama!

Let me say it one more time. My basic inclination is to maintain a positive outlook on life. I resist any and all attempts by others to paint me into the corner of "victimhood." However, after the results of this last presidential election I feel like I was violated. I've never been mugged on Mean Street, USA, but this came awfully close when I imagine what it might feel like.

I feel like my generation owes an apology to my children and grandchildren and generations of my progeny not yet born. Even though it will do little to change the outcome, I offer my apology for what it's worth. I didn't donate much money to anyone in this election cycle, but my preferences are well-known on these pages and easily discerned. My preferred candidate, Mitt Romney, lost, but America lost more. We will never know what might have been by walking past Romney, perhaps the best qualified candidate for president we will ever see in America.

President Barack Obama

The electorate, however, has spoken. I know the majority picked Barack Hussein Obama. I also realize I no longer can be considered part of the majority. I didn't get what I wanted in this election (that happens routinely now). But to you who voted for Obama, I wonder if you only got what you THOUGHT you wanted.

By voting for Obama there is an increasing chance you have helped to destroy this nation. Layoffs are mounting in just the last week. The cruel realities of the excessive taxation associated with Obamacare have now begun to take their toll. Just today we learned three Hostess plants that make Twinkies were forced to close. The unions, warned of what would happen, went out on strike. Over 600 jobs were lost. The list of closures will continue. We've also heard from Papa John's and others, and there will be more. They will cut back on the hours worked by their remaining employees in order to avoid having to insure them under Obamacare. Elections DO have consequences.

Let me explain further about what happened during Obama's first four years to help you understand what you've done by re-electing him. During his first four years, Obama effectively nationalized the housing industry and slowed recovery by intervening. Then he gobbled up the automobile industry and crowned the unions while eliminating secured creditors. Next was the medical industry, almost 20 percent of our economy, by enacting Obamacare. You can label all this any way you choose, but the most accurate label I can put on it is socialism. If his first term is the preamble, his second term will accelerate the nationalism of the airlines, oil and gas and power. Already, we have seen the impact of Obama's policies on the coal industry. By taxing the end users to generate electricity, he's killed their markets and coal miners are losing their jobs. It would be safe to assume we will see more borrowed and tax money "invested" by our government into untested and unproven “green” industries.

The exit polling reveals that single women voted overwhelmingly for Obama. I confess I was baffled by the birth control question that arose during the primary debates. I couldn't imagine where that came from. In the general election we learned the strategy. Obama targeted women to garner votes solely based upon free government access to reproductive decisions by mandating that health care providers (then later the insurance companies) give out free birth control pills and provide abortions no matter where women and their infants were in their gestation development. It was all couched in "freedom of choice" language, or a woman's "right to choose."

That's such a compelling benefit - birth control on the front end (have sex indiscriminately) and abortion on demand (kill that growing fetus if you choose not to give birth). It's a failsafe world for women now - freedom to avoid pregnancy and freedom to terminate it when they ignore the first choice. Note the abuse of the words "free" and "freedom." Do you know, or have you ever spoken to someone who had an abortion, regardless of the cause of the pregnancy? Lost in all the discussion about "choice" and "freedom" is this: abortion is "akin" if not "equated" to murder.

Let's talk about immigration next. You may not know it, but by voting for Obama, you have virtually assured an ever-expanding definition of amnesty. Why? To further strengthen the voter base among Hispanics. Along with it will come legitimacy to those who entered America illegally.

Here's the rest of the story on what your federal government will be doing. It will assure huge payments for housing, subsistence, medical care, and free secondary education at the public expense. The reasoning is flawed, but it's simple - by handing out all those government sponsored goodies illegals will be embraced and will vote for the socialist regime that dispenses them.

What about drug laws? One would expect another four-year Obama term to further relax enforcement on drug laws with lighter penalties, while increasing regulations on legitimate businesses. Sixty new regulations have been put into place in the last thirty days. Expect significantly more relaxed drug laws and far less severe punishments for drug use. In the aftermath, watch for a huge expenditure on government drug treatment centers and increasing costs to feed and house the rapidly growing numbers of non-productive citizens.

Is that really what YOU voted for? My guess is you didn't really care much because if you don't pay taxes why would you be worried about how taxes are spent?

Don't be too surprised if God continues to disappear from our public expression and our devalued currency and coin. If you don't care about or believe in God, you won't be too concerned. The concept of separation of church and state (NOT Constitutional) will be cemented into our national fabric if it isn't already. The Constitution prohibits the establishment of religion by the state, not the free and open dialogue and expression of religion in the public square. We've seen the secularists raising objections to our use of the name Jesus Christ associated with Christmas. What will another four or eight or twelve years bring in the way of "progress" on this front?

How about foreign policy? There's already a creeping suspicion about Obama's ethnic origins and hence his loyalties. He's bowed before the Saudi princes, the Japanese hierarchy and others in the Muslim world. His tendency is to ignore the global reality of radical Islamic terrorists. He would like us to believe that silliness all ended with the assassination of Osama bin Laden. One could easily envision increasing accommodation of radical Islam with ongoing disregard for Christianity. Did anyone sense how evident that was during the last four years? What will another four produce? Is that what you wanted by voting for Obama?

Here's what your vote for Obama really means, and the one most troubling to me. My guess is that at least two, perhaps three, Supreme Court Justices will retire during the next four years. If you wanted a more "progressive" interpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court, then your vote for Obama all but assures it. Many lower court judges will also be replaced with more and more liberal progressive confirmations than ever before. My suspicion is that that morality will no longer be the ideal, rather the baseline will be the socialist ideals.

