First of all, let’s make it clear that this is not a commercial for Nike. In fact you can wear almost any kind of footwear and take advantage of the ideas discussed here. However, as the phrase tells us, there are times when you just have to set aside personal hang ups, fears and lack of confidence and quit waiting for someone else to get things done. In the Richmond area this weekend we saw the folks that pulled off the Richmond Tea Party put together an event that attracted up to two thousand people who love their country and are looking to see how they can help.

Most of these people were either never politically active or had dropped out of the effort sometime in years past. They were not professional organizers, political, community or otherwise. Yet they pulled together representatives from around fifteen organizations, attract a couple thousand people and television coverage. They filled the Chesterfield County Fairgrounds with organizational displays, food vendors, games for the children and even a couple of dunking booths for the older children.

These average citizens found themselves pulled form their yard work, honey do lists, even time from their jobs and businesses. What pulled them away from the more mundane tasks that occupy most of us? Most likely it was the same thing that thing that caused you to begin reading this post… a recognition that things are not right in our wonderful country, and a desire to set them so.

The problem most Americans have today is that they will take part in events and programs that have been established for them. How often have you heard the phrase, “somebody should do something about that”? It’s a common malady among those of us who have been conditioned and encouraged to look to government programs to do things for us. They like it that way as it gives the statists control over our attention and direction.

This is precisely what these good organizers see as wrong with our country. Our government was established under the concept they its’ power was derived from the people and was the servant of the people. This clearly is no longer the case. The courts, along with the passive and complicit congress have long since stopped listening to the citizens. Often the will of the people is not only ignored, but the elites running government actually take us in exactly the opposite direction.

So waiting for a government program to fix our nations’ ills is like waiting for a thunderstorm in the Sahara… it is not going to happen. These people, and thousands of tea party organizers throughout the country, have decided to look in the mirror to see who will answer the call and get the job done.

If you have the same frustrations as many of us who believe in the United States of America and see the results of the sacrifices of our forefathers coming to naught, look up the people in your area trying to organize such events and spread the word. If you can’t find anyone… be one. It’s an adventure you will find tiring and exhilarating.

Oh the other hand, if you still don’t think you want get involved, consider James 2:20 which tells us “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” The same applies to concern about your friends, neighbors or your country.

Take the first steps. Don’t worry about the results. They are not in your hands anyway. Whatever the results, if you give it your best… even if you don’t accomplish everything you want, at least you can tell your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews that you fought the good fight and did not just let our country go down the tubes. Also keep in mind the fact that the world is run by those who show up. Don’t let everything up to others who may not share your values and concerns.

There are almost as many answers to this question of what it will take to the our country back on track as there are people who try to answer it. There is an answer that has worked in the past but is being practiced by far to few. II Chronicles 7:14 tells us, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Many of us, myself included, spend far too much time plotting, scheming and complaining and not enough following this advice.

Christians have had a hand in the creation of the mess as we tend to stay wrapped up in our own little world, not actively working to make our country a better place to live for everyone. The blame is not ours alone, but we can be the ones to set things straight. The founding fathers recognized the need for divine guidance and protection as they broke away from Great Britain to start a new nation based on rights given by our creator rather than granted by a monarch.

The Declaration of Independence declares: “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States...”

This past Sunday my pastor talked about this very thing. He commented that, “We can't expect our land to be different if we aren't going to be different.” We've all tried complaining. Some of us have tried getting involved in the political system. Some have tried prayer.

So what can me change? I have a humble suggestion for us to consider. Why don't we consider dropping the first and combining the other two actions. We are commanded to pray for our country and our leaders. But that is not enough. Prayer is an expression of faith but James 2:17 tells us “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Actions work in two ways. One is to start doing something neglected in the past. The other is to stop doing something we have been doing. We don't like to think about the “turn from their wicked ways” part too much. However recently we've seen “secret sins” come back to both Senator John Ensign and Governor Mark Sanford. Everyone thought they were great men destined for even bigger things, but there was a cancer in their lives that brought them down.

The recent tragedy of football great Steve McNair showed that results of going our own way can be deadly. As a friend of mine commented at the time, “You put yourself somewhere you shouldn't be, this is the kind of stuff that happens.” While we may not be doing these specific things, each of us may have areas of our lives where we have gone along with the crowd where we shouldn't have. True, none of us are perfect, but if we expect divine blessing on our efforts, can we continue to turn a blind eye to things we know are not right?

