'This is essentially a people's contest. It is a struggle
for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose
leading object is to elevate the condition of men; to lift artificial weights
from all shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford
all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life. Yielding to
partial and temporary departures, from necessity, this is the leading object of
the Government for whose existence we contend.'This quote by from Abraham Lincoln sounds relevant to today’s political climate. We do well to study the past and harken to the wisdom of great people like Lincoln who struggled and overcame a far greater challenge then anything we've seen in our lifetime.
Where have all the great people gone today? Do we have a Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Adams (John and Abigail), Madison (James and Dolly), a Roosevelt (Teddy and FDR), or a Martin Luther King, or Robert Kennedy for our time? Will we see the likes of people with great virtue, courage, and wisdom again? John Adams believed so. In fact, he was concerned that the great men of the American Revolution would be enshrined as legends and gods (see the Capitol Rotunda Painting of Washington ascending as a God) in the hearts of future generation, who, forgetting that these were mere men, believe that the people of our nation can never attain to their level of virtue. He believed that the times called for men to awake from their slumber and arise to the greatest challenge of their time.
The Founding Fathers didn’t know what they were doing exactly but they rose to the challenge. The one constant in the pathology of these “Great Revolutionary” men was education. All had been educated formerly or in formerly concerning history, philosophy and religion. Most if not all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence earned a Liberal Arts degree from the leading universities, many of which still exist today. The success of the American Revolution was largely based on educated men responding wisely and courageously. You could say “they were born for such a time as this”, but so are we.
Quoting Abigail Adams, “These are times in which a genius
would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a
pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous
mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out
great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by the scenes that engage
the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into
life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”
We have the ability in this nation to deal with the issues affecting our
country but must rid ourselves of the avarice of politicians who seek not the
good of the country but their own ends. We the people must stand against the
subjugation of the weak and poor in this country. We must rise against special
interests and organizations who seek their own good over the good of the common
wealth of these United States. We do well to study history and listen to voices
past about our future.
"Oh posterity, you
will never know how much it cost us to preserve your freedom. I hope that you
will make a good use of it, for if you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I
ever took half the pains to preserve it."
John Adams
"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into
two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in
opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as
the greatest political evil under our Constitution. "John Adams
No comments:
Post a Comment