I Believe

by Chuck McGlawn


I believe that less government and more responsibility is the surest road toward peace and prosperity. I believe in America's traditions of personal liberty, individual responsibility, respect for private property and tolerance of others. These are the traditions that have made these United States the greatest nation on earth. These are the traditions that have made these United States the envy of the world, and the example to be followed by peace loving peoples of any nation desiring to live free. These traditions had us well along on the road to becoming "one people".

Then something went wrong. We have become a nation contending against itself. Today we see all manner of divisions. Instead of coming together, we see black pitted against white, poor against rich, and youth against age. We even see women somehow contending against men. We see wage earners contending with welfare recipients. We now see citizens contending against immigrants and almost everyone against the Moslems. Moreover, we find the Federal Government contending against US Citizens, and vice-versa.

We seem to have lost control. "Government of the people, for the people and by the people" has, vanished from our beloved Nation. No matter how we vote, government gets bigger---more intrusive. No matter how strongly worded the candidates promised to reduce taxes, they continue to rise---and we tax more things? No matter how much more we spend education, test scores continue to drop.

I believe you deserve a life of your own choosing. A life that is not micromanaged by a collection of government bureaucrats that see you as lab rats in one social experiment after another. I believe this should no longer be true. I believe it is time to set our nation back on the road to its once recognized goals of a better life and a better world for everyone.

I believe in a society that respects you as a competent individual. I believe you deserve more than the “one-size-fits-all” lawmaking that now prevails in the halls of Congress. Please deliver us from those government agencies that feel they can run our lives for us better than we can ourselves.

I believe in your freedom, a freedom to live and love in your own way, I believe in your freedom to work and play in your own way. Most importantly, I believe in your freedom to dream in your own way with the full expectation that your dreams can become reality without government interference. All these, and much more were our clearly recognized goals just a few decades ago.

I believe in a society that offers freedom and opportunity. I believe in sending a resounding message to all elected officials that we will not settle for anything less than a governmental system that will unleash the teachers to teach and preachers to preach, but most importantly, a system that will unleash the reachers to reach.