This two prong approach has got to be better than any one alone. For those who have been doing both, congratulations, you get it! Don't get complacent. Just keep on keeping on. For those of us who have been a little lax in one one, or both areas, it's time to get to pick up the pace. Our country is on a downhill slide... and picking up speed. It's time to fight the battle in the streets and on our knees.

One more thing, it is up to us. It's not up to Barack Obama. It's not up to Barney Frank. It's not up to Nancy Pelosi. It's not up to Harry Reid. The verse says “my people”. That is those who read and understand the word of the creator are responsible. The others have no basis of understanding, they don't know any better than what they are doing. So let us work together as brothers and sisters, recognizing that we have access to all the power of the universe... if only we put ourselves in a position to use it.


For some prayer suggestions, check out http://www.politicalchristian.org/pray.html .

Way too early on the morning of July 4, I rode into our nations capitol with a bus load of patriots from Chester VA. As we passed the Pentagon and followed the Southwest Freeway across the bridge into Washingon DC, passing the Jefferson Memorial, I heard a comment that it used to be exciting coming into the city and visit the famous landmarks, but now it was depressing. It seems the government buildings and the city itself no longer represented the beacon of freedom we heard about as we grew up, but had become a symbol of oppression and a drain on the American people.

Several thousand people from all over the country gathered in Upper Senate Park in the shadow of the halls of congress. Speakers came from all over he country as well and said some mighty fine things. However, what they said was not nearly as important as the fact that we were standing together on a beautiful summer day, within stones throw of the Capitol (to my knowledge no physical stones were thrown), meeting new friends, fellow patriots, from about twenty to twenty five different states.

We had a great time encouraging each other and just enjoying the company of people who love their country. I'm sure this was the case at every other party around America the Beautiful. I'm sure everyone left inspired by new ideas and with a fresh enthusiasm to continue the fight to preserve our country.

The test of the experience will be rolling out of bed Monday morning, Tuesday morning and every other day that follows. We have our daily lives, most of them so full of stuff that it is easy to forget the big picture of what needs to be done. Work is certainly important. Families are important. Our church and communities are important as well.

It's easy to loose sight of the big picture – the big problems facing our country when we have twenty minutes to get dinner together before Billy's Little League Game, Mary's dance lesson or a church committee meeting. It's easy to believe what many tell us: that one person can't make much of a difference or that someone else will take care of the problem... or that the problems just cannot be solved.

Lies, they are all lies, every one of them! Let's start with the first one... that you can't make a difference. If you attended any of the tea parties, you were with any where from several hundred to several thousand people who believe pretty much the same things you believe. You are not alone! Samuel Adams told us, "It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men."

Someone else may NOT fix the problem. Would you be willing to bet the future of your children and grandchildren on the actions of someone else you may neither know nor influence? As I've said before, to all your friends, neighbors and acquaintances, you ARE someone else. If you can look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are willing to let the future of this great country up to the the actions and dedication of other people, perhaps this fight is not for you. The fact that you are reading this, gives me optimism that this is not the case.

As far as problems not being solvable... we are Americans! Our fathers and grandfathers chased tyrants from Europe and Japan. Our scientists and engineers made it possible for men to walk on the moon. Our medical system is finding cures for diseases that used to kill millions. When the naysayers tell us that problems cannot be solved, all we hear is that we have problems and have just not found the solution yet.

Even if you did not get to participate in this July Forth outpouring of support for our country, take heart because of those who did. There are millions of us and we will only be denied if we loose heart and permit it. Of course we're in for some rocky roads ahead, but consider the colonists taking on the strongest economic and military power of their time... and they won! But not without cost. If we persist, if we don't loose heart, if we hang together, we will win too.

Remember what Winston Churchill told the Harrow School in October of 1941, an extremely bleak time in British history with the blitz going on at home and the advancing German army abroad, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” Good advice then, and good advice now.



See what others say about about defending your freedoms at http://www.politicalchristian.org/quotes.html .

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So says one of the most important documents in the history of the United States of America: the Declaration of Independence. The realization of these rights was the whole point of the bloody struggle to break free from the control of the British crown that saw itself as the originator and dispenser of rights to the people, both at home and in the colonies.

The signers of this document pledged “our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” to establishing a government in the new land where these rights to life, liberty and so much more were recognized. Once free of the oppressive monarch, they set about to create a system where the people were the ultimate authority and government answered to its employers: the citizens.

