A Threat to Our Survival

 

 

We Are Losing to an Enemy We Refuse to Name – Newt Gingrich

“…the facts—suggest the United States is drifting into a crisis that could challenge our very survival.”

~~~

 

“…our intelligence system has been methodically limited and manipulated to sustain false narratives while suppressing or rejecting facts and analysis about those who would kill us.”

“Congress should explore legislation which would make it illegal to instruct intelligence personnel to falsify information or analysis.”

~~~

“We blindly play their game on their terms, and don’t even think about how absurd it is for people who accept no church, no synagogue, no temple, in their heartland to come into our society and define multicultural sensitivity totally to their advantage…”

~~~

 

“Only once we learn what drives and informs our opponents will we not repeat the same wrong response tactics…and finally start to win this long war.”

 

 

αΩ

An Issue of National Security

 

Congress Must Investigate Islamist Influence-Buying  – Newt Gingrich

 

“…the degree to which foreign donors–many ideologically opposed to Western values and civilization–are funding our leading academic and intellectual institutions merits much greater scrutiny and recognition than it has received. 

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” – Sun Tzu     

“Congress has an obligation to thoroughly explore the efforts of our opponents to penetrate, undermine and weaken American society and government.”

 

 

αΩ

 

Getting Back in the Saddle

Yesterday, I turned 62.

It has been a rough year for me, off & on, for various reasons, getting older which is not the least of those reasons!  You don’t really believe that aging will affect you, hinder your lifestyle…until it does.  And a main result of events in my particular situation has been a continual lessening of my writing-related activities.  And a result of that  has been a continual increase in a sense of emotional flatness, deadness even. The term ‘despair’ might not be going too far.

Yesterday, I cried aloud to God.

My condition was becoming unbearable, so much so that I couldn’t find the right words.  I’m not sure what I did say, or ask.  I don’t think I was even  able to form a complete sentence.  I only knew that I needed  release.  I was walking to the bus stop, headed for work, and a cry broke out from my heart.  Sitting in the first seat of the bus was Part One of my answer, though I didn’t realize it at the moment.  During my shift, Part Two approached me, fully fleshing out & confirming earlier counsel.  Both persons were trusted brethren in the Lord.  The testimony of two witnesses establishes a word.

Today, peace like a river is flowing…and we see I’m writing again.

~~~

Now, my worst dilemma at the moment is:  Where do I  start?  What threads do I pick up & try tying together?  So I thought I would begin with re-evaluating my post-Election Day thoughts.   On November 7, 2012, I wrote:

Barack Obama has been re-elected.

I never even considered that this could actually happen, and I am completely, completely deflated.  My heart is heavy. We, the People, kept him in office.  Right now, all I can do is cry.  I have no starch left in me, and at this point, I want nothing more to do with politics.

When I recover from this setback (and ‘setback’ isn’t really a strong enough word), re-evaluation will be the order of the day.  Because I know that the Scriptures tell us that it is God who raises up & brings low, I must accept that it is His intention for Barack Obama to have been re-elected.  Things are not out of control, and , though it may appear so, the devil has not won. 

Two months later…and it has taken a full two months…my mindset is considerably improved.  It has to be, or I will be of no help to anyone.  A willingness to reassess & make deliberate changes to one’s previous conclusions would seem to be a necessary part of the process to carry on.  I don’t know that such changes should be sweeping – or the prior beliefs/suspicions completely discarded from memory – but accepting the possibility that one may have been misguided in certain areas might prove beneficial.

In retrospect, I have to admit that there were times when I’ve wondered, am I too quick to echo agreement with an opinion, or a cause, or a petition, because in general I support the author, or the general ‘mission statement’ of a website?  It seems too easy to do that, without appropriate individual investigating.  And when the position being echoed is one of fault-finding…after awhile, when the contest is over and your opponent has won…how does continued digging in of your heels help anything at all?  It didn’t stop the eventual outcome, did it?

“I’ve negotiated many deals in my life and here’s what they take. A win-win and a willingness to treat your opponents with respect. Not a constant win-lose and a denigration of your opponent at every opportunity. You’re not going to get a good deal that way.”  – Carly Fiorina, Vice Chair, National Republican Senatorial Committee & former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, speaking on Meet the Press.

A similar sentiment of laying down one’s weapons of chronic accusation was expressed by former Speaker Newt  Gingrich during this same conversation: “Republicans ought to quit worrying about President Obama. The president’s going to be president. The House ought to worry about being the House. Senate Republicans ought to worry about being Senate Republicans. Let the president deal with reality from their side.”

