“I, _____ do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.”
The oath of office I recite above is the same oath of office required to be taken by military officers and members of the US Congress at the start of each January of every odd-numbered year. I reaffirm my allegiance to that inspired document before you again today. When I left the military, one of my wonderful mentors told me, “Notice there is no end date associated with this Oath, it is always in effect.”
The documents which brought our country to fruition were studied from the time I was in grade school. During my career I noticed it had been a long time since I had read these documents. I had been watching the HBO Special on John Adams last week. I went and downloaded a copy of the Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence, principally written by Thomas Jefferson, is one of the most inspired writings this earth has known in my opinion. Jefferson believed the British Parliament was a “foreign legislature” that was unconstitutionally trying to extend its sovereignty into the colonies.
As I read through the Declaration’s points, I began to notice trends. The trend was a few of the points could apply to American citizen’s plight in our day. American citizens are suffering under similar legislative intrusions by laws enacted without representation or overturned by legislating from the bench.
We have enacted laws for some of the most mundane things that should be common sense. Those that are common sense have been overturned by liberal courts legislating from the bench. There are many recent examples of propositions being overwhelming voted on, only to be overturned by the court.
Thoughts came to me of what would the Founding Fathers think of our current state of government. Congress approval ratings are at all time lows. Their approval rating went into single digit territory last week.
It must give President Bush some satisfaction that his approval ratings are three times higher than a Democratic controlled congress. I would love to talk to him about that.
All of us agree with Jefferson when he states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Here are items on my list I would submit to you:
Forbidden to enact laws for the education of my children. One special interest group continues its fight in the legislature and courts allowing me to home school my children if I so feel. My confidence in public schools continues to dwindle. When my kids are subject to political and social agendas that should be discussed only with parents, or have those agendas forced on them, then our government has failed our children.
A review of where the US ranks in the world in subjects of current events, mathematics and science are low. I fear we have lost our ability to think and reason, but more importantly compete. Get over it National Education Association, competition is what the world is made of.
Refused to enact laws for America’s energy needs. When you actually look at the amount of oil imported into the US, you will see we have sold our nation’s security to potential enemies. When I talked to a good friend of mine working for Shell Oil, he told me we have enough oil and shale to last us 400-500 years with current growth.
The problem he said was we have 1000’s of pages of regulations and restrictions on finding the product, drilling the product out of the ground, processing the product and the refining capacity to make what we need. Environmental special interest groups have taken over government agencies and restricted our ability to give us the energy we need.
We could be selling it to our allies, adding to our economy and theirs. I say again… DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, and PAY LESS!
We need to build more nuclear power plants in the US. Europe has electrical power to sustain them based on clean, efficient nuclear power. We have the technology to build nuclear power plants but political agendas and special interest groups have bought their influence in the only body which can give us the electricity we need.
If you have any doubts, take a look at what the nuclear power plants create for our NIMITZ class aircraft carriers. These floating cities rely on their nuclear power plants.
Refused to enact laws to protect our citizens from foreign intrusion and illegal immigration. I continue to read intelligence reports of how Islamic terrorist groups have been able to come across our southern border with the help of Latin American countries. When you see Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Amadinejad embracing each other in Tehran and Caracas, that should tell you they are cooperating on our demise.
Review their speeches before the UN and what they believe is the number one problem with the world today. We should be learning from Benjamin Netanyahu as the Israelis are about ten to twelve years ahead of us when it comes to fighting Islamic fundamentalist groups bent on destroying our values and way of life.
Refused to give our Commander in Chief the tools required to fight a religious ideological war the likes this world has never seen. The FISA laws should have been a no-brainer. Joint Publication 3.0 teaches you must identify your enemy’s centers of gravity which comprises the source of power that provides freedom of action, physical strength, and will to fight. What are al-Qaeda’s strategic centers of gravity?
They are their religious ideology, ability to recruit and communicate, and their financing. All of our efforts should focus on these items. President Bush and the government agencies fighting the war on terror must be given the freedom to go after any thing giving our enemies sources of power, freedom of action, strength, and will to fight. Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah should be the most demoralized groups on the face of the earth.
Instead, our enemies have been embolden by our weakness in bringing all our elements of national power (Diplomatic, Informational, Military, and Economic) to bear.
Enacted taxation without representation for the redistribution of wealth. Much of this money is spent on social programs given to those refusing to contribute to our society. We have taken away individual capacity to work. We give them no incentive to work and contribute to our society. The one thing my father taught me was the importance of work.
I found it fascinating the Senate would bring in the CEOs of big oil to hound them about their profits. Look at the amount of taxes they pay to our government. What would be the outcome if those big oil companies were to use that money for exploration or innovative ways to process oil taken out of the ground? How many of you are angered by the programs our tax dollars are spent on which you do not support for religious or other reasons?
Refusal to be influenced by special interest groups whose agendas would harm or damage the social fabric or security of the United States. Billions of dollars are spent by these groups for one thing, influence. The ability to influence the discussion or worse yet, never allows the discussion to take place, should anger all of us. This continues to corrupt the form of government our Founding Fathers envisioned. I remember a great Sunday school teacher telling me all temptations fall into three categories; power, passions, and appetites. That pretty well sums up our nation’s capitol.
I have found myself in turmoil this election season. I do not see a candidate emulating my sense of values. I feel I will vote for the lesser of evils, not for someone who I think would represent me and what I believe. I urge all of you to make your own list, a personal declaration of independence, and do it prior to going into the voting booth this November.
Before you walk into the booth, take the time to read these great documents our nation was built on, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and our Constitution. They will guide you when making the decisions on who you send to Washington and represent you. They will have an effect on so many things in this century we are living in.
I’m a dot!
Mark Hasara