I read only this morning that forty states, powered by Tea Party activists, are mounting petition drives to secede from the Union.

Here's what your vote also signals - a severe dilution through taxation of the Second Amendment. Since you probably don't know what it is, it covers the right to bear arms. All that is required is taxation on ammunition to kill the marketplace. In the last week, it's the fear of that reality prompting a surge among our fellow citizens to buy up guns and ammunition while they still can at a reasonable price.

Do you believe Obama's tendency to either ignore or bypass the Constitution will be accelerated in his second term? Bet on it. His use of executive orders to enforce his policies rather than taking them to Congress to enact legislation will increase because he has a divided Congress.

There are also troubling signs the U.N. will exert more control over our sovereign rights as Americans. There may be arms reduction treaties and Internet taxes designed to be enforced by the U.N. The discussions are already underway. Does it concern you that Obama picked up endorsements for his second term from Putin, Castro, Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? What does that mean to you if you voted for Obama? Is that really the America you envisioned with your vote?

I wonder if we are not now fully enslaved by socialism. Have we reached the tipping point? Can we never again muster enough votes to turn back the surging tide? Since we are now north of $16 Trillion in debt as a nation, rather than firing up the cylinders of the American economic engine, we have fouled the pistons perhaps beyond repair. I would have favored a "mechanic" like Mitt Romney to look under the hood, rather than a guy who confessed he never got past seventh-grade math. He said on Letterman, "I don't really keep track of what the national debt is." This from the one president in our history who added more debt in four years than all the presidents in our history for a similar period.  Ignorance is no excuse, Mr. President.

I've said it before, but if you CONFISCATED all the total private wealth in America it would not begin to reduce the national debt. I nursed the notion throughout this election cycle that with Romney and Ryan on the job we could extend the time before our financial collapse as a nation.

Now all bets are off. Is that too pessimistic? I'm sorry about that too.

My hope now resides in unforeseen EVENTS I cannot predict. Historically, presidential second terms have been unsuccessful, typically because the truth about what has been concealed in the first term has a tendency to rise and administrations become embroiled in them to a point they are not sustainable. Beware of the Benghazi debacle - the worst of it is yet to come. The resignation of David Petraeus as CIA Chief is only the tip of that iceberg.

This will go down as the most expensive presidential campaign in history. What was accomplished by the combined expenditure of over $6 Billion? We bought ourselves the status quo - gridlock in Washington.

We've been here before, and we'll likely be here again. Wait for the pendulum to swing back again. It will.

American Free Enterprise's Last Gasp

Law professors and community organizers just don't get the secret of the American freedom agenda, according to Mitt Romney in this victory speech in Barack Obama's backyard. This may be the final voice of reason when it comes to the contrast between government solutions and the free enterprise system.

I can hardly wait for the general campaign that will draw a clear distinction between these two vastly divergent philosophies. People tell me there's no hope to change things, they tell me things have deteriorated too badly to rescue the country, that America's in decline, that our debt and deficit picture is so bleak it can never be reversed now short of a general economic collapse.

Well, I just don't believe it. Ronald Reagan was famous for reminding us that "it's always morning in America." I still believe that. Every two years Americans have the privilege under our Constitution to go to the voting booth and change direction when they think things have gone awry. They did that in 2008, and got more than a few disappointing surprises since then. In 2010, they rejected the Obama agenda in resounding fashion by a record-setting reversal in the People's House, and booted Nancy Pelosi from the Speaker's chair.

In 2012, they have the chance to reshape America's policies once again by sending Mitt Romney to the White House and taking control of the Senate. As of this week, Republicans are leading in key Senate races across America, suggesting they may accomplish that important task. It's the reason we are a resilient nation, one that cannot be suppressed unless our wounds become self-inflicted. Our problem is not about enemies who can attack us from without - our problem is the divide within our borders.

But my faith in America remains steadfast. It's never too late to turn things around.

Can America Be Saved From Tyranny?

The short answer to this question is yes.

I've heard the radio and cable TV pundits batting this question around routinely. Controversy sells. The latest round features a one-word description of a young lady uttered by a professional talk radio professional who should have known better. However, he took the bait and now all his commercial sponsors have abandoned him.

He's concerned (as we all must be) about the loss of freedom in this country when taxpayers are required under the provisions of Obamacare to fund promiscuity through the distribution of birth control devices. When that didn't play so well with the Catholic Church, the president and his administration switched course and demanded that insurance companies provide contraceptives freely to their insureds. All of it makes for great fodder on Twitter, but deflects the conversation from the other abysmal policy failures of this administration.

Controversy drives ratings, calls attention to the combatants, and the question remains in the minds of many, "Can America be saved from such tyrannical acts as we have seen in steady procession over the last seventy or eighty years, and particularly the acceleration of tyranny we have witnessed in the last three years?" Personal righteousness and obdience are key elements. Here's what anchors my faith in my answer:

Samuel F. Smith

Samuel F. Smith, a Baptist minister, wrote his great poem soon after the Church was organized. He titled it simply, America:

My country! ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride,
From every mountain side,
Let freedom ring!
My native country, thee,
Land of the noble, free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills.
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers’ God to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!
(Hymns, 339).

