By Dr. Jim Ferguson
Our minister said what many of us are feeling: “We need Christmas,” because what a year it has been. I can’t fully understand the Depression, WW II or similar events from history because they are not experiential for me. However, I’ve now lived six decades and I have paid close attention to events of the last three. And I have experienced nothing like what is now occurring throughout the world and in our country.
Charles Dickens opened his novel “A Tale of Two Cities” with the famous phrase, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” These words resonate with me because it is the best of times for me, at a time when it is the worst of modern times for our country. Dickens’ novel compared life in London to the horrors of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror orchestrated by the “Republican, Robespierre. It was a time of mob rule and regicide (the execution of kings).
Reflections over this last year have caused me to think in alliterative “R”s. Our “king” presides over the disasters of his regime, unparalleled in my own experience. The chants of class warfare, racial division and the assault on American religious foundations are right out of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” Never heard of this community organizer and socialist? You should read about the man who mightily influenced Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and how Alinsky’s little book is being used for the radical transformation of America.
Our American Revolution was ending about the time the French were beginning their own. Though some post-modern historians now opine that our Founders were not religious men, I say this is nonsense. The Founders lived in the Age of Reason which culminated in an epoch we call the Enlightenment. This was a time when scientific observation and reason, rather than faith, were the vehicles to truth.
Why did the American Revolution succeed and produce our Representative Republic, while the French Revolution led to mob rule and the guillotine? Our Founders were largely Englishmen whose ancestors established the Magna Carta, the English Common Law tradition and came to America for religious freedom. France was vastly different in these crucial respects. The result is history. Robespierre and his radicals replaced theism with humanism, and replaced the cross with an obelisk to reason. Too bad for poor Robespierre and his ilk; the mob soon turned on them and cut off their heads with the radical’s own guillotine.
After the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City, we should all be afraid of our mob (rabble). We even hear that our “laws” guaranteeing due process and Grand Juries should be rewritten. There is a process to change the civic operating contract of our country. It’s called a Constitutional Amendment. We have modified the Constitution twenty-seven times over the centuries. I don’t believe the Constitution should be scrapped to appease the rabble. The law and our police are there to protect us. All of mankind’s institutions are imperfect, but they are superior to mob rule, lynching and guillotines.
I’ll spare you a list of this year’s abuses by the Regime. If you can’t readily recall five disasters and violations of the law by Obama and his acolytes, you’re not paying attention or you’re only reading the New York Times, listening to NPR or watching CNN.
I once read that only one third of Americans participated in the American Revolution. Another third sided with King George. The last third were disengaged, only looking after themselves. Perhaps some of these 18th century folks lived on the frontier, far from the revolutionary fray. They didn’t have the internet to be informed, so I’ll cut them some slack. However, I’ll bet some of the disengaged were perhaps like our own clueless “citizens” often showcased in embarrassing “man on the street” interviews. It’s no wonder the “uninformed” can be manipulated, by a blood thirsty media and community organizers turned politicians, and become a mob. We saw this in NYC where those who responded to the bullhorn chant, “What do you want?” replied with a chilling, “Dead cops.” The in Gotham got their wish with the “assassination” of two policemen.
Our system is dependent upon respect of and obeisance of the law. If the rule of law is replaced by the rules of radicals or the law of the jungle, civilization will collapse. In fact, it is the “thin blue line” of law enforcement officers who protect society from the rabble. We now see the result of denigrating police officers for political gain, and flouting the Law of the Land to foster “transformative” revolution. Our leaders have learned Mr. Alinsky’s lessons well.
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are credited with founding the Democratic Republican party to oppose the so-called Federalists like John Adams, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson admired the republican spirit of the French Revolution, at least until it got out of hand. His party would later drop the Republican moniker and be known as Democrats. Recall that a republic is a form of government predicated on the rule of law.
I find it fascinating that the Republican Party did not come into existence until 1854, and Abraham Lincoln was its first member elected President of the United States. These days the Republican brand is blamed for all America’s problems. This is propaganda because there are few Republicans left. Even their leadership are actually members of the Washington ruling class, and are called RINOs or Republicans in name only.
Perhaps it’s my semi-retirement that affords me more time to consider the slaughter of children by radical adherents of Mohammedism. Perhaps it’s my resolve to use my talents to speak out and oppose the evil that confronts us. At this point in my life I’ve learned what is real, and it’s not Hollywood’s façade or Obama’s latest platitude.
I’ve also learned from the Christmas movie Home Alone. Macaulay Culkin plays a little boy preparing to defend his home from the bad guys. He tells himself, “Don’t get scared.”
The virtue known as courage doesn’t exist without risk. My country and my children’s future hangs in the balance and is worth my best efforts. I daily pray for the gift of courage.
