Don't overdo the civility

While political censorship is abhorrent in a free society, political invective is democracy's very breath of life. Yes, even when that breath has halitosis. This is what David Swan of Denver seems to misunderstand. His off-key swan song on today's Denver Post letters page scolds me for a May 4 column, "Who's Afraid of Ideas?", in which I supposedly violated my own precepts by calling the enemies of Douglas Bruce a lynch mob, the critics of Rush Limbaugh a chorus of pantywaists, and the avatars of political correctness in general, caterwauling spinsters.

But with his call for "civil discussion" in place of Andrews' alleged "stereotyping," "close-mindedness," and "derisive attitude," Swan misses my whole point. Civility is fine in moderation. Let's have as much of it as we can. But don't overdo it, please.

Let's never become such pantywaists and spinsters (if the petticoat fits, wear it, Mr. Swan) that we let our dainty betters use the rough tone of political debate or media polemics as an excuse to delegitimize the valid criticisms someone was attempting to voice.

The "How dare you" rebuke and schoolmarmish silencing gavel that Rep. Curry brought down on Rep. Bruce on Black Monday in the legislature are an offense to the whole spirit of unfettered discussion in our American Republic. These and the other examples in my recent column represent a call to arms for anyone who loves the freedom of the mind.

In this battle David Swan may be a pacifist, but I am an all-out militant. Against the hush-mouthing Currys of this world I will use any weapon short of violence -- including, if need be, taunts and name-calling.

DU students clueless on free speech

"How far do you think free speech should go?" was the question in DU's student paper, the Clarion, March 4 edition. I was stunned at what I read in the answers of five students. Not one of the responses printed, showed the slightest understanding of what free speech is or why it is important.

One by the name of Carolyn stated, for example: "When you start targeting and hurting specific groups, you're taking free speech too far and abusing the rights that have been given to us."

If I may use this as merely an example: When did you begin to believe that the Constitution guarantees your right not to be offended? When did you begin to believe that the government GIVES you rights at all? Our founders wrote the Constitution and our Bill of Rights to PROTECT the rights they believed were inalienable-that is, not bestowed by any government.

The growing confusion about the simple and clear definition of free speech itself is troubling and doesn't bode well for the education of college students, let alone K-12.

The First Amendment protects you from being punished by the government for what you say. It does not protect you from being criticized by your friends, those for whom you work, clients you serve, or even those who say stupid things. It doesn't even protect celebrities from those who refuse to watch their movies for something they've said.

It occurs to me that one of the reasons so many people have trouble with this, is because they think the government and all other private institutions are one in the same. That, to put it bluntly, is frightening.

When the private and public merge, the government can control everything you say or do. Think about it! Better yet, Carolyn, Laura, Dylan, Jessica and Riley, please pick up a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I think you'll find it a fascinating reading.

Editor: This was published as a letter in the April 22 edition of the Clarion

Quietly rewriting the Declaration

Why do progressives work so diligently to weed Christianity out of the body politic? They wish to rewrite the Declaration of Independence as follows: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal (and must remain so), that they are endowed by the State with certain conditional Rights, that among these are Life, (provided it is of sufficient “quality”), Liberty, (if proper behavior and attitudes are maintained), and the pursuit of the Collective Good.”

Let us consider these items one at a time.

1. Undermining our society’s Christian foundations

Eliminate home schooling and force everyone to place their children in the hands of NEA propagandists to be indoctrinated with progressive biases.

Next, define religious schools as child abuse as pretext to shut them down and give the progressives a total monopoly over the minds of our children.

Pull down visible religious symbols, and prohibit any religious activity in school.

2. Instituting the culture of death

“Progressive” social democracy constitutes the culture of death: abortion, euthanasia, “mercy” killing. The camel’s nose under the tent flap begins with the notion of “terminally ill” patients. But soon it expands to the “terminally inconvenient." Elitists then decide if your “quality of life is sufficient” to allow you to live.

If the progressive purpose provides “security to all citizens”, the State then claims the right to enforce things in your life that benefit the State. “You must wear a motorcycle helmet! If you bang your head, and become a vegetable, it will cost too much to care for you!” True enough. But what about the next step? “Living too long is ‘unfair’ because you consume more than your “fair share” of welfare resources!”

“Upon receipt of this letter, you are hereby notified that upon reaching your 72nd birthday, your retirement and Social Security benefits are terminated. You will vacate your government apartment, surrender your accounts and possessions to proper authorities, and report to the euthanasia center by no later than 10:00 PM on January 16th.”

Another outrage: the progressive obsession with casualties in Iraq, used to undermine the war effort. 4000 brave men and women lost in the fight against a world-wide barbarous Islamic tyranny over the last 5 years. Regrettable, but what about the 3700 lives snuffed PER DAY by abortion? Or what about the 42,000 a year killed in automobile accidents?

3. Hypocrisy in action

Abortion, by far, is the biggest killer of Americans, with the total of over 1.2 million deaths per year! In 1973 we discovered we were expecting our son Glenn. The nurse casually asked my wife “do you want to keep it”? I remember the cold chill and horror I felt at the time. (My cherished son an “it”!) Yet tens of millions of Americans my son’s age have been murdered by their parents before they had a chance for life. If the progressives really cared about life, they would be on the other side of this issue.

Theologically we’re in trouble: King Manasseh of ancient Judah (697 to 642 BC) “..did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2Chr 33:2). His greatest sin was “he burned his sons as an offering in the valley of the son of Hinnom” (2 Chr 33:6). King Manasseh revived the ancient Canaanite practice of sacrificing children to Moloch. How many children were burnt alive in the 55 years that King Manasseh reigned? Tens of thousands? Even the piety of his grandson, King Josiah, was not enough to redeem the Jewish society from the punishing destruction of 586 BC.

