I have a dream....

I dream of a great nation where the citizens are strong, intelligent and aware. A nation populated by those who hold their government to task and hold personal liberty in high esteem. There once was such a nation. People would give all they had and sometimes their lives to make a dream a reality, to live free within a nation in which the government was under the rule of law and rights of the people were inalienable and not granted. Where are these people?...Where is this nation?

The people are no longer strong... They hope for a caretaker in their government instead of taking pride in self reliance. They have lost their appreciation of liberties and worry more about their own rights, they are victims of each other. Each one having been offended, hurt or wronged by the other, wailing to the powers that be to make it right somehow.

The people are no longer intelligent....They have natural intelligence, but have not achieved intelligence. They choose to let the government think for them, when a candidate says they will lower taxes and yet increase the government programs, they cheer. They do not think past the rhetoric and blindly follow, without question. When a candidate says they are for or against something, the people believe, even though the voting record proves otherwise. When a candidate promises something for nothing, the people do not stop to question the impossibility of such a promise.

The people are no longer aware...Many make their political choices without even having read the law of the land, the United States Constitution. Instead of guarding their heritage as Americans, they vote down party lines, pushed into fear of their vote being wasted. They count as true what is fed to them on the nightly news and have no defense against the smorgasbord of misinformation because they have not educated themselves and have let themselves be led around by the whims of others.

In doing so, they have enslaved themselves to their caretaker and the caretaker is now their master.

I have a dream of a people who wake up, gain their strength back. People who stand again on their own, proud to take back the power once relinquished to the government, driven to be independent. People who can count themselves equal to the patriots who built this country on their own sacrifice. A people who realize it is time for a new patriot who loves their country enough to hold her accountable to the law of the land.