They laboriously created a constitutional plan where three branches were supposed to balance each other so no one reigned supreme. They did this by limiting the reach of the legislative, executive and judicial branches to restrain dictatorial rule. So concerned were some of the leaders immediately following the presentation of the document that it did not sufficiently restrain the power of the central government that its ratification by all the states could not have been accomplished without the promise of additional guarantees of individual freedoms and restraints on governmental power. Hence the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, quickly followed acceptance of the original document.

Many today believe they have the rights of free speech, religion, personal protection through firearms because of these amendments. In reality, every human being has these rights, because they were bought into being by a loving creator who wants to see each one of us live and prosper to the best of our abilities. Then why was it necessary to codify them in the constitution? The answer is the same as for any other provision of the constitution, and that is so the government would recognize the limits of its power.

If we were to take the approach that the piece of paper granted us these rights, we would be in the precarious position of leaving them up to what ever men, legislative body or judiciary panel would decide to give us. This would return us to the plight of the colonists under King George. Our creator created us to be free and governments that fail to recognize these rights are operating in violation of what the founding fathers called “natural law”, which was the law that was self evident to anyone with the Christian background of these men.

Why is this important? If these rights are unalienable as our founders believed, they are existent apart from any decree from DC. On the other hand, if they come from men, they can be taken away by men. We then have no recourse if these men (or women) decide that we have few or none of the rights laid out by our forefathers. Worse yet, by doing this, we move from being citizens in charge of our government to being its subjects.

This is the price the secular humanists are willing to pay to eliminate the Christian influence from our great country. Their fear of the absolute moral teaching coming from the Word of God leads them to accept enslavement to whims of leaders, ultimately a much more heavy handed control, but without the moral measurement of the ten commandments.

This is the underlying basis of the entire culture war in our country... but it isn't really cultural, it is spiritual.

We conservatives and libertarians tend to keep to ourselves and have a desire to just be left alone. This thinking has usually worked well for us, but over the past years we have seen all kinds of crazy protests instigated by unions, homosexuals, ACORN... even illegal aliens have had the gall to prance through our streets demanding access to the public purse. Often these are the only voices coming through. Even setting aside the media bias, they are the only voices being raised.

Our political representatives often respond to public pressure when it does not conflict with contributor interests, and up to now, most of the pressure has been coming from those using one hand to hold a picket sign and the other to reach out to scoop up more goodies from the public trough. While most of us have been working to get money to pay our taxes, they have been whining and looking for to ways to take hold of more of this money for themselves. We have abdicated our responsibility to speak up and have left the playing field to the to the avaricious mob. We lost by default!

Does this mean that we can't get the word out? Definitely not! Sure it is one more thing to squeeze into your schedule and mine, but I have found that there is always time for things we see as most important. The issue then becomes recognizing the damage that is being done to our country and making a priority to stop it.

Now is the time... no, it is past time for us to overcome some of our natural tendencies to live quietly by ourselves. Although it's not really in our nature, we must band together and speak up, not just individually, but publicly as a body of citizens. There are enough of us to make a difference. Our problem is that we are busy working, spending time with our families, helping to make our community better and all sorts of other productive activities. Our opponents tend not to have so many of these demands on their time... they often don't have such a rough time fitting self-serving public protest into their schedules.

Tonight, was the first I took part in such a protest in close to twenty years... the last being way back in New Jersey when we gathered around an inappropriately located adult bookstore in the pouring rain... and made the front page of the Star Ledger.

About two hundred of us gathered outside our local ABC affiliate to protest the ObamaCare infomercial they were running. This was not a normal event for most of us but it was refreshing to spend the evening with many who had not been too involved in the past, but have been awaken from their slumber by the outrageous changes being inflicted upon our land.

We made new acquaintances, renewed old ones and found many people with whom we share a lot more in common than we would have ever thought. The first lesson learned was the WE ARE NOT ALONE! If you are concerned about your country, you are not alone either.

It doesn't matter if there are ten of you coming together or a thousand. There is a fellowship among those who cherish their liberty and are willing to take a stand for it. With the tea parties and patriot groups, combined with our government's encroachment on so many areas of our lives, there will be many more opportunities to make your voice heard. It's well worth working it into your busy schedule. Keep in mind that the most meaningful things we do are things that reach beyond ourselves and contribute to the greatness of our country and the welfare of our neighbors.

