Doing Our Duties

Doing our duties is part of our freedom. Read in the Robert Freer article below about a Cowboy who knew this and even spoke out it.

By Robert E. Freer, Jr., President of The Free Enterprise Foundation

He’d come west several years before after the loss of his wife, drawn by the vastness of the land and the opportunity to test himself against the rigors of life on the range. Despite his unlikely appearance that earned him the name “four eyes”, he had prevailed. He’d won the respect of both owners and ranch hands by his indefatigable spirit and toughness. They had even made him a deputy sheriff to chase down the outlaw, Redhead Finnegan, and their confidence had been rewarded when he caught the outlaw after a grueling chase. Now in 1886 he operated two ranches and had been asked to address the first Fourth of July picnic in Dickinson, Dakota Territory. The cowboy worked hard on his speech and with a small group of his friends, jumped aboard the eastbound freight in Medora just after daylight and arrived in Dickinson, 50 miles to the east, in plenty of time for the festivities. Trestle tables filled the town’s square for the large crowd that had gathered for the parade and the festivities. After the parade and the prayers, the speeches began. The cowboy was last, and the crowd had become restive. He began in a reedy voice that carried to the back of the crowd and drew catcalls from some of them; next the bright sunlight reflected off of his spectacles blinding him and right into someone eyes in the front of the crowd. This was not a promising start, and the speaker removed his spectacles and poked fun at his own inability to read his speech. Buoyed by their laughs and cheers he began again.

“…But as you already know your rights and privileges So well, I am going to ask you to excuse me if I say a few words about your duties. Much has been given to us…and we must take heed to use aright the gifts entrusted to our care. It is not what we have that will make us a great nation; it is the way in which we use it.” The cowboy continued…he liked “big things” and did not undervalue America’s material prosperity, “But we must keep steadfastly in mind that no people were ever yet benefited by riches if their prosperity corrupted their virtue.” President’s Day 2006, 120 years later, we are still being tested. We do have much for which to be grateful. Yet for so many of us who have been so singularly blessed there is no peace. We scratch at our good fortune like an itch that has now become a sore . We are afraid to celebrate our good fortune and the values that got us here. While we languish, the promise of this land continues to lure pioneers from the farthest corners of the globe, all thirsting for freedom and the opportunity to make a better life.

We have just left behind our season of joy and thanksgiving, but I worry that in the affluence we have achieved and the never ceasing attempts to recognize constitutionally protected “new rights”, we may as a people have lost sight of our duties to stand up for what we have . I founded the Free Enterprise Foundation because along with our board and co-founders, I believe that as citizens of this great land, we have a responsibility to each other to define ethics broadly. It is not just adherence to a general notion of fair play that makes us ethical. We must consistently be decent to each other and affirmatively support our communities.

We look to government for many services to enhance our welfare and are disappointed. Bureaucracy, waste, outright graft and all around failure to get the job done confront us. Government is needed to protect our security but increasingly we see that it is the volunteer effort of thousands of good citizens from around our great land that has the power, the skill and the persistence of the giving spirit to transform our society into the world of which we dream. Duty is as much a part of the American ethic as is liberty. Without acceptance of our duties, freedom will perish. Corporations, which draw their existence and their privileges from the state, have a special responsibility to foster an ethical culture that permeates their every fiber.

Our Foundation reaches out to recognize those enterprises that do and to provide tools of Best Practice to all. We also intend to educate the public on the continuing need to keep the cowboy’s words ever in mind. As for the Cowboy, though he soon returned to the East, he is still very much a part of the Dakota landscape gazing out from Mt Rushmore. Theodore Roosevelt never shirked in doing his duty, and we as citizens should do no less.

Copyright © 2007 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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