You are invited to read the latest commentary from the Free Enterprise Foundation. It will make you think!

Come on Home, America!

As I view the prospect of our current economic difficulties, I missed the Great Depression by a few years, so have only my reading and the passed down wisdom of my parents and friends who went through it to guide me. I hope as well that, thanks to an excellent education and fine tuning of my analytic faculties over 40 years of post grad experience at the law and life, I can say that Einstein’s “theory” that a good definition for insanity “… is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” is a proven hypothesis no longer relegated to the nether world of theory. That is exactly what our political leaders are doing in trying to reinvent the New Deal for a decidedly different problem.

Regrettably we are in the early stages of what Winston Churchill referred to when he said, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing…after they have tried everything else.” We are still in the “everything else” phase of trying to invent a solution for what ails our economy, and I worry that the heedless mucking around in which we are engaged is doing untold damage to the fabric of our society that will take well after the time I have left to talk good sense to all of you to correct.

America, it is time to come on home to personal pride in the USA, family first and life proven values of hard work, honesty, modest habits, fidelity, savings, generosity in spirit and charity to those in your community less fortunate than you. I know many people who exhibit those qualities, many of them young, full of idealism and truly wanting to build a better USA than we are leaving them. Those that I know are a joy to me. I sure hope they can stay the course. They are assaulted constantly by the hedonistic ways that are glorified in media and the self absorption of their own generation that surrounds them.

We only get the government we deserve, and even more importantly, we only get the country we deserve as well. If I am critical of our country’s efforts to cure its ills, then what is the solution? How do we get back on the right track?

We build the America of our dreams in two ways. First, by our own behavior going forward and two, by the reinvigoration of our educational system to assure that the next generation is receiving not only quantitative education and learning skills but cultural understanding as well. At its heart, building our country must be done one citizen at a time. It begins with our personal faith and trust in values that have served this country for more than four centuries. Those values must be ingrained in the next generation from birth. Creating the country we aspire to is also grounded in a firm understanding of our history. Step by step, we must reassert proven notions of the importance of personal liberty, right and wrong, prudent living, national pride and the responsibility of service above self into our educational system. It is a system, I might add, that is busted at the primary level and sorely needs fixing at the secondary level as well.

It seems to me we have lost our nerve as well as our faith, and for the first time in my life, I am truly worried about the future. Prayer is my refuge, for I know that our culture is too far gone to be retrieved without a power far more compelling than any of us can muster alone. Even if you are a professed non-believer, I hope you will join your prayers to mine. It is the least we can do to focus our collective minds on creating the educational environment we need to turn things around in American education.

We have absorbed the life glamorized by the media, adopted its values for a trial run with nary a dissenting voice echoing back across our land and are reaping the result. How else can we understand record births in 2008 of over four million new souls we are welcoming as Americans, and they are 40 percent the result of births out of wedlock? What does that say about the commitment of the parents to see their child through all the turmoil of childhood? Their failure to accept the formality of family status is an unsettling indication that they will not be there to vest him or her with the skills and values to succeed?

A further indication of the need to reform our personal behavior can be found in our divorce statistics where our generation’s failure to set a good example has resulted in an over 50 percent divorce rate. This lack of steady guidance in my own South Carolina is a primary cause of our abysmal high school graduation figures. Less than half of our high school students make it to graduation. How are we ever going to preserve our nation, if the generation coming to maturity is not equipped with the values and skills that come with a solid education?

On the personal behavior level, I cannot say I have always understood this, but as I age, I have come to accept that our grown offspring are still watching us, considering how we age, and assessing whether the values they have accepted from us will serve them through life as they are serving us now. It is not enough to say “Do as I say, not as I do.” If we abandon the values we absorbed from our parents to follow a whim or wallow in self indulgent hurt, those we love the most will bear the scars far longer than our time on earth to mitigate the damage. Staying the course, perseverance, steadfast faithfulness, reliability is our most important contribution to the next generation. In today’s world, is it any wonder they are confused and lose their way?

You don’t have to be a Bible thumper to realize that the behavior required of us is at the heart of a sane and civilized society. It makes for order and accountability and ultimately for a self realization of our role in the great scheme of the universe. I hasten to add I am not arguing for the sexist rules of the Old or New Testament. That is a world far removed from our own, but what is required is acceptance of the Biblical notions of faith and hope seasoned by personal responsibility, self reliance and accountability, reinforced by an enlightened educational system that provides the opportunity and encouragement to develop the knowledge and skills to thrive in the twenty first century.

Ben Stein recently signed off from writing his weekly column by noting that “life lived to help others is the only one that matters.” In his view (and mine) Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will! The most precious commodity you have is time and its enthusiastic application. Let us all resolve to use what time we have to make our family, our block, our community, our town, state and nation a better place than when we came to it. Together we will create the reality of our expectations.

Copyright © 2009 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr. is President of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor, at The Citadel and elected in 2005 to be their first John S. Grinalds Leader in Residence. A regular contributor to the Mercury, He can be reached by E-mail at The Citadel . Copies of his earlier columns can be found The Free Enterprise Foundation.

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