A recent Rasmussen poll tells us the half all Americans believe hate is growing in our country. This is based, in large part, on recent killing of a notorious abortionist, an American soldier at a recruiting station and the attack on the holocaust museum in Washington. Thirty five percent consider them to be isolated incidents. The rest, just don't know if or what to think. While it's difficult to generalize from three incidents, many people are busy doing just that.

It seems those that tend to feel more vulnerable and insecure see greater generalized hatred... women (57%)... unmarried (62%). They seem to be responding more on emotion than actually looking at the details of each incidents. Each killing is unfortunate, the ending of one life and ruination of another... not to mention the families involved. However, was an irrational hatred the driving factor in each case?

It seems that today, we have a difficult time thinking about and overusing the word “hate”. For instance, homosexuals believe that they are the victims of hate crimes whenever anyone opposes them or their goals. If a preacher tells his congregation about the sinful nature of their actions, they say he is preaching hate. They may be disingenuously playing the part of a victim, having realized a little sympathy when they are supposedly harassed by someone who simply disagrees with them or their agenda. In some ways believing that your adversaries irrationally despise you is less damaging to the ego than accepting that they may have good reasons that may actually be correct.

In the case of Dr. Tiller, without getting in the head of the shooter, it's kind of hard to understand the details of his motivation. However, automatically assigning Scott Roeder's motive to a blind hatred of Dr. Tiller ignores the fact that, to him, it may well have been just a logical response to a situation where he saw the courts repeatedly thwarting the will of the people and their elected legislatures. We have the situation aptly described by Frederic Bastiat when he said, “When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them.”

The tragedy of Private Andy Long's death is that he was killed in a war where he didn't even know he was on the front lines. It is more comforting to consider the this the action of a deranged, vengeful shooter who, once captured, is no threat to the rest of us. This thinking would let us pass it off as an unfortunate event and not consider the ramifications of multiple Abdulhakim Muhammads among us... hating us as a society, but not considering any of us individually. We may weep for Private Long as we hope we will be spared a similar fate.

What is interesting is that in the first case, the shooter was viewed by the drive by media as part of the larger pro-life community which en mass would enjoy a shooting spree at every abortion clinic in the country. In the second case, where logic, along with his actions and training, tell us the shooter was part of a group with a terrorist agenda, the same media totally ignores the evidence at hand and makes him out to be a solitary nut case. In this case, their political correctness may well be complicit in the next terrorist act.

Then we have the case of James von Brunn, the one truly disturbed individual who lived in a world of hate filled fantasies. Far too many have a scorn for the Jewish people, but they don't go hunting them or their friends down with lethal weapons. For this man to commit such an awful act, particularly at his age, one has to wonder if he felt his life was about over and he wanted to make one last statement before, what would be, a surprisingly bad meeting with his maker. He may have felt being killed by police was more honorable than putting a gun to his own head... an act that would have spared many others much heartache and pain. It could be then, that harboring his irrational hatred for such a long time in his life, he felt his actions were completely logical.

It's hard to say specifically why people do things... sometimes we don't understand our own motivations. Even the Apostle Paul had these conflicts when he wrote, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not' want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)

We do, however feel more comfortable, more in control even, if we see the world as a logical place with an understandable reason for everything that happens – even if we witness what appear to be occasional aberrant events. What we don't like, as a society, is to look at events as part of a bigger picture with causes and effects that can be understood, as this puts a responsibility on us to examine our selves and make some changes.

It’s easy to watch the news and get frustrated as we see our freedoms restricted, one by one. Then we see the DC elites making more plans for more things to do with our grandchildren’s money. And on top of that, we see people who hold traditional American values are called threats to the government and potential domestic terrorists. It’s enough to make you wonder when someone is going to do something about it.

I have been told that God doesn’t make junk and everyone of God’s children is a somebody. Hmmmmm. Usually what people mean when they think somebody should do something, is that they really mean somebody else should do something. Part of this mindset is that our society is one of many spectators and few actors. We watch our favorite ball teams or race drivers go out and do their thing for obscene amounts of money. We cheer for them as if their victories somehow enhanced the lives of ourselves and our families. We support some who run for office… sometimes we may even work with one of their campaigns. At best, though, most of us just hang around the periphery of the action.

We do this because somewhere deep inside we’ve been conditioned to believe that it is our lot in life to be one of the masses while the changes in the world come about because of big people, special people… somebody else.