This poem was first put to the tune of Great Britain's national anthem in 1832 at a Fourth of July celebration. God had finally replaced the King of England as the Supreme Ruler, God and King in the hearts of our forefathers, the founders we celebrate! The words indicate that Samuel F. Smith had also gleaned some insight about this land of America — truths which, he no doubt was unaware, had been revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Joseph learned by divine revelation between 1827 and 1829, while he translated The Book of Mormon, that God is the author of our liberty and that to retain it, the inhabitants of the land must be protected by His mighty hand. While we are sometimes tempted to believe we can protect liberty by elections or legislative decree, there really is no other power that can protect our God-given liberty.

Joseph Smith received revelation that went even further. These truths identified the “Great God” implored by Samuel F. Smith as Jesus Christ. The truths revealed in The Book of Mormon declare if we are to enjoy the protection of His might, we must accept Him as our God and keep His commandments. When I ask myself how we are doing as a nation today, it gives me pause. To save the nation, we must save the home with priesthood power.

“Behold,” says one revelation, “this [America] is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.” (Ether 2:12).

Samuel F. Smith's words, “Protect us by thy might, Great God, our King” imply that the God of the land is also King of the land. And this is also true.

The Book of Mormon, quoting Jesus as he spoke here in America, reads:

This land shall be a land of liberty. . . and there shall be no kings upon [it]. . .
For I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear my words. . .
For it is a choice land, saith God. . . wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me.” (2 Nephi 10:11–19).

The history of the people described by The Book of Mormon makes clear that enjoying this God-given liberty while we inhabit the "choice land" depends upon acceptance of and obedience to Jesus Christ.

We learn from the record that more than two thousand years before His birth in the flesh, Jesus Christ led a small colony of people from Asia to America. When they first set foot on the land, He put before their prophet leaders a two-way test, “that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off. . . when they. . . are ripened in iniquity.” (Ether 2:8–9).

It was the test of the two ways, stated elsewhere as "We have beheld that the great question which is in your minds is whether the word be in the Son of God, or whether there shall be no Christ." (Alma 34:5).

The descendants of this people who first came to America, known as the Jaredites, became a mighty nation. They flourished on this continent for two thousand years. When they obeyed Christ in righteousness, their civilization prospered. When they rejected Him, they eventually annihilated themselves in civil wars. Mormon's abridgment of their history can be found in the Book of Ether. Having read it again recently, it gives light to our present circumstances in America.

In 600 B.C., about the time the Jaredites were destroying themselves, Jesus Christ made provision for another small colony to come to this choice land. He revealed to them, as He had to the Jaredites, that He is the God and King of the land. If they accepted and obeyed Him, they could always remain a free, prosperous, and happy people. However, if they chose to reject Him they would invite certain destruction.

The Jaredite record was made available to their prophets so they could be made aware of the consequences of the two ways. As always, He has left the choice to obey or reject His words in our hands.

The thousand-year history of these people subsequent to the Jaredites records their division into two factions — Nephites and Lamanites. It seems they alternated roles at times. Sometimes the Nephites were righteous and prospered, and other times the Lamanites repented, were righteous and prospered. The key provision associated with prospering was remaining humble and repenting, so counter-intuitive to today's standards where we seem all too quick to arm ourselves and think our safety comes from being weighed down with nuclear arms. The fact we accumulate this weaponry is always couched politically as "defensive measures" to deter others from attacking us. However, recent history will show we have been quick to pull the trigger in the offensive use of our weaponry when we presume to police the hot spots in the world.

After Christ's post-resurrection visit to the land of America, when He ministered personally among them, all who survived the destruction accompanying His crucifixion — both Nephites and Lamanites — were “converted unto the Lord.” United as one in Christ, they built a society described this way:

There were no contentions and disputations among them [for about two hundred years!], and every man did deal justly one with another. . . There were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and. . . the Lord did prosper them exceedingly in the land.
Surely [concluded Mormon who abridged the record] there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God. (4 Nephi 1:2–7, 16).

However, after that happy interlude things began to change. Pride, and every accompaniment of evil that ensued, found place in the hearts of people. They turned away from the God of the land. They rejected Him. By the end of the fourth century A.D., as a result of contention, crime, and carnage, their civilization had disintegrated into chaos.

They had proven themselves unworthy of protection by the “might” of the God of the land, and the scattered remnants of these people dwindled in unbelief until they had reached the state of degradation in which Columbus found them when he landed on this continent.

Lehi, the first prophet who led his family and a few others to America in 600 B.C., prophesied “there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.” (2 Nephi 1:6).

No one who came here has escaped this everlasting decree “that whoso should possess [it] should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off. . . when they. . . are ripened in iniquity.” (Ether 2:8–9). The truth of the two ways is inescapable.

We who live in America today cannot escape this everlasting decree. And the Lord has said, “My word shall be verified at this time as it hath hitherto been verified.” (D&C 5:20).

Jesus Christ, the God and the King of this land, led Columbus to it.

He led the Pilgrims to Plymouth.

He sustained and gave victory to the colonists in their Revolutionary War against Great Britain and the tyrannical reign of King George.

He established the Constitution of the United States (see D&C 101:80).

Over a period of some twenty-six centuries He gave the revelation to scores of prophet leaders who authored of The Book of Mormon, detailing the lives of the former inhabitants of this land.

Moroni, at the direction of Jesus Christ, finished the record and hid it up in the Hill Cumorah, where, under His surveillance, it was safely preserved for some fourteen hundred years.

