Dawn of Unity

Well, it's now going on twelve score years ago that "our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation", and we're still "met on a great battle-field". The difference is that today, our field of battle isn't on a farm in Pennsylvania. It's in our home, our community, our state, our nation, and our world. It is here that we must fight for freedom and liberty and those higher principles upon which this nation was founded. As the civil war proved, merely founding a nation upon high principles does not assure its continued success. Every day our nation is challenged to live up to its principles; just as we - in our own lives - are challenged. It's never enough to declare ideals; we must ever strive to live them.

The “great task remaining before us”, then, is to unite as those thirteen colonies did those many years ago, and exercise our own power and influence, to assure that our collective needs are met, and that our nation's ideals and principles remain in place to guide us.

As Abraham Lincoln clearly pointed out in the closing lines of his famous address; this nation was created to serve all people, not some, and to be controlled by all people, not an elite few. The Civil War is long since over, but the greater battle has never ended, just as he prophesied. Our every choice is "testing whether [this] nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure" under the ideals and principles upon which it was founded. It is appropriate that this is so.

To some, the fact of our greatness offers reason to forgo any discussion of problems, shortcomings or opportunities for improvement, perhaps even thinking this to be disloyal or unpatriotic; but this is a very dangerous attitude to take. It's because this country is so great, was founded upon such noble principles, and offers the world so much, that we especially need to acknowledge "the great task remaining before us" and make the effort that is necessary to assure that our country will live up to the cause for which it was founded, and to live up to those principles in all of its affairs. This is especially vital now that our country has assumed a dominant position of power over other countries in the world.

If one really wanted to stimulate the economy, it would put money into the hands of the consumer at the lower economic end, because these are those who spend the greater percentage of their income on consumer goods. It is, after all, the demand for consumer goods that creates the need for industry in the first place. With more profits in the hands of the common people, more money will be spent on goods and services, which will increase demand and give industry greater profits. These profits give industry a greater ability to produce even more products in order to meet the growing need. This will require them to hire more workers, reducing the number of unemployed, and raising employees' pay as demand for workers increases. The result again is more money to the consumer level which creates even more demand, and the cycle continues.

According to Section 8 of our Constitution; "The Congress shall have Power ... To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin ...” In 1913, our Congress spat in the face of our Founding Fathers, and disregarded the Constitution when it delegated this responsibility to the private banking community through the Federal Reserve System, and allowed them to issue money at the government's expense, and to regulate this money's value as they saw fit.

If we were really serious about curbing inflation and reducing unemployment, and not about helping the banking industry make profits, we would be encouraging business growth through the lowering of their cost of credit, rather than the opposite, which is the present policy.

A society that truly desires safety and security will adopt policies that allow all others the opportunity to prosper, and that allow them the security which they need to live as they choose. It's often the case, however, that hostilities begin because one individual or group tries to gain an unfair advantage, and the other becomes frustrated in their attempts to achieve or maintain a degree of prosperity that they feel entitled to. After all, it's the cornered animal that is the threat! Or the desperately hungry one! Or the one that is wounded and can see no other alternative than that of attack.

True justice is fairness for all concerned. It seeks a correction of error. If people are harmed by others, then justice is served when the offending parties are led to recognize the error of their ways, repent of their actions, change their motivating beliefs, and make amends for the harm they caused. And this repentance is not defined as merely saying one is sorry. It is expressed by sincerely striving to change one's destructive patterns, and by making amends for the harm one caused to another.

To achieve this type of justice, our legal and penal institutions need to utilize effective counseling and creative forms of rehabilitation, with the intent of altering the offender's beliefs and motivations. Justice is not achieved through some fixed period of punishment, after which the offender is freed to continue in some destructive form of expression. It's achieved when the wrong is righted.

The public school system is in an ideal position to provide a means whereby a child's needs can be assessed, where behavior problems can be recognized, and where a determination can be made regarding a possible need for assistance. Within a modified school system (as will be described later), a child may require counseling (as may the parents), special attention or classes, or a different school system entirely.