Yet WE have “sacrificed” tens of MILLIONS to our false gods of selfishness and convenience! If people are an asset, how much richer and stronger our society would be today if the 50 million young people my son’s age were alive today! If people are an asset, why are we thus destroying the very future of the society?

Progressives strive to make children unfashionable. The very class of people most able to raise fine children are the very ones killing them! “Progressive” society prefers to subsidize generation after generation of welfare dependent single mothers who spawn illegitimate children for income!

We believe our God is a loving God. But He is also a just God. Can we really think we will NOT be held accountable for this unquestioned sin of abortion?

I saw a bumper sticker stating “A voice for choice: every child a wanted child!” I gagged! Why not this? “A voice for choice: Every Citizen a wanted Citizen /s/Adolph Hitler!” The roots of Margaret Sanger’s Planned Parenthood go deep into Nazi Eugenics that any genuine liberal would abhor!

4. Finally, “liberty and the pursuit of happiness”

See how progressives handle these in areas they already control: on campus! speech codes, political correctness, intolerance of diverse points of view. The party line in spades! Imagine society completely controlled by progressives: Look what’s happening in Canada as we speak.

If our society wishes to preserve the liberties it now takes for granted, it must remember and heed the words of one of the founding Fathers, Patrick Henry: “Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.”

Russ Oberlin, 1929-2008

"Be who you are, use what you have, do what you can." Russ Oberlin stopped me at a recent political meeting to pass along these dozen words that summarized -- he said with an earnest smile -- an ethic of responsibility and giving as well as any quote he could remember from nearly eight decades of life. Russ lived that ethic admirably until the day of his sudden passing on on March 18, and its impact was attested by the throng of friends and fellow Republicans who crowded his memorial service in Littleton on March 22. What an exemplary gentleman, husband, father, and citizen he was!

Our thoughts are prayers are with Jane, Russ's wife of 56 years, and their children: Cynthia, Patty, David, and Blake. The family asks that memorial gifts be made to Developmental Pathways, the organization serving developmentally disabled persons, for which volunteered tirelessly over the past two decades.

Our self-indulgence spells fiscal folly

We are Americans, and we want the best. Now! Instant gratification has become the American ethos. In roughly three generations, American society has been transformed from a nation of penny-pinchers, scrimpers and savers to a nation of consumption-addicted spendthrifts oblivious to tomorrow. Despite the second-highest per capita income in the world, we save next to nothing. As late as the mid-1980s, the savings rate regularly exceeded 10 percent.

Once upon a time, families actually saved to purchase a home. Young people saved money from their summer jobs to purchase a car. People even saved to prepare for unforeseen trouble or opportunity — "a rainy day."

Forgoing spending to save for something important taught crucial disciplines of delayed gratification and prudent spending. After several years of sacrificing certain comforts or pleasures, we are much more diligent to make certain that what we buy will last, to take care of that purchase, and to understand contracts before signing them.

That personal stake is absent from purchases that require little more than a promise to make future payments. When we have no skin in the game, it seems we have nothing to lose. As a result, Americans have amassed $2.5 trillion in household debt — more than $23,000 per household.

It's no wonder that we transfer that same instant gratification ethos to government. When we the people fail to practice self-discipline at home, we cannot possibly be serious about fiscal restraint in government.

Politicians of all stripes use our shortsightedness to their advantage. With rare exceptions, the populace doesn't embrace candidates who call for tough choices. That's why elections are typically won by the candidate who tells the most people what they want to hear.

For the last 30 years, high school students have learned virtually nothing about the proper limits of government, although they may hear that government should "stay out of your bedroom," which facilitates more instant gratification.

Nearly 200 years ago, Frederic Bastiat wrote: "Government is the great fiction by which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

It used to be that politicians sought to ingratiate themselves to the masses by vowing to tax "the rich." By now, most voters are savvy enough to realize that "rich" means everyone with a job and a pulse.

So candidates now promise more government goodies – health care and mortgage bailouts – at the expense of our children and grandchildren. They won't say it that plainly because we wouldn't fall for it if they did. But that's exactly what is happening.

When Congress and President Bush rushed to pass their popgun economic "stimulus" package, they increased the current year's deficit by more than 150 percent and charged another $152 billion to future generations.

The federal debt is more than $5 trillion — $48,359 per household. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. We owe another $5 trillion to federal employees and veterans for health care and retirement benefits.

However, the cost of retirement and health care programs for the general public really shafts our children and grandchildren. The unfunded cost of providing Social Security and Medicare benefits to everyone alive today is more than $45 trillion. That's not the total cost; it's the cost that cannot be covered by existing revenues.

The board of trustees of these two programs says the promises we've made to ourselves "are not sustainable under current financing arrangements." Social Security's existing surpluses will "turn into rapidly growing deficits as the baby boom generation retires."

"Medicare's financial status is even worse," the trustees warn. That should make any clear-thinking American recognize the sheer foolishness of creating a new health care entitlement for everyone.

Too many Americans, whipped into a frenzy by groups like AARP, prefer to sentence our children or grandchildren to stratospheric tax rates than to consider simply slowing the growth of future benefits. Without changes, government will grow from an historic cost of about 18 percent of GDP to 30 percent in just 22 years. In some 40 years, spending will consume 50 percent of GDP — more even than during World War II.

Our decisions today determine if we will saddle our children and grandchildren with an unrestrained government that drains the economy and makes the dollar virtually worthless.

If we hope to secure the blessings of liberty for our posterity, we must force our leaders to confront the future responsibly and aggressively. Most of us did not endure the Great Depression nor any of our country's most demanding tests. However, we face a moment of truth that is just as crucial to our nation's future.

It would be tragic if we who have been asked to do so little fail even this test.