By the power of Jesus Christ, the God and the King of this land of America, the record was brought forth, translated, and published in 1830. Joseph Smith said he did it "by the gift and power of God." For over 180 years it has stood as a tireless message of the divinity of Jesus Christ to all who will receive it.

And so you ask, what does all of this mean to me today? Whether one accepts The Book of Mormon as scripture or not, Moroni provided an editorial comment after he had abridged and assembled all the records associated with the destruction of two vast civilizations that had inhabited the American continent. His sober reflections and warnings to us in the latter days provide the answer:

And this cometh unto you. . . that ye may know the decrees of God — that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done. (Ether 2:11).

I highlight these inescapable truths today as a warning against the ongoing anti-Christ trend in America today. The assaults against our liberty and our freedom continue unabated and they are accelerating at a pace I never imagined possible a few years ago. When government becomes the solution to every detail of our lives, we lose the freedoms God gave us. It is little wonder Connor Boyack was inspired to produce a masterful book, Latter-day Liberty. I commend its contents to you.

A backward glance helps put things into perspective. There is a useful list of atheists that may surprise you with some of the names. Others are more familiar. It should not be surprising they outnumber the true and living prophets by a wide margin, and their writings and teachings have gained significant traction in recent years.

My Dad has been routinely cleaning out his files, and he simply cannot throw any of it away so he gives most of it to me. It's really a scrap from his most recent pile that prompted today's blog post. Some years ago reference was made in a Deseret News editorial to “a super-duper, eager-beaver atheist” who “does not like Christianity” at all, “and is out to destroy it. . . In a national magazine [this atheist] is quoted as thundering from her ‘pulpit’ ‘Churches are leeches. . .’ Now that she has moved on prayer and Bible reading in U.S. public schools,” the editorial continues, “her next targets, it appears, are tax-exemptions for churches, ousting chaplains from the armed services and omission of ‘God’ in courtroom oaths, on money and in the pledge of allegiance.” (Norman Vincent Peale, Deseret News and Telegram, 3 July 1964). No one would doubt the anti-Christ agenda in America has accelerated since then.

There was another scrap in Dad's pile from an undated and unattributed magazine that advanced and argued the thesis that America is no longer “the Christian land of the Pilgrims.” It's probably something of the same vintage, so the arguments against Christianity in this country have abounded for many years, for the most part unchallenged.

Then my eye settled on another scrap, this one a Pew Research Center poll dated July 16, 2010. "By the year 2050, 41% of American believe that Jesus Christ definitely (23%) or probably (18%) will have returned to earth. However, a 46% plurality of the public does not believe Christ will return during the next 40 years. Fully 58% of white evangelical Christians say Christ will return to earth in this period, by far the highest percentage in any religious group. Only about a third of Catholics (32%) and even fewer white mainline Protestants (27%) predict Christ's return to earth by 2050. Among religiously unaffiliated Americans, 20% also see Christ returning during the next four decades."

Now don't misunderstand, I do not believe a public poll will either hasten or delay Christ's return. What this does demonstrate, however, is that a significant block of the inhabitants of America are either indifferent or openly hostile to the reality of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, and are ignoring His words as revealed in the scriptures and through living prophets. At the very least religious bigotry is certainly in evidence in this current presidential campaign.

President Marion G. Romney

President Marion G. Romney observed: "In distinguishing communism from the United Order, President David O. McKay said that communism is Satan’s counterfeit for the gospel plan, and that it is an avowed enemy of the God of the land. Communism is the greatest anti-Christ power in the world today and therefore the greatest menace not only to our peace but to our preservation as a free people. By the extent to which we tolerate it, accommodate ourselves to it, permit ourselves to be encircled by its tentacles and drawn to it, to that extent we forfeit the protection of the God of this land." (Ensign, September 1979, First Presidency Message).

Much earlier, President Romney cited a quote from President McKay with another sober warning: "Relying on that part of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which reads, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' the United States Supreme Court has ruled against Bible reading and prayer in public schools. By so doing, said President David O. McKay, 'the Supreme Court of the United States severs the connecting cord between the public schools of the United States and the source of divine intelligence, the Creator himself,' who, of course, is the God of this land." (Relief Society Magazine, December 1962, 878).

The inroads that creeping socialism have made in America need no further explanation. I have written previously about the reality we have all observed that we are in large measure a socialist government now. We say, I don't want socialism, but don't take away my Social Security benefits, my Medicare for my knee replacements, my Medicaid for my family members who can't afford coverage, and don't touch my food stamps. And how is such an attitude NOT socialism?

What I am advocating is that we no longer wrest meanings that aren't there from the First Amendment. Communism, socialism, atheism, secular humanism, or any other anti-Christ influence, must never be allowed to weaken our conviction further that Jesus Christ is the God and the King of this land. May nothing discourage our determination to obey His laws, so we may merit His divine protection as a free nation!

On such conviction and such obedience hang all our hopes so well expressed in Samuel F. Smith’s patriotic hymn:

Our fathers’ God to thee,
Author of liberty,
To thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light.
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King!
(Hymns, 339).



The acid test of our convictions can easily be judged by our eagerness or our indifference about a simple exercise in freedom. I speak of the caucus/nomination process. A poll released today said more than half of the residents of Utah have no intention of attending. 72% reported they didn't know where to attend. It's not that hard - go to utgop.org. It's another test of the two ways:

Either we engage in freedom's liberties, or we ignore our God-given privileges.

