Reactionary

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

I wish we as the West would stop self-flagellating and wringing out hands over perceived wrongs that no living creature remembers. Granted, it isn’t a perfect society or even a just one but none is, not even the rustic or oppressed that do-gooders like to idealize. We don’t by tradition cast out widows or value wild religious dogma as a justification defense.

We have Homer, Pericles, Socrates, Plato, Alexander, Jesus, Caesar, Ovid, Cleopatra, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Dante, Columbus, Isabella, Shakespeare, Elizabeth, Newton, Galileo, Michelangelo, Rafael, Marconi, Jefferson, Franklin, Salk, Churchill, FDR, Einstein, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, John Paul II… and thousands of others. Don’t you forget it.

Work to make ourselves better. Keep inventing and arguing and developing and saving ourselves instead of becoming mired in misplaced guilt and apologies. All the Judeo-Christian, Greco-Roman West is ours to keep… or lose. True, we also have Henry VIII and Nero and Hitler and every great man’s dark side, but no one, no society anywhere is free of it, least of all the society wild-eyed terrorists claim to be protecting by packing vehicles full of explosives.

Here I would quote Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister in Love Actually if I had the speech. It’s something I wish the real-life Tony Blair had said to the real-life George Bush. We as each other’s friends must counsel and speak up for all our good. In our society, disagreement isn’t the same thing as instability. It isn’t punished by death. We, the West, should circle our wagons with our friends, help each other, listen to each other and then united, reach out a hand of peace and friendship to the East. They have their rich histories and high points as well but never at any time must our admiration of them turn to shame in ourselves.

Dear Americans, on this day of remembrance when the Colonies broke with Britain who got over the loss and reached out in friendship, must begin to do our utmost to stop alienating Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. Just because the Fool in the White House does it, doesn’t mean the rest of us have to. Continue his example at all of our peril.

Posted on July 5th, 2007 under General, Rant •  Print •  Email • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback