(...as published on 11/28/10 in a Letter to the Editor, Starkville Daily News...)
Words in the English language are tricky! One word may mean one thing to me and something entirely different to someone else. Often such words may be used together in a document or speech and the two different meanings are taken to mean the same thing or at least to lend support to the other. This is what seems to be occurring in the use of the words “progress” and “progressive.” Let’s first consider the word “progress.” Now who would ever be against progress?
After all, most everyone wants to be a better person, parent, neighbor, citizen today than in the past. Do we not all want to improve our homes, farms, cities and country—to see progress taking place, our city streets and sidewalks being improved and new ones added where needed, and neighborhood parks and play areas built for our children and grandchildren? Are we not all made proud to drive throughout our city and be able to admire the beautiful landscaping and the new faces with which so many of our stores and other businesses now greet us? Is there anyone of us who is not desirous of making available to all citizens, our seniors and especially our citizens who require special assistance that which is needed for them to have the same conveniences others of us enjoy?
Surely, we are for these improvements and wish we could see these kinds of changes on every street throughout our city—right now! This is called “progress!” We are for progress! Unfortunately, progress does not come free of charge; it costs, and it takes time: time to do the planning, time to obtain funding, and time to do the working. In the Bible (Luke 14:28), we are given a proper order for progress: “before you begin a project…count the cost…” (Author’s paraphrase) Do these wise words reference only the financial cost…or might they also reference the actual planning process as well? Simply stated, what will be the overall cost of this project?
Who of us would not choose for our city to move forward and show progress in these and other similar ways—providing the funds are in the bank or are available without causing unwarranted burdens on our citizens, our young couples with growing families and beginning salaries, our senior citizens on fixed incomes with increasing medical expenses, and especially our business owners who provide for the livelihood of their employees? Yes, progress is good when proper conditions are met!
Though these two words often are used interchangeably, there is a great difference in “progress” and “progressive!” So what is it about the words, “progressive” and “progressivism” that might be bad or wrong for America? Progressivism is not good—not for Starkville, not for Mississippi, not for America! Progressivism is merely veiled socialism, a minute step from communism! There are no socialistic or communistic countries that have come close to being the country America has been and is! The reason America has been and is a great nation is because of the foresight and wisdom of our Founding Fathers in framing the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. America is a Republic, and the Constitution is the “supreme Law of the land” to which “virtually every elected and public official in America takes an oath to uphold” and the President promises to “preserve, protect and defend.” The organization chart of the United States Government shows Congress, the President and the Supreme Court underneath the Constitution.1
In our government at every level —city, county, state, and nation— there are politicians who are bent on taking America down the same road that other nations have traveled…the road toward socialism and communism. These politicians are enamored with power to the extent that they are determined to reach their goals even if America is destroyed in the process. Considering themselves intellectual elites, they disregard the Constitution of the United States except in those instances in which it serves their purpose. These politicians in most cases are proud to call themselves and allow others to refer to them as progressives, even elite progressives.
America has too long been asleep! In our slumber and apathy, we have allowed this country to be taken over by politicians promoting Saul Alinsky’s agenda. A good source for learning about Alinsky’s model for government is David Horowitz’ publication, Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution The Alinsky Model.2 This little book truly gave clarity to my thinking about the state of our nation and the downward spiral this once great nation is descending. Having now been awakened, I am no longer willing to allow the progressives to exercise their freedom of speech without also exercising the same right by taking a stand and speaking out against their socialist agenda: big government or government takeover, Fabian socialism and communism, eliminating the radicals—those referred to as ‘the Haves’ by taking from the ‘Haves’ and giving to the ‘Have-Nots’—distribution of wealth!
This is why I have chosen to be more involved in politics. No longer content to be a robotic citizen couch potato, I am reading for myself and actively learning in order to become better informed and educated in our American government and its political processes.
I am proud to be a member of Starkville T.E.A. Party and thankful for this outlet where an average citizen can become involved in the political process that may make a difference in the health and life of America and the livelihood of its citizenry. For me to do otherwise is for me to become part of the process that is bent on destroying the American way of life. To do nothing is to let the progressives continue in their quest of absolute political takeover and the death of capitalism! Winston Churchill says it best, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
There are those people who are skeptical and even very critical of the T.E.A. Party movement. That’s okay; they have every right to question. But I also have one question for those who are skeptical and even critical: Have you even looked at the mission, purposes, and core values of the Starkville T.E.A. Party?
What is it about its mission, “…a non-partisan grassroots organization of individuals united by our core values derived from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the Bill of Rights as explained in the Federalist Papers...” that arouses such criticism?
What is it about its purposes, “to uphold and to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and to attract, inform, educate, organize, and mobilize our citizens, locally and throughout the state” that arouses such criticism?
What is it about its core values, “fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government, and free markets” that arouses such criticism?
It is my prayer that America will awaken and realize how dangerously close we are to losing the freedoms and liberties our forefathers fought so hard to preserve, and that ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ will be true to our conviction that the Constitution of the United States of America is “the supreme law of the land.” It is not a living document that is subject to change as situations and circumstances and people change; rather, it is a hard document which is to be interpreted solely by what it says regardless of situations and circumstances and people!
1Holler, Michael. The Constitution Made Easy. Woodland Park, CO: The Friends of Freedom, Inc. 2008, 2009.
2Horowitz, David. Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution The Alinsky Model. Sherman Oaks, CA: David Horowitz Freedom Center. 2009.