Mitt Romney and Capitalism's Last Gasp

This could easily be classed as "the last gasp for capitalism and supply side economics" if Obama is re-elected:

Some 9/11 Lessons Ten Years Later

This morning I responded to a letter to the editor criticizing the caucus/nominating process here in Utah. Routinely, I read these types of letters complaining about how intimidating and unaccommodating the physical arrangements tend to be at the grassroots level in politics.

Ground Zero Memorial

I have been watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's tribute to the victims and first responders to the tragedy that befell us as a nation ten years ago today. They have been singing "Amazing Grace" in a moving reminder we are all stumbling and bumbling children of our Heavenly Father. We often don't get it right and need His help to sustain us. In the grace He offers us, we can give as good as we get.

The Jews in the time of Jesus were looking for a Messiah to deliver them from their afflictions. That's not what He did. The changes we all long for in external circumstances rarely happen. George Will observed our self-inflicted wounds are the most difficult to heal, despite all our memorials. Only we can look inside to cure what ails us now. We cannot heal every single shortcoming of America's political landscape.



Instead, Jesus Christ changes us from within when we accept His grace and hope for the future. He never changes. He is constant, ever present and all-knowing. In the immediacy of the moments of crisis in our lives, we sometimes want everything healed and made better in an instant. However, in the struggle in the quiet moments of our misery and greatest need, there is often growth in the grappling for answers. If all our complaints were immediately lifted from us with only the need for a quick whispered prayer, there would be no stretching, no magnification, no growth. When we finally give up asking the "Why?" questions, we are delivered.

Now as they conclude their program, the Choir is beginning to sing the stirring unofficial anthem of 9/11, Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." In his words we found comfort and a pledge for renewal and unity unlike anything I have witnessed in my lifetime. Two years ago I reflected on the meaning of 9/11 in a historical context linked with prophecy. On last year's anniversary the controversy was swirling over the building of the mosque at Ground Zero, and I wrote about the emerging hate speech atmosphere.

When Major League Baseball resumed its schedule following the events of 9/11, the seventh inning stretch was highlighted every game thereafter with inspiring versions of the song as flags are unfurled. It's a fragile feeling that dissipates all too easily if not consciously remembered.

Even when we don't deserve our blessings as a free nation under God and we are often ungrateful for what we have received in abundance, I hope we never fail to remember what makes America great. We have liberty to the degree it has never been realized in the world since its inception.

Unity at Ground Zero

It's one thing to criticize our country and its political processes. I do it routinely when I feel we are being led astray. I must remind myself the world is full of critics. Let's have a constructive conversation about how to improve the process of freedom and liberty. No matter how great we have been, "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance," according to Thomas Jefferson. As Thomas Paine said, "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." I welcome your comments on this page.

And while I'm thinking about that, let me express my gratitude to all of you who take time to seek out this page. Last week we topped 100,000 visitors. Thanks for the love and support!

In the exercise of our freedom here in America, I believe the Utah caucus/nominating convention process is the best demonstration anywhere of representative government in this Republic of ours. If there are tactical inconveniences associated with gathering in freedom and being able to see the blessing of free speech on display, and if it's intimidating to some, then so be it.

Democracy was never intended to be convenient or easy. Often it's messy and uncomfortable. But if you shrink and stay away, fail to make your voice heard, and refuse to participate at the grassroots level, who knows what might have happened if you had been there?

If there is a profound and lasting lesson of 9/11 it is that we must never forget the priceless freedoms we enjoy in this land. Ten years later Osama bin Laden is dead. However, the ongoing victory must never be measured on the battlefield. Freedom is so transitory in its nature, we must be willing to do even the little bit we can, each of us, to sustain it. To fail to participate (and Utah has an abysmal record of participation in the electoral process) is to abdicate and surrender the privileges of citizenship in a land governed by the rule of law where the sovereign is the people themselves.

At Gettysburg, it was Abraham Lincoln who said: "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced." His words are still true today.

That's a blessing worth preserving for our children, even if it's messy and inconvenient.

Having it Both Ways in America

In case you hadn't noticed recently, we have a bi-polar political atmosphere in America. For far too long we have wanted to have it both ways -- entitlements and fiscal restraint. Whenever an impasse over those two polar extremes has presented itself, the two parties have compromised.

Now it seems we have compromised ourselves into a box canyon with nowhere to go. Here's the full S&P analysis for your reading pleasure. Having rejected the guidance of the rating agencies, S&P this week announced the jig is up. For the first time in the history of credit ratings, America has fallen from atop its perch as a AAA credit risk. What follows are the highlights from yesterday's S&P report on their decision to lower the long-term rating to AA+, while the short-term rating is even worse at A-1+:

Overview
· We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United
States of America to 'AA+' from 'AAA' and affirmed the 'A-1+' short-term
rating.
· We have also removed both the short- and long-term ratings from
CreditWatch negative.
· The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan
that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of
what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's
medium-term debt dynamics.
· More broadly, the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness,
stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political
institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic
challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a
negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011.
· Since then, we have changed our view of the difficulties in bridging the
gulf between the political parties over fiscal policy, which makes us
pessimistic about the capacity of Congress and the Administration to be
able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal
consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics any
time soon.
· The outlook on the long-term rating is negative. We could lower the
long-term rating to 'AA' within the next two years if we see that less
reduction in spending than agreed to, higher interest rates, or new
fiscal pressures during the period result in a higher general government
debt trajectory than we currently assume in our base case. (Emphasis mine).

