Strangely Optimistic

by Rev. Tim Ginter

Trustee, PeaceMakers Institute

President, American Renewal

My wife and I just recently returned from our first trip to colonial Williamsburg. What a wonderful place. Just to have the opportunity to walk the same streets and enter some of the same buildings that men such as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, George Washington, and Patrick Henry frequented was thrilling. This trip served to stir my patriotism and pride in America and reminded me again of the principles of liberty these men established and the price they paid for our freedom.

Following our visit, my wife and I then drove to Washington, DC to attend a couple of days of scheduled meetings. When we drove into DC we were jerked back into the frenzied pace of the 21st century and the reality of the current state of affairs in our nation…

While there I began to think about what we have witnessed this past year…

• Fiscal irresponsibility was taken to a new level. This administration has spent more money in the last 12 months than all of the prior administrations…combined! The idea that we can borrow trillions of dollars at no consequence requires such an infantile view of economics, it staggers the imagination. It is akin to believing you can charge items on your credit card without ever receiving a bill.
• The Obama administration together with a “lock step” Congress, have initiated stimulus packages that have failed to create jobs and have accomplished nothing more than to bailout the arrogant corporate CEO’s and lending institutions that were the very source of our problems to begin with.Meanwhile, the promised ceiling of 8% unemployment has skyrocketed to double digits across the nation.
• We have witnessed the unprecedented growth of the Federal Government and the establishment of a whole new class of ruling “czars” who are accountable to no one outside the White House.
• The Government now owns the majority of the auto industry, the banks and now they want to take over health care.Thirty percent (30%) of private business is now owned by the Federal Government. If the Health Care package (in it’s current form) does indeed pass, this would result in an additional 18% ownership. And should Cap and Trade make it through, add on an additional 8%… resulting in the government of the United States owning 56% of our nation’s private business. (Perhaps using the term “private business”is now an oxymoron.)
• Welfare spending is up 30% since President Obama took office.
• We have also witnessed the introduction of a new level of corruption and Chicago style politics practiced behind closed doors… right in front of our faces. Bribes,payoffs and special deals for the select few that are shocking even to the most politically brazened.
• On top of all of this, we have “Representatives” who have sold out those they are to represent, to the whim and will of the delirious duo, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

Does this alarm you?

It should. I can almost feel the heat being generated by our Founding Fathers spinning in their graves.

It would have bothered President Woodrow Wilson who said:

“The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power,not the increase of it. When we resist therefore the concentration of power we are resisting the powers of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties.”

While considering all of the above and the events of this past year, my mind again returned to colonial Williamsburg. I thought of the private discussions , the passionate debates and the fiery speeches that eventually served to fuel the fire of a revolution dedicated to the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This fire of patriotism erupted in cannon fire as a poorly equipped army of volunteers dared to stand up to the most powerful military in the world. As you already know, they not only held their own, they succeeded in cornering Cornwallis and his army in Yorktown only a few miles from where Patrick Henry gave his famous “Give me liberty or give me death”speech. And after several days of battle, the unthinkable happened. The most powerful army in the world was forced into submission by a “common” people who refused to allow a repressive government to tread on them.

And it all began as a movement. A movement dedicated to basic principles…principles of freedom and life.

So even in the midst of the current state of affairs in our nation, I find myself strangely optimistic. Optimistic, because I sense that something is happening again in America.

In the midst of the corrupt stench of Washington DC, I detect a whiff of clean air coming from somewhere outside the beltway.

And while struggling for breath in an atmosphere heavy with the smothering philosophies of socialism, I feel a refreshing breeze of liberty coming from the direction of “the people”

In the midst of the cacophony of lies disguised as “hope and change”, my ears have caught the sound of a trumpet call “to arms”.

Yes, something is happening in America.

“The people”…are awakening and are beginning to mobilize and organize. A new revolution of liberty is forming.

Americans everywhere are returning to their roots… to the founding documents and the principles forged in the fires of heated debate  so many years ago. To the principles that made us the greatest nation on earth.

Yes, the people are rising up and they are looking for leaders who will represent them.

Leaders of character and integrity.Leaders with wisdom . Leaders who are not at war with our Founding Fathers and who will defend the Constitution from any foe…even those within their own Party.

Leaders… citizen leaders, who will represent them because they sense a call of duty to their nation, not because they lust for position and power.

Yes, I am deeply concerned about our nation’s future…and I intend to stand up, speak up and fight until we are once again a “government of the people by the people and for the people”. But the good news is this: I am not alone….I am just “one” in the midst of a growing army….an army called, “The people”.

A proud American,

Tim Ginter