Welcome friends, family and other endangered Americans!
Well, I am finally getting back into the writing vein. Many of you may know that I have written numerous articles, op-eds, letters, etc. over the last 15 years. My pronouncements have appeared in newspapers, magazines, journals and newsletters of various types. The predominant theme was always politics and the culture. In recent years, my commentaries have come less frequently for various reasons that I don’t need to detail here.
In any event, I have been struggling of late with the gnawing feeling that I need to re-engage; get back in the fight.
My daughter Kristin can be blamed in part for my decision to hold forth in this relatively new format. She started a blog called “My Jar of Oil” a while back and she is really doing a great job with it. I’m gonna tell all of you right now that she is using her blog for all the best reasons. She talks freely about her family and her faith. I’m very, very proud of her. (She has a real cute little boy named Joel too!) Ayway, I plan to use mine to engage all who are willing in an ongoing discussion of the “permanent things” – along with some pretty important subordinate issues such as liberty, common sense and patriotism.
Kristin recently gave me a really touching 50th birthday present on her blog. She posted some pics of the earlier years of our family. She also had some sweet and funny memories (also a convenient case of selective amnesia). Commenting on her posting, her mother and my wife, Tonya mentioned that no one had better start a conversation with me about America if they didn’t intend to learn something new. Well. I don’t know about that. Wives tend to say things about their husbands that may be a little embellished (any number of ways!). I will admit that I have strong convictions about God and country. I say what I think – ocassionally with tact. But, I am convinced that Americans need to have a serious discussion right now about what kind of country we will be in the next 5, 25 or 100 years, should we all be here that long.
In short, do we know what liberty really is and do we have the courage and patience to reclaim and preserve it for our children and grandchildren?
I recently had the privilege of writing a personal letter to my son-in-law Travis. He was on a spiritual retreat during which he had some extended quiet time to read letters from friends and family. Travis is a blessing from God, an answer to a father’s prayer. He loves his God, he loves my daughter and his young son. I struggled for a few days with what I would say. Of course, I talked about spiritual matters, but I also felt led to talk about the job he will have in teaching my grandson Joel how to be a free man. I encouraged him to be vigilant, pay attention to the subtle ways that he and his family would be tested. He, and all of us have a job ahead. If God sees fit to leave this old world here for a while longer, I want to make sure it is as free and prosperous as it can be.
You know what? I believe America will be free again and come to know again those “self-evident” truths. But, it won’t be an easy job. Nothing worthwhile ever is. We must educate ourselves and each other. We will have to be persistent and patient.
This blog will be one weapon in my battle. Oh, I’ll talk about other things as well. After all, for a Christan, isn’t there a kingdom we should be seeking? I just believe, as our Founders did, that liberty is a gift from God. As such we should steward the gift of freedom as carefully as any other. Who are we to quench one of God’s gifts, to decide that future generations should not experience it as we have?
I’ll close this first offering with a great quote. I use it on the scrolling marquis screensaver on my laptop. That way people get to see it and ask me about it:
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
Samuel Adams
May 19, 2009 at 10:49 PM |
This is great Brett! I miss our converstaions from the past, and enjoy your points of view- Yes, I often did learn something new! Do you mind if I pass your blog link along? My Sister is a real grass roots gal from whom I also learn the lastest, “going ons’ and I think she too would enjoy what’s on your mind.
Nice hearing about your family- My best wishes to them all!
Buzzy
May 20, 2009 at 8:40 AM |
I miss our conversations too, and please do pass the link on to anyone who might be interested.
May 20, 2009 at 2:37 PM |
This will be a good blog. Ill pass it around to some family on Travis’s side and some others who I know will enjoy it.
‘Freedom’, ‘liberty’ and ‘Kingdom’ are all still buzz words in some ways to this generation and the ones behind me (I guess I’m not the youngest generation anymore.) The words just may conjur up different ideas, debates and issues than they used to, although not entirely.
How do you balance some things…keeping the ones that should be subordinate (say, to the Kingdom that is most important to the whole world) as such, and the things that are most important to be and say and live also as such? You touched on that a little.
Maybe the ways that God will really change things or keep things the way He wants them are different than what has been predominantly thought by Christians in our culture in the past. And, there are things that older generations undertstand that should not be forgotten by the younger ones.
