Random Thought from Last Week

"A democracy is always temporary in nature;  it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.  From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship.”

"The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

Origin unverified, but generally attributed to  -Professor Alexander Tytler -  a Scotsman.   The two paragraphs may have two different origins but however this thought has come to pass the message it conveys will not be different and as far as I am concerned it make no difference what the origin is the words are what has meaning.   

This was reportedly written in reference to the Athenian Republic two thousand years prior to the comment.  My guess is we today, are somewhere between the selfishness and complacency part but have been given a wakeup call in 2001 and since that time if we are to preserve the most free and successful nation formed in modern times, we all have an obligation to learn the values and intent of the founders.  And in doing so each one of us must make the sacrifices necessary to return this nation to one of individual liberty and ethical standards. 

I could go on and on about the perception of corruption and lack of ethics rampant in the halls of congress but suffice it to say public confidence is waning and I am leading the pack in this respect or should I say lack of respect.