Let’s get on with the business of running America, to the best of our abilities.

~~~

So…it’s not going to be Nominee Gingrich?

Personally, my choice for the Republican presidential candidate is still Newt Gingrich. Yes, I know that is not looking to be a likely outcome at this point. The Speaker himself basically admits that. Concerning Mitt Romney, Gingrich stated on FOX News Sunday, “He is far and away, the most likely Republican nominee.”

But I threw my hat into Newt’s ring awhile ago, and it’s still there.

Some months back, an online acquaintance of mine shared his belief, based on his relationship with the Lord, that Mitt Romney would be our next President. While I didn’t necessarily jump on that bandwagon, I also did not summarily discount it. As time has passed, and we’ve witnessed various surges & slumps in the polls, primaries and caucuses, I’ve remembered that prediction and hoped it was wrong. I wanted to see Newt Rising! An at times undisciplined personality aside, and several marriages, Newt Gingrich has the heart, passion, stamina & vision that I believe our country needs. He has more the heart of a Founding Father than many, and that would do America, and the American presidency, good.  (Newt Gingrich: an Underrated Candidate?)  But if my acquaintance has heard from God, Who has appointed Romney, then…it’s a done deal. Mitt Romney it will be.

As I’ve slowly begun to accept this, I’ve wondered if sometimes people are placed in a competitive public arena more for the purpose of airing their plans & ideas than for actually winning the competition. Words spoken may have long-term future effect. Wheels may be set in motion, though yet invisible, for the good to come.

~~~

Sometimes, it seems, the more excellent contender is not the one who walks off with the prize.

For example – and this is just my opinion – I think it was the second or third season of American Idol, when a young man named Taylor Hicks walked off that stage with the prize. Really? Taylor Hicks? Sure, he had talent, and I believe something was said about showmanship, but come on! Kat McPhee or Chris Daughtry had the goods on him any day of the week, hands down! Over the years, I’ve seen and heard about both of them, but pretty much nothing about the guy who actually won the title.

And the year that Dilana lost to some young punk rocker with black eye makeup named Lucas, for the Rock Star: Super Nova top spot still has me annoyed. She was the one. She was. (I think it was the guy’s black eye makeup that put him over the top. Screams Satan, and he’s big with that crowd…) (Well, that’s not to say Dilana herself doesn’t present an extreme picture!  so I admit my reasoning may be faulty & prejudiced…!)

Sometimes, perhaps, the prize is not the best way for those who ‘lose’ to showcase what they’ve got. It may not provide the best opportunities for effective use of knowledge, skills, experience and/or talent.

~~~

My last thought on this, for today’s post, might be a bit ‘out there’, but it’s crossed my mind several times lately. I’ve wondered if many Americans would not be prepared for too drastic a return to the visions of our Founders. Maybe, though these goals & principles hail from the past, they are, in a way, ahead of their time. Perhaps time is what we need – time to teach, to reinforce these basic principles, time to learn or re-learn the fundamentals and foundations from which we sprang.

Speaker Gingrich spoke of wanting to stay around to participate in the evolving of his party’s platform. Sounds like a plan.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

~~~~~~

The Founding Vision isn’t Dead

Sunday morning, I watched the Republican nominee debate on Meet the Press.  It was the first time I’ve ever been interested in such a political event.  I loved it. Following the candidates’ challenges & responses was easy;  I found myself absorbed and enlightened.  Wow.

But the best & most thrilling part, for me, was realizing that, in some of our country’s elected officials, politicians and aspiring presidents, the vision of our Founding Fathers is not dead.

Let me repeat this:  the vision of our Founding Fathers is not dead!

It may have only been on two or three occasions throughout the debate, but strong & clear statements resonating founding concepts were hallelujah music to my ears.  Governor Rick Perry boldly & directly called Barack Obama a socialist, pushing big government, then declared, “I am a Tenth Amendment believing governor. I truly believe that we need a president that respects the Tenth Amendment, that pushes back to the states…”  Ron Paul reminded his fellow candidates and ‘we. the people’ “…that {what} made us great was our founders understood what liberty meant, and that is what we need. We have deserted that.”  Jon Huntsman spoke of  “…a citizenry being able to live out the meaning of our founding documents–life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  And while maybe not exactly a reference to a specific founding vision, Rick Santorum, referring to President Obama, announced: “… he has required…programs not to talk about marriage, not to talk about abstinence, if, in order to get federal funds…He’s working exactly against the things he knows works because he has a secular ideology that is against the traditions of our country…” 

These sentiments, these beliefs are a powerful confirmation to my own unwavering core belief that what America needs, as much as is possible, is an ongoing returning to first principles.  Just as the Lord Jesus called for a return to their first love from the church at Ephesus (Revelation 2:4),  America needs a new love affair with her Founders.  And America needs a next President with that same affinity.

What I brought out of that debate (aside from an eyebrow-raising respect for Speaker Gingrich‘s head-on demand for an apology from Mitt Romney!) was not who the winning candidate should be – every one of them, in my opinion, is a worthy adversary of any other – but a confidence in a river of life that has flowed forward in time from the womb of a new nation.  And yet continues its path in the minds, hearts & spirits of some of our leaders today.

Hope is not lost.

May the man who captures the Republican Presidential candidacy and defeats Barack Obama be one who is a bearer of our founding principles.  If their light has dimmed in him, may it once again flare.  If it has died out, may it be re-ignited, with passion strong and true.

This I pray, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.