Last week, the American people rendered their own verdict in a recent NYT public opinion poll that overwhelmingly (82%) rejected Congress and its handling of the people's business over the debt crisis. That's a new high for disapproval ratings of a Congress. We seem to be breaking new ground in America every day now, and it's not exactly comforting familiar territory we are claiming.

In short, the two-party system in politics must be declared a failure.

There are those who maintain a split government is what the American people prefer, electing some Republicans here, some Democrats there, and putting an occupant of the White House in place to try to bring peace between the warring factions. As S&P notes in their report:

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as
America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective,
and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt
ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in
the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year's wide-ranging debate, in our
view, the differences between political parties have proven to be
extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting
agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program
that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently. Republicans and
Democrats have only been able to agree to relatively modest savings on
discretionary spending while delegating to the Select Committee decisions on
more comprehensive measures. It appears that for now, new revenues have
dropped down on the menu of policy options. In addition, the plan envisions
only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements,
the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.
Our opinion is that elected officials remain wary of tackling the
structural issues required to effectively address the rising U.S. public debt
burden in a manner consistent with a 'AAA' rating and with 'AAA' rated
sovereign peers (see Sovereign Government Rating Methodology and Assumptions,"June 30, 2011, especially Paragraphs 36-41). In our view, the difficulty in framing a consensus on fiscal policy weakens the government's ability tomanage public finances and diverts attention from the debate over how to
achieve more balanced and dynamic economic growth in an era of fiscalstringency and private-sector deleveraging (ibid). A new political consensus might (or might not) emerge after the 2012 elections, but we believe that by then, the government debt burden will likely be higher, the needed medium-term fiscal adjustment potentially greater, and the inflection point on the U.S. population's demographics and other age-related spending drivers closer at hand (see "Global Aging 2011: In The U.S., Going Gray Will Likely Cost Even More Green, Now," June 21, 2011). (Emphasis mine).

Now, one may argue this report is from S&P, the same corrupt rating agency that gave us AAA on securitized sub-prime mortgage debt instruments that put us in this debacle in the first place. They would say S&P sold their credibility for a mess of pottage, and how dare they come forward now with this negative assessment of U.S. creditworthiness.

"The Enemy Is Us"

However, I would argue that any rational and open-minded individual with half a brain in his or her head, regardless of which party label you wear, would come to precisely the same conclusions stated above by S&P. As part of the retiring, graying, aging population known as the "baby boomers," but speaking strictly for myself alone, I echo the sentiments and embrace S&P's conclusions. "We have seen the enemy, and it is us."

At a time when the bubble in an aging population is expanding and pushing its way through the shrinking access to cradle-to-grave-government-welfare knothole, the number paying into our entitlement programs is decreasing, putting additional strains on the system. Add that demographic reality to a dysfunctional two-party political family and you have the perfect storm for destruction of the free market economy (if we ever truly had one).

Entitlement reform of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security is relatively simple now, but as this last round of discussions between the bi-polar political class demonstrated, they seem to lack the political willpower to get the job done we elected them to do. Why? Because there is a persistent belief among politicians that to get re-elected they must continue to dole out the candy from the government in order to win favor among the electorate in order to get re-elected. If allowed to perpetuate, this is a formula for disaster.

Even in the wake of negative polling data and now a public reprimand for our "political brinksmanship," the professional politicos do not seem to be deterred in their entrenched positions. They stand in their respective ideological corners of the ring and shout at each other, then occasionally the sparring escalates to verbal abuse, but then they "make nice" for a season, crown their bickering with yet another "compromise" hailed in language like, "It isn't a perfect bill, but we've done the best we could under the circumstances."

Three Ideas to Save America

So what are the options going forward? I would suggest three things:

1. Elect people to represent us who are apolitical who refuse to pledge allegiance to a political party. In the short term, they may have to adopt a banner of one or the other party to get on the ticket (we've seen how impotent third-party candidates can be). However, it is my growing opinion the more they lean libertarian, the more acceptable they will be in the ensuing years ahead. Think how radical Ron Paul, for example, sounded in  the 2008 election cycle, and witness how prophetic his predictions have proven to be. Yes, we are a house divided, in truth we have been since our inception, but we must now reinvent ourselves to survive as a nation. I would define "reinvent" as "unite" under the banner of freedom and throw off the tyranny of a government that refuses to be responsive to the wishes of the governed.

2. Get involved in the political arena to the degree we are able, and don't shrink from participation or voicing your opinion to change things from the toxic status quo. Standing under an ideological banner represented by our two political parties in America and yelling from across the ring at each other is no longer productive or useful (if it ever was). This will require intelligence, self-directed philosophical anchoring, independence and a willingness to not count the costs personally. All that is required is to do what is right for America without regard to what may be politically expedient.

3. Re-enthrone God as the center of your universe if you haven't already. Governor Rick Perry (R-TX), raised eyebrows by announcing a day of fasting and prayer in Texas "for a nation in peril." And someone tell me why that would be thought to be a radical idea? We have paid allegiance to our elected representatives, the parties they have represented and the ideologies they purport for far too long. The net result has been near-catastrophic, but it is not too late. If there are any lessons we can learn from history, it is that when the people of this land have gotten themselves into a dicey place, they have always turned to God with their allegiance and they have been delivered when they have turned to Him.

So our future as America looms before us and the foreboding decisions are brooding over us, awaiting our collective decisions. We are still free to choose.

