What has happened to America?

I write to you not as an arrogant teenager, not as a member of any specific political party, not as someone who thinks they know all the answers, but as an American. I write to you to implore my fellow American citizens to WAKE UP … and realize just what kind of “change” our nation has undergone.

What has happened to America? A nation that used to lead the world by economic and political example now has a failing economy, a falling dollar, a staggering deficit. A nation whose citizens were among the most educated and possessed the highest standard of living now take backseat to those residing illegally within the nation’s borders.

At one point in time, an individual with a dream could, with good old-fashioned hard work and American ingenuity, work his or her way up the ladder to be a successful and prosperous individual despite all odds. Now it is believed that, in order to be “fair” we must spread the wealth… what has happened to America, a federal republic, a nation founded on the blood, sweat, and toil of men and women who earned what they worked for?

Politicians concerned over carbon footprints, fighting to limit the carbon emissions of large companies ignore the carbon emissions their own private jets release on transcontinental flights. A nation founded on the principle of the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness now is more concerned with the life and well-being of a bird or bear species rather than that of an unborn child. What has happened to America?

We rely on countries that house terrorist groups that pose the highest threats to our subways, our airspace, and our citizens for oil rather than drill reserves on American land… in an effort to be “green.” Respect for the men and women serving overseas and on American soil in the armed forces that lay it all out on the line to defend our freedoms has diminished to a sickening level.

Those elected to serve the public seem to only be serving and advancing their political agenda. Those elected to serve the public seem to think they know what is best for America’s families… to point that these “public servants” believe it is time that politics come between you and your doctor, your child and your doctor, when any number of nations with universal health care have previously flocked to the United States to receive decent medical attention. I ask again, what has happened to America?

It is not a matter of political party. I am not aiming to bash Democrats nor Republicans. I only pose these questions in order for Americans to stop and think… is the America we are living in today the same America that our Founding Father envisioned? Is it still the land of the free and the home of the brave, or rather, the land of those with crippling debt and a “go-green” mindset? Is this the America that millions of soldiers—men and women, fathers, husbands, mothers, sisters, children—sacrificed everything for on a hellish Pacific island or mine-covered European beach?

In my mind, the answer is a resounding NO. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Paine, Revere… they fought for liberty and justice for all, not crippling taxes and an oversized government, screaming the need for “political correctness” at every turn. They did not pledge “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” for Americans 234 years later to have their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness buried within an over 1500 page Stimulus Package that few, if any, of the supposed “civil servants” in Congress had ever read thoroughly.

The Founding Fathers gave us a government for the people, by the people, and of the people… and it is slipping out of reach at a terrifying speed. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 framed a document as “an instrument for the people to restrain the government,” in the words of Patrick Henry; a document giving you and I the right to speak, write, pray, assemble, vote freely. The man who swore to “preserve, protect, and defend” the United States Constitution, the piece of parchment that gives us the rights we so lavishly enjoy every waking moment, is quoted in saying the document contains “deep flaws”.

The president is also quoted in saying, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” To this, I say with deepest sincerity, no, Mr. President, it is not change that we seek. The United States is in desperate need of revival; revival of the ideas our Founders possessed when they created this great nation, revival of the idea of liberty and justice for all that is America. We the People do not need a stimulus package, more taxes, government intervention, a jobs bill, the Green movement, political correctness… We the People must refocus on what it means to be an American; not government handouts and unemployment checks, but the audacity to have a dream, a goal, and go for it without restraint. We the People must never forget the lives that have been lost to preserve and protect our precious freedoms that allow us to do so, and that makes America the great nation that she has been, and, God willing, will continue to be.

America. Say the word, say it over and over and over, several times if you have to. America is not just a place, not just fifty states, not just a nationality. It is an idea. An idea that liberates, that sets one free, a dream that became a reality when brave individuals stood up against injustices and fought for what they believed in, regardless of the cost.

The republic is in danger of being eradicated by those who no longer believe, or never believed, in the idea of personal freedom that is America. Right now, our country is covered in a veil of deceit, under which corrupt politicians are functioning to create a government-dependent population… yet I, for one, believe that with the same faith and determination our predecessors in breeches and tri-cornered hats possessed, that veil can be lifted to revive the principles upon which this country was founded.
At the close of the Constitutional Convention, a bystander asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin answered, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Well, friends, it is now not a matter of whether we can or we cannot, it is a question of whether we will.