It is an unfortunate thing that we find ourselves, on a daily basis, surrounded by those who would wish us harm. We know this to be true in our daily lives. We see it in strangers, that some who don’t know us at all, will, if allowed, take from us our property or even damage our lives. We see it in familiars, those around us, perhaps in classrooms or in neighborhoods or in virtual worlds, who through anger or disappointment or poor communication, decide to harm us. While those “harmings” often occur in verbal form or in perhaps trying to put us into isolation or maybe just writing viciiously here on myspace, nonetheless the words hurt.
So, while we should wish, and even live for, a peaceful world, we know the reality from our own lives. The evidence of this is as simple as the fact that most of us lock our doors each night. If we really believed that we lived in some safe utopia, we would never feel any need to lock our doors.
Well, what is true on our personal level is absolutely true on the larger civic level. In my city, I desire security. In my state, I wish for safety and peace. In my country and world, I want to live without fear. Yet, for some reason, some among us think that the moment we move to the larger civic level,, the same simple concepts such as precautions of safety (the metaphorical locked door) no longer apply.
You’ll see this in efforts to defang or defund the city police or the state troopers. On the national level, you’ll hear calls for a reduction of spending in national defense. If I have heard correctly, President Obama has made a recent call for such a reduction and again, as with choosing to leave the doors unlocked at home, this is unwise.
Now realize, I do believe and agree that much of government spending is wasteful. We could probably cut government spending my 25% if we only choose to do “things that work” like in the real world (yes, an allusion to Real Change: From the World That Fails to the World That Works,
However, unless President Obama calls for an “across the board” reduduction of some percentage, thus indicating he is really attacking a bloated government and wasteful spending, his efforts aimed only at the military are unwise.
Worse, they, and calls like them from groups on the left, display such a lack of awareness of what really makes us safe as to be hints of larger concerns. While I won’t delve into those now, the bottom line is that our Founders already knew what we needed.
In George Washington’s 5th Address to Congress, he spoke directly to this thinking. At this point, the French Revolution was unraveling into the Reign of Terror, something John Adams had foretold. Back at home, Thomas Jefferson and his protege, James Madison were busy creating our first political party, the Republicans (not our current group–Jefferson’s group will become Andrew Jackson’s Democratic-Republicans and eventually just the Democrats). Jefferson’s Republicans were in love with France and Jefferson, in opposition to Adams, believed strongly that France’s revolution was like ours. He was wrong.
Jefferson and his Republican allies were calling on the US to go to war with England in support of France. Yet, at the same time, they were not willing to support any efforts to build up our national defense, especially on the high seas. So, in his message to Congress, Washington addressed this.
I urge you to read Washington’s words closely so as to see how apt they are for our own days. Once again, the wisdom of the Founders, or at least of Washington, shines through. Note, the highlights are my own.
“I can not recommend to your notice measures for the fulfillment of our duties to the rest of the world without again pressing upon you the necessity of placing ourselves in a condition of complete defense and of exacting from them the fulfillment of their duties toward us. The United States ought not to indulge a persuasion that, contrary to the order of human events, they will forever keep at a distance those painful appeals to arms with which the history of every other nation abounds. There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it; if we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.”
You may read the entire address here.
http://www.assoc-amazon.com/s/link-enhancer?tag=numinous&o=1