A New Path in 2012, or the Same ol', Same ol'?

Will we do something different as a nation in 2012, throw off the yoke of a stifling class of politicians who have done little more than try to perpetuate their electability, or will we embrace a new direction and vote for those who will administer the distasteful but healing tonic of truth and demand better of themselves and us as a nation?

We have miles to go as a nation before we sleep, and today we stand at a crossroads. These are only some of the questions begging for an answer:

• Will we continue to opt for divided government ensuring more gridlock, or will we give one party the reins to Congress and the White House? Who is trustworthy?
• Will we pick between needed fiscal restraint and more unsustainable debt, or continue to compromise on a path down the middle leading nowhere but into oblivion? 
• Will we continue to uphold a two-party system of government, or will a third party, CAN a third party emerge behind which all freedom-loving people can unite and throw off the false traditions of two-party rule that have gradually overtaken us as a stealthy thief in the night? 
• Can anyone truly believe we can continue to have it both ways with an expanding dose of progressive government designed to save everyone with a domestic social safety net (one in seven Americans is now on food stamps), and a commensurate offsetting dose of government devoted to expanding the military-industrial complex designed to spread democracy everywhere?
• While both parties have laudable goals, can we chart a new direction or have we lost our will to do do something different? 
• Will we ever be able to reclaim the American dream through easy credit at low rates and a stable, predictable store of value in home equity, or will we become a nation of renters? 
• How long will it take for us to put America back on a stable economic footing? (Most plans being put forward today are operating on a ten-year assumption for achieving a balanced federal budget.) 
• Where will we find people to represent us who can shun the party labels and ideologies to get the job done in framing our future?

This much is certain in my mind -- we stand on firm ground only when we worship the God of Israel. All other gods before us are impotent and cannot save us now.

Nothing to Fear

I raise my voice, in summary, to the youth of this country, to believing members of churches everywhere, and to my own children and grandchildren. There is nothing to fear. Live your lives, make your plans for the future in the constant hope of your deliverance. You do have a future. . . the path leads toward ZION, and the journey has just begun. Click the link and discover for yourselves where we are going.

With all the God-given promises and prophecies before you, do not let yourselves be stampeded by the fears and the panic of the crowds about you. Here's a small sample:

"And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite; yea, even so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion." (2 Nephi 27:3).

I sense fear and doubts sweeping over the hearts and entering into the minds of good people. Don't ever forget who propagates fear at its roots. They are the minions of Satan who would embroil us in wars and foreign intrigues, against which we have been warned by our founders. They are those who would tell you without government programs and stimulus and profligate deficits and debt, we cannot be safe and secure. They would tell you the government has to rescue everyone, even those who are deemed "too big to fail."

Well, poppycock.

We must be determined to throw off the wisdom of men in the days that lie ahead. We must not act as though subjugation by a foreign enemy is inevitable. Or that debt will swamp our ship of state. Those are false choices, and they are not inevitable. That day will come only if we reach a "fulness of iniquity." I still believe that finality is in the "if" column, not the "when" column. No matter how dark or dreary the path ahead may appear, America still has a future. Our future, however, is not threatened so much by foreign enemies as it seems to be with decay from within. Whether Communist-inspired or not, the effects seem to be more than coincidental.

We must not fail to take on the horrors of evil as they become manifested. It is faith and righteousness this nation now stands in need of, not more bristling armaments and unaffordable social entitlement programs to defend us and our allies abroad and "save" us here at home in supposed comfort and ease through government-mandated redistribution of our wealth with more entitlements. We have reached the tipping point on who we will become, but our fate and doom is NOT cast in stone just yet. We can take counsel from our past instead of our fears of the future.

Columbus and Settlement of America

A thousand years after the Nephites were destroyed, Columbus came. He was among the first to become aware of its existence. For a hundred years thereafter the Lamanites were thrashed by the invading Spanish conquistadors, and were stagnated in a state of wickedness from which they never emerged after they finally destroyed the Nephites. Truly, the scriptures were fulfilled -- they did "afflict the seed of Lehi." (2 Nephi 10:18). The visions and prophecies of Lehi, Nephi, and Jacob were all fulfilled.

Then in the seventeenth century, the English, the French and others began settling the sprawling uncharted land of America. The day of the Gentiles began. The sad history of our nation proved to be yet another era of fulfillment as the scattering of the Lamanites ensued. Those same ancient prophets saw and predicted it, a scattering which may not yet be fully finished as we witness undocumented immigrants spilling over our borders continuously today to occupy America. (1 Nephi 15:17).

The earliest Gentile settlers came to escape religious persecution. So why in America of all places would a Governor of Texas today be thought somehow strange for inviting (not commanding) his people to offer up their fasting and prayers? We forget so easily that to escape the persecutions of the Old World, our forefathers came here to the New World, and they were a hodge-podge of religious Christians.

Our records find the Puritans in New England, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Catholics in Maryland, the Huguenots in Virginia and the Carolinas, the Lutherans in Georgia and other Gentile colonies. They came because they believed they could prosper in this "chosen land of the Lord." For them the land was a "consecrated" land. They envisioned liberty, freedom and they forged the future together while retaining the uniqueness of their respective heritages, customs and cultures.

They prospered financially, they grew religiously, but they went farthest and fastest in the development of their political doctrines. Looking back, one sees the unseen power of God guiding them year by year, harvest by harvest, factory by factory, home by home. They planned, they worked tirelessly, and what was their goal? To make this country exactly what Jacob had said it was to be, "a land of liberty unto the Gentiles." (2 Nephi 10:11).