Here is a radical thought: to your neighbor down the street, you are somebody else. To your high school classmates, you are somebody else. To the people you work with, you are somebody else. To the people in your church, you are somebody else. I hope you are starting to get the picture.

Everyone is looking to “somebody else” to solve their problem. Look at the helpless masses who voted for Barack Hussein Obama. They thought he was going to fix every aspect of their drab, lifeless existence… they even thought he was going to buy them a car and pay their mortgage. They may have been right about this in some instances… but he will never be able to give them meaning.

We look at men with names like Washington, Madison, Henry, Adams, Franklin and Jefferson and see them as bigger than life. Without diminishing the magnitude of their contribution to the founding of our great country, I believe you will agree that these farmers, printers lawyers and who knows what else, were men… mere mortals like the rest of us. None could walk on water or leap tall buildings in a single bound. Although they were all intelligent and successful men, not one possessed super human skills or abilities. Their DNA was pretty much standard human being stuff. They were pretty much like you and me.

They all believed in the necessity of living in freedom. Most of us also understand the human need to be free as well. The difference between these men and many other capable colonists, was that they carried these beliefs one step beyond just talking about them. They acted on them. They could have met behind closed doors for twenty years, complaining about the wrongs visited on them by the British monarch… and nothing would have changed, except for a few more ulcers amongst the assembly.

These were ordinary men who did extraordinary things. They lived at a critical point in the history of the world and helped birth the greatest nation on earth. Like them, each of us was born into this critical period in the history of our country and the world. Understanding the sovereignty of God, we need to consider that each of us, like Esther, was placed on this earth for “such a time as this”.

You might argue that you are just one person, and that one person going against the trends of society has little chance of success. This is true… on a human level. We need to keep in mind that even Moses, who had the promise of God’s power to sustain him, needed the have his brother Aaron by his side to have the confidence to approach Pharoah. It’s OK to have some feelings of inadequacy, because by ourselves, we are inadequate, and it helps us realize our dependence on divine guidance and support just like our founding fathers.

This is why we need to seek out others of similar mind. They may be a group at your church, possibly a patriot or tea party group. Wherever you look, there will be people to work with. Find a group you are comfortable with. Meet with them, and, if no one else does it, be sure they don’t just sit around and belly ache. Take it upon yourself, if necessary, to be sure every one goes home with some kind of action item. It could be as simple as making a phone call, or writing letter to the editor or to politicians. Nothing happens until somebody does something.

When you start to move forward and make progress, people will say you are trying to impose your religion on them. It is they who are trying to impose their secular, statist religion on everyone. Patrick Henry, one of the driving forces of the first ten amendments to our constitution that we call the Bill of Rights, wrote, “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ! For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom to worship here. There is absolutely no reason to be ashamed or defensive!

Contrary to secularist propaganda - as we are seeing in Washington - the Christians are not the ones seeking to control every aspect of our lives. We are the ones who offer true freedom, both now and forever. We need to be the ones to speak up to a leader who has hardened his heart, much like Pharoah. Will you be part of this move for freedom, or will you hide in the bullrushes and watch?

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending a We Surround Them/912 meeting with about 70 other concerned citizens. Last week, I spent the evening with about 20 others in a similar meeting. Tonight about 30 more people gathered to in a similar group. What is particularly encouraging, is that most of these people were either new to involvement in public affairs or were coming back after a lengthy hiatus.

The tea parties provided the catalyst to bring them back. The crowds provided the push that let them know they were not alone. Most people are not constitutionally suited to standing against the power of the federal government alone. We cheered the Chinese student staring down the tanks in Tiananmen Square, but tend to shy away from confrontation ourselves. With a group of like minded citizens, the patriots can become warriors.

I was amazed by the intensity of the emotional display. People are concerned about their country. They don’t like where it is headed. They are concerned about the world they will be leaving to their children and grand children. They are looking for ways to channel these feelings and energy.

Members of two of these groups combined to visit local Congressional and Senate offices to present a Petition for Redress of Grievances. These petitions outlined various actions by the federal government that, by almost any reasonable interpretation, were clearly unconstitutional. It must have been a bit of fun to be part of the group of about 25 as the filed into the local legislative offices with video and still cameras. One aide did a great deer in the headlights impression - but I don’t think he was acting, two aides welcomed them in and held a pleasant conversation and one office only showed them a shaken receptionist hiding behind her bullet proof glass shield.

