Posted by
mike from tucson on Sunday, September 10, 2006 8:13:26 PM
Pt. 5 Some years ago in early America , young and not so young men settled differences with fists and feet, and in the extreme, duels to the death. Afterwards, the living went on to accept or avoid each other. But it was settled. In those times men fought their own battles and had no sympathy or respect for those who shunned personal risk. All true men were trained in arms and all tended to be civil to one another until an insult or injury demanded satisfaction. Natural law as well as the few laws laid down by a newly formed congress were obeyed for the betterment of society and the hard work of building a country. Chivalry ruled. Women were respected. Crime was not tolerated and criminals were often punished on the spot. With the passing of time and the advent of a more genteel society the apprehending of street criminals became more the provenance of the nascent police departments springing up in the eastern cities. In many towns it was now the beat cops that used executive punishment to teach the unruly a quick prison-saving lesson.
Skip forward a century or two and see what the ultimate result of ‘gentility,’ or using the new millennium-speak, ‘political correctness’ has brought. Now in our liberal utopia an imagined slur brings a drive by shooting. Innocent bystanders, many times children, are murdered by witless teenaged gangsters whose lives are then wasted in prison while we are forced to support their endless pain. No property or person is safe. Soul diminishing drugs are sold everywhere. Their safe passage often facilitated by the men we have trusted to lead us. School children are threatened with prison for raising their hands in age old contest to one another or worse drawing a picture of a firearm. Street gangs, many filled with illegal aliens , grow faster than gang squads can arrest their felonious members. Some are now estimated to have as many as 20,000 members nation wide. And, they are growing. In some areas police do not go in, except in mass and then just long enough to make an arrest. In these liberal, welfare-ruined cities the merest hint or rumor of police abuse brings riots. After the rioters have run out of things to steal or destroy, the local and federal governments immediately beg their forgiveness and make offerings for their continued good welfare. And supply more fuel for the next riot.
Now imagine for a moment the insane battlefields that those gang infested cities will become if all moderating police presence is gone. When anarchy rules. When city after city goes dark after what horrific weapons of mass destruction are sent up. When all prison and asylum doors are blasted open and the inmates allowed to run free. When the only way to live will to be quicker, stronger and deadlier than your aggressors. Or to join them!
During and in the days following the terror of 9/11 we as a nation were never so proud as when we witnessed the courageous multitudes of firefighters, police, military and common citizens putting self- interest aside and working day after day, and night after night to free the victims and to comfort the afflicted. Contrast this with the street scenes in New Orleans after Katrina; the instant lawlessness and looting and the utter disregard by far too many for the victims trapped in homes nearby. In that ancient city on the Mississippi we saw in one wide shot both tremendous heroism on the part of our countrymen and women and depravity on a scale we hope to never see again. And this: A year later we went on to observe the war in Israel and Lebanon. During that sad time we saw the ‘years-of-war-ravaged’ Israeli and Lebanese citizens not standing by idly while waiting for their demands for instant help and gratification to be met, or worse looting their city but fighting for their own survival and each in turn taking care of their neighbor’s welfare. People dug through rubble with their bare hands to find buried friends and strangers. What little street crime and looting there was brought instant and harsh retaliation.
I believe, to our everlasting shame, that the political social-welfare experiments which have gone on year after year in cities like New Orleans and Los Angeles have robbed a huge wedge of the American people of their dignity, joy of life and the pride of citizenship. We are left with the untrained, the unhappy and the cast aside. Their pride has been stolen and their vote assured, for nothing more valuable than a handful of baubles and a ripped shopping bag of promises. Can we blame them so much for the results of that terrible injustice?
The continuing lust for power by our elected and unelected leaders will, if left un-checked, destroy us all. We as conservatives have much work to do, many levees to repair. Pray God allows us time. More later.