Anyway, I bet a lot of this will come up in here!
May 20, 2009 at 9:48 PM |
Hi, Brett, I’m Travis’ Aunt, Robby’s Sister, AND little JOEL’S Great Aunt (proudly). We love Kristin. Travis won himself a great girl, and we are thankful! Kristin shared your blog with me, and I love it! Yes, I agree with you that we need to educate each other. I really try to make it my practice to call my Senators and Representatives re: various issues being “batted around” in Congress. Thankfully, here in Arlington, we have pretty conservative representation. Even though I am preaching to the choir, I still think it is our duty to let our Congressmen know how we feel and that we support them or disagree with them. I’ll never forget my high school Government teacher, Jon Bradford, at Richland High School. He had a banner hanging in the corner of our classroom with the quote, “ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY.” That statement rings SO TRUE, especially now, as the liberals are trying to take us over and destroy the very foundations of our Great Nation! Thanks for your efforts; we will enjoy reading your entries.
Bethany McGregor
May 21, 2009 at 9:18 AM |
Thanks, Bethany. I agree that we tend to think we don’t need to keep in contact with those few politicians we actually agree with. They need to hear from us as well, if only so they know someone listens and appreciates their courage and conviction. But, it is more fun to tweak the noses of the liberals isn’t it?
June 2, 2009 at 10:53 PM |
I have to be on guard to enter in a political discussion these days, as it normally turns out very depressing for me, leaving me exhausted and in a very uncivilized and un-Christian frame of mind. I become very negative and over critical of our societal evolution that continues to back slide into socialistic humanism. And there I go, all in one brash statement, throwing me into that unholy realm of of disgust and disdain for what America has become. I perceive the average citizen; lazy, self centered, unpatriotic to the point of questioable allegience, and worst of all, completely accepting of all religious doctrine for the sake of “fariness and equality” to all, regardless of the one true God; and for what? For the laxidaisical desire to just “get along” with everyone for political correctness, thereby losing all sense of what IS truly “right and wrong” in the fear of not adequately describing every heathen’s definition? Please! When did we become such a nation of mice, let alone SHEEP, falling every notion of the liberal activist’s calling? We as a majority of people, (a nation), have become lazy, politically and righteously ignorant, and total oblivious to the kind of patriotism that cost so many precious lives which bought us our freedoms in the first place; which we mostly now take for granted.
This is why, for so much of my reasoning of what God MAY allow us; the strong desire of a complete breakdown of America; a long overdo punishmnent, if you will, to teach us all a lesson – if that’s what it truly takes to turn us back around on the path of righteousness. Even for those of us who have remained faithful to follow God and uphold the laws and freedoms of this once great land, I consider it “Noahism” if you will, that whatever the cost of penitance and pain, socialism and liberal decadence, those of us who stay faithful to the end, will reap their rewards beyond this life. And for that I say, “bring it on.” I will stand proudly as a minority of God’s children doing what is STILL right regardless of what is seen as folly in the eyes of the wicked.
For those of us who refuse to give in to the ways of the wicked, even to live in this coming “new World Order America,” with one world currency, and some micro chip under our skin to allow us any freedoms whatsoever, (laugh all you want and don’t be shocked when it begins), our reward will come in the next life, as our faith will be tested in persecution as we have forseen in the one and only book of truth ever written that gives us history, current events, and prophecy. And for all of that realm of possibiltiy of persecution, unlike this generation’s experiences, I can once again overcome disdain with joy! For my life will have been tested and the next one yet begun, but faithfully entrusted to the One of highest authority, my Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ! Come what may, for God rules my life, not godless wicked men. Therefore, as God fearing devout and faithful patriots, we shall live on in death. AS Patrick Henry once wrote, “Give me liberty or give me death!” To this I say, for today’s era of ignorant change, “Give me back the freedoms once gained and already died for, or give me death as well! And may my death honor God supremely above all else.”
July 20, 2009 at 4:06 PM |
Hello, I am Jan (Huffstutter) Page from Denver, CO. I was trying to find Bennie’s phone number for my Mom (Charlotte Huffstutter) and found you blog. Any thing that gives energy and attention to trying to preserve our country’s values – I am all for. Please tell Tonya hello for me. She, Lance and Mark were in a band with my brother, Kim and me. We have some wonderful shared memories. Grace and Peace, Jan