In all cases, it was obvious they were not accustomed to dealing with the public who actually expected them to change the way Washington does business. Another thing that was obvious was that it is necessary to keep up the contact and the pressure. Even the good guys need the encouragement and supervision of their constituents. Lobbyist are continuously in their face… the same should hold true for their constituents… their real employers.

This is just one way citizens can get involved. More needs to to be lined up to keep these good folks involved in the process and get the message across to those who believe they rule from a distance. There is a staggering amount of passion and energy looking to get involved in the process of changing our country back to the free society it was in years past.

Just as many cheered the Chinese student, many also cheered the priests, pastors, and everyday citizens who faced arrest while protesting the desecration of the Notre Dame graduation ceremony. They cheered, but did not take part… myself included. My excuse was the 600 or so mile drive to South Bend. The question I have to answer as do all other Christians and others who say they hold values dear, is that, if the event were in my city, would I have faced arrest for a good cause, or would I have backed away because I did not want a police record. Everyone who loves their country has to consider this question.

The founding fathers understood that by signing the Declaration of Independence, if they failed, they would be facing a hangman’s noose. Even in victory, many faced financial ruin, loss of their homes and loss of family members. Since that time, countless service men and women have given their lives preserving the freedom that people like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams and Henry gave us. So many that we have set aside a day, Memorial Day, to remember and honor their sacrifices.

What sacrifices are we, both individually and collectively, willing to make to leave the country and world a better place for our children and grandchildren? With increasing restrictions placed on ever more areas of our lives, and more of our resources being taken to fund irrational and often immoral schemes, will we stand up and say “No more!” or will we sit, quietly complaining, as our country hurtles toward the “eve of destruction” as Barry McGuire would call it. In answering this question, we would do well to remember the words of James Madison, “Resistance to tyranny is service to God.”

Now we are hearing from many moderates in the mushy middle that the Republican Party should set aside some of the social issues and concentrate on economic issues where “everyone” can agree. I have mixed feelings about this message. On one hand we have the hypocrisy displayed by those pushing this view point as we have seen precious little economic common sense from those who want to elevate that to the top of Republican agenda. On the other, there is an element of truth to the position... but not for their weak kneed reasons.

For the most part, these are the same people who have helped the previous administration push through very unRepublican expansions of government and federal budgets. Now, they are suddenly talking like fiscal conservatives they know the country is looking for. As far as concerning ourselves with the welfare of the unborn, the ability to keep our guns, the sanctity of marriage and the like, perhaps it is time to take a bigger picture view of the situation. It's not that they are not critical issues and must be dealt with as we look to preserve our country for our kids and grandkids.

The point is that we are working in a political environment that is not only hostile to our values, but, according to a recent Department of Homeland Security report, hostile to us as individuals. The decision makers in Washington are heading full speed in the opposite direction. The are busy expanding the power of the federal government and using it to push our traditional values as far into the distant past as possible.

So before we can, once again, go on offense and pursue the necessary changes we have to put the brakes on this headlong rush to disaster. The teeth of this administration are the increasing powers they are accumulating. It is only because they can impose their views in the American people that their ideas present a hazard to our well being. Pull these, often unconstitutional, teeth, and their big government interventionist policies cease to be a problem.

So our first priority needs to be putting a stop to the growth of our increasingly hostile government so we can, once again, work in an environment where our requests and arguments can receive an honest hearing. This means we cannot afford to be single issue voters and activists. Stopping the explosion of the heavy handed administration has to take precedence over everything else.

Does this mean we follow the “moderates” wanting to steer the Republican Party to the left? Besides the fact that it wouldn't work, that would only be slowing the velocity of negative changes. We need to think more like chess players. We cannot just look at our current move, but many moves ahead. If we are to make more than cosmetic changes to our government, we need to set ourselves up to capitalize on success in putting a stop to this current nonsense by having people in place who are ready to help us with our key issues.

It is not that we forget our concerns. It is not that we are looking for different candidates. What we need to do is all pull together to restore some form of sanity to DC. We need to get the budgets under control. We need to put a crimp in the federal governments plans to run our lives and impose their radical agenda on our culture.