God Himself was moving the minds and souls of those whom Lehi said would be "led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord," (2 Nephi 1:6), moving them toward a future of unrestrained spiritual and material prosperity.

The Colonies

The stirrings within our forefathers in the original thirteen colonies should capture the imagination of every young person in America today. But I fear we have forsaken history and they may not be taught without intervention from those of us who are older. Our earliest inhabitants were caught up in the French and Indian wars. George Washington had his first lessons in commanding men in battle, and for the most part he was so miserable as a tactic commander he felt completely inadequate when asked to command the Continental Army later.

The purpose of those early skirmishes on this land of freedom were for motives our European mother countries espoused and had nothing to do with emerging American thinking. The wisdom of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would evolve based upon these formative experiences. They believed we had no business mixing in European affairs. If only we could believe it today, but the wickedness came to our doorstep in Pearl Harbor and New York, and since 9/11, I fear our national psyche has been altered forever.

Our forefathers were "brought out" by the hand of God to forge a better path, inherit a far brighter destiny. They were separated from the Old World to build a new and mighty nation together, to become united in a land of liberty. They truly did consecrate the land to this purpose.

President J. Reuben Clark

President J. Reuben Clark, long accused of being a pacifist in his teachings and writings, observed in 1940, "How vain for us to join with those against whom we are to be fortified, with those who shall perish if they fight against us." He warned against the foreign intrigues of World War II, until America's involvement became inevitable and unavoidable when Pearl Harbor was attacked. We have found ample justifications for war ever since, most recently in that war in Libya -- you know, the one in which we would only be involved for a matter of "days not weeks." We continue to fight three foreign wars against almost invisible enemies. We killed Osama bin Laden, but his expressed goal to destroy us lives on in the jihad.

The War of Independence

Our ancestors claimed this land by the shedding of their own blood. With the aid of France, they fought and won the War of Independence from Great Britain against all odds. When we consult the scriptural accounts, there is little doubt Nephi foretold what he saw in a futuristic vision. We were "delivered by the power of God out of the hands of all other nations." (1 Nephi 13:19). Note that word "delivered." It repeats again and again in The Book of Mormon. This prophecy was to have a more complete fulfillment later, but God was moving us toward our ordained destiny as a nation, toward unnumbered blessings.

George Washington and King George

George Washington

Prophetic fulfillment continued at the end of the Revolutionary War. Once again, Jacob: "There shall be no kings upon this land." (2 Nephi 10:11). All Washington had to do was reach out and take it if he desired -- the grateful nation would have gladly crowned him King of America. In his wisdom, however, Washington's desire was to return to his beloved Mount Vernon, now wasted in disrepair and neglect because of his long and devoted service to his fellowmen. But he was denied his return to Mount Vernon, serving another eight years as the first and only president to be elected unanimously in the electoral college. Without knowing of Jacob's prophecy, however, he fulfilled it to the letter and established a precedent that there should be no kings here. He retired after two terms as president, not wanting to die in office, fearing that if he did succession to his office as president would be something other than intended by the founders.

God had seemingly pushed us forward one more vital step toward our our collective destiny. The blessing for which we seldom express adequate gratitude -- from that early formative time until now kings and emperors, potentates and dictators have never prospered on this land.

The Constitution

Recognizing the inadequacy to govern thirteen independent Colonies, the representatives of the people voluntarily came together "to form a more perfect union," as they put it.

We had won our freedom from Great Britain, but our ancestors were near losing it in the aftermath. Fragility was everywhere. The Constitutional Convention met and out of that collaboration, that glorious compromise,  came our God-inspired Constitution. Gladstone would later declare it to be "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man."

The Lord Himself bore witness of its origins: "I established the Constitution of this land by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose." Then He added meaningfully in reference to how it was obtained, "and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood." (D&C 101:80). Freedom is NEVER free.

The Lord declared the purpose of this Constitution when He said that it "should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh." (D&C 101:77). It thus became a document for a nation to be governed, and to provide a beacon of hope to all living flesh on earth.

What was accomplished in those early formative times was the setting up of a government under the guidance of God Himself, a government that made this land the kind of land Lehi and his son Jacob had foreseen and prophesied about. It was "a land of liberty."

Once again, the Lord had moved us forward towards our destiny. He had bestowed upon us another blessing. And once again our own actions have put that vision at risk and opened the doors to our self-inflicted peril if we fail now to remember our history.

What was this glorious plan of the Lord to look like in practice, this "glorious banner" established by the hands of wise men whom He had raised up for this very purpose? Consider with me what we received:

Three Branches of Government

It gave us, for perhaps the first time in all history, a republic with the three basic divisions of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial, mutually and completely independent the one from the other, under which it is not possible for any branch of government legally to set up a system by which that branch can first conceive what it wants to do, then make the law ordering its doing, and then itself, judge its own enforcement of its own law, a system that has always brought extortion, oppression, intimidation, tyranny, despotism, a system that every dictator has employed and must employ. May we never unravel those underpinnings.

Benjamin Franklin

And when it was done, a questioner asked Benjamin Franklin, the first American, “Well, Doctor, what have we got — a Republic or a Monarchy?” To which Franklin replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

In the sweltering heat of the negotiations recently concluded in Washington, Franklin's response still resonates. We know we can keep our Republic, the question looms. . . Will we?


No longer can we have it both ways.