Then, and only then, can we return to the battle for the individual concerns that drive each of us issue voters and activists. Gun rights people will have to work with pro-lifers. Marriage activists will have to support gun owners as we all work to make America, once again, the shining city on a hill. As Ben Franklin once said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

There's an old saying that we are known by the company we keep. In spite of the culture that wants to tell us that new is good and ideas and things that have been around for a while are just plan old fashioned, this statement has the same ring of truth it did when it was first uttered. Of course we don't hear too much of this from the media and political elites who proclaim the purity of their messianic president who counts among his associates, past and present, a guy who bombed the Pentagon, a preacher who hates America, a Secretary of the Treasury who didn't pay his taxes and a thug former congressman from Chicago.

It must be difficult for Democrats to look through the prism of right and wrong when their dreams of national domination are so close at hand. Some of us are not even sure they could find the prism if they waned to. Minor missteps or major moral failures do not seem to be obstacles when long sought goals are within sight. Despite claims to the contrary, we are in an era when the end justifies the means.

It's easy to criticize the Democrats, and many of us have been doing it for years. We catch hold of any failure on their part, even down to the Vice President foolishly thinking JOBS is a three letter word. The self-righteous among us, myself included, have to look at our reasons for our criticisms of Democratic idiosyncrasies. Are we really upset with the moral failures of our opponents or is it just one more shoe to throw at people whose policies are so terribly wrong for our country? Are we taking the easy way out with personal attacks rather than actually explaining why our ideas are better?

It is kind of the easy way out and the big government crowd provides us with so much material to personally abuse them. I love Ann Coulter's writings and it's great fun to read and say nasty things about our oppressors, much like elementary school children telling embarrassing stories about their teacher. However, like childhood tales, our nitpicking does little good. Besides if we get into an insult contest, we conservatives toften loose. Our responses tend to be more witty... often going over the prejudiced head of our adversary, but theirs tend to be more visceral, unbounded by human decency or good taste at times. We tend to come out second best in the publics' eyes because of the inherent checks built into the conservative and Judaeo-Christian character and mindset.

What then, do we consciously set aside our standards so we, too, can wish kidney failure on the target of our rage? Or do we stay on message as to why the bailouts, nationalized health care or any issue du jour is a bad idea. The answer is, sort of. Ron Paul tried this approach and he had some really good ideas. But he was a little too professorial in his presentation to relate to Joe Sixpack who as been conditioned by sound bite journalism to expect answers in thirty second blocks.

Perhaps we need someone with his grasp of the issues and Ann Coulter's acid wit, combined with a little self deprecation so seldom seen in the political class, to be the spokesperson for the revitalized conservative movement. A little humor goes a long way in making the hard truths we have to tell more palatable and easily absorbed.

Once we turn the corner where our understanding of the world becomes more common knowledge, we can honestly take on the personal shortcomings within the statist government. Until then, we are just majoring in minors and the job won't get done. Until then, even if the personal issues are cured but our direction does not change, we are still on a downward spiral as a nation. Until then, let's go after those who would control every aspect of our lives with logic, passionate, humility AND humor.

Uncle Sam wants to know where you live, not just the address, but the exact coordinates. Why would that be? Whatever their plans, our leaders believe it is worth $700 million dollars and hiring a city full of workers... 140,000 to be more precise. They are marching through our neighborhoods, taking readings at all our doors and asking if the house is a single or multi-family dwelling, all in the name of the census. This census that is a year away and has nothing to do with the job at hand.

The census bureau itself says, “The ability to capture Global Positioning System coordinates for most of the nation's housing units will greatly reduce the number of geographic coding errors caused by using paper maps in previous counts.” This and other actions by this administration bring to mind the old saying, “there's always two reasons for everything, the one we are told and the real reason.”

Douglas Gibbs writing in the American Daily Review says, “Imagine, if you will, that there are a number of people in a neighborhood that could not find the addresses they are tasked with finding. They are not locals, maybe are unable to read a map, or perhaps do not have the time to pull out a map, and they need to find you with specific GPS coordinates. Their devices would lead them to your front door with these coordinates. Imagine a crisis is afoot, and martial law is put into place. U.S. troops need to round up particular folks.”

“Let’s take this a step further. After all, with Barack Obama desiring to decrease the number of folks in the military, and with forces committed worldwide, we may not have sufficient military forces at home to deal with a rising national emergency. If the government decided to rely on foreign troops, perhaps United Nations personnel, most of which may not understand the street signs, much less know the lay of the land, they could use GPS devices to direct them to your front door.”

Sound alarming? It does to me. Although my thoughts run to the more mundane and immediate. Consider how cross referencing this information with a database of gun owners, confiscation would be much more efficient. Or perhaps the rounding up of pro-life activists, Christians or members of other groups Homeland Security tells us present a danger to the administration. On the other hand, it could be as simple as satellite surveillance.

The effort to create a system for such surveillance would be a bit of overkill as with a few keystrokes the internet can already provide us with amazing satellite images of my home... and its coordinates. For any DHS agents reading this, mine are N37° 25.8367', W077° 33.5331' according to Google. My daughters' car was the only one in the drive way when the picture was taken... and with the resources of Big Brother, I'm sure then easily obtain real time information about my coming and going.

Considering what any one of us can access online, why would they need to be so precise? Are they planning or firing a cruise missile through my front door? On the other hand we are still dealing with a government bureaucracy here with the government bureaucracy mentality of why take what we have when we can spend the better part of a billion dollars of taxpayer money to get the same thing.

The thing about every idea that comes to mind about what they would do with this information is that none of them are good. When you see the mild mannered public “servants” strolling through your neighborhood asking questions and taking GPS readings you had best cooperate as they have the law on the side and can compel your compliance. I've seen a video of gentleman taking his readings. When he realized his actions were being recorded, he was not happy, screaming at the homeowner about violating, of all things, his right to privacy. To be on the safe side, you may want to show support for their efforts by raising your right arm at about a 45 degree angle while clicking your heals as the enter your property. I'm sure it will be appreciated.

Worshiping at the altar of diversity as advocated by the politically correct elites serves their purposes well, but what does it do for the rest of us? Does it help us unite to solve common problems, or does it split us into multiple camps where all we can see is our competing interests? If it is the latter, should we be viewing this politically correct article of faith as simply a well meaning error, or as a sinister attack on our country's ability to function and lead the world?

Pursuing identity politics, that is, looking at each person as a member of some small, but downtrodden group rather than as an individual, serves to promote isolation from the rest of society and focus our attention on our differences rather than our similarities. It keeps us fragmented and distracted. We face many challenges in our country today. We need to pull together, but all we hear from our government is divisive rhetoric that keeps us at each others throats. The poor are told their plight is the fault of the rich. Union members are told corporate greed keeps them from getting what they want. One racial group thinks they are being held down by another. While the other group sees their opportunities given to less qualified workers based strictly on skin color.

The left, through the Democratic party has successfully balkanized America so many people see themselves first as members of some sort of aggrieved group that needs help in redressing some real or imagined wrong. One must give them credit for forging this disparate group, with often competing interests into a coalition that keeps many of them in office... even though few of the grievances are ever resolved.

What does this do for the country? It keeps our focus on our own parochial issues and off the greater challenges facing our country. It keeps many just voting their own financial interests, often to the detriment of the country. It keeps us from really considering the implications of the fluff coming out of Washington and our state capitols. We are kept dumb and angry with the wrong people. Many are kept so stirred up by organizations like ACORN with straw man arguments that they never realize that the very people they look to for their salvation are the ones who are creating the situations that hold them in bondage.

This distraction is costly. American citizens see their jobs and their country slipping away as illegal immigrants sneak across the border and companies outsource American jobs to overseas workers who work for lower wages... all with the approval of a government that is supposed to be serving it's citizens. Yet, we are kept sufficiently fragmented that those in power from both parties proceed with their destructive policies, more concerned about offending their lobbyist supporters and contributors than the voters.

It's time to take a hard look at the concept of identity politics and recognize it for the scam that it is. It's time to reject the idea of the hyphenated American. There are no Irish-Americans, Asian-Americans or even African-Americans. We are Americans, no matter what our skin color or the source of our last name! We are all in this mess together and as Ben Franklin put it, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Sure there are many things going on that are not right, but if we only look at our narrow interests we will be like crabs in bucket. When one gets close to crawling out, the others just pull him back down and they all end up as someone's dinner.

Does this mean we all give up our identities? Absolutely not! It means that we face life as the individuals we were created to be, freed from confinement to group identities, freed to be the person we were designed to be from the time we were formed in our mother's womb... freed to fulfill the purpose that each of us has for the time we have been given here on earth. And freed to set aside our own narrow interests to spend ourselves on something bigger than ourselves. This is the path to greatness, both as individuals and as a nation.