Dreams

For the sake of discussion, let us divide dreams between sleeping dreams and waking dreams.

Sleeping dreams seem to be a mental process to resolve issues that may be at work all the time without our awareness, but "bubbles up" when the distractions of sight and sound are minimized by the sleep state. I'm no doctor, but it's clear that my dreams at night - often hard to recall or to understand - seem to incorporate events in my life and the sounds and changes in illumination that take place when I am asleep.

Some mornings I wake up with a clear solution to a challenge I confront, but with no recollection at all of a dream the night before.

Lots of sleeping dreams have unpleasant content. I guess that is a way to confront and defuse lingering anxiety we don't deal with while awake. These are sometimes called nightmares.

Waking dreams are something quite different. Reveries, pipe dreams, and grand ambitions are all called dreams. I sometimes imagine the thinner, stronger, and younger me I used to be. I imagine the younger man with the strong, clear singing voice with lots of wind. I imagine the fellow who played handball. I also read about people who wish they were ranchers instead of accountants, or pilots instead of architects.

Possibly the most famous dream of the Twentieth Century was proclaimed by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at an agonizing time for our nation on August 28, 1963.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

Dr. King's noble dream seemed Utopian in its day. Were he alive today, I believe he would agree that his dream - but for the paraphrase from Isaiah - has largely been fulfilled.

In the Twenty-first Century we confront the dreams of another Utopian: Barack Hussein Obama. His dream is well and truly a nightmare. Far from being rooted in the American dream, his dream is rooted in the aims of Marx, Hegel, and their acolyte Saul Alinsky. His dreams include a government that "levels the playing field" by punishing those who achieve to reward those who don't, all in the name of fairness.

President Obama reminds educated Americans of the cautionary words of Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist #1:

...a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.

Whether it be medical care, taxation, employment law, international policy, man's influence on the climate, energy policy, the role of government in personal lives, the relationship between organized religion and society, or any other aspect of our society, President Obama and the majority of Democrats in Congress today line up against the principles on which our nation was founded and for the statist, socialist views of European Utopians. They chase after a false hope that they will achieve an earthly paradise in which disparity in outcome is prevented by the compassionate hand of the State. They either ignore or - if they are truly sinister - embrace the corrupting influence of power.

They seek to compel outcomes that comport with their ideals, regardless of the lessons of history that no society can ever survive without the natural stratification between those who are endowed or lucky on the one hand and those who lack gifts or are unlucky on the other.

The price of the Democrats' ambitions will be to impoverish most Americans for a whole generation to come. Sadly, their natural opponents, the Republicans, offer little hope for those who would rescue our next generation from this sorry fate.

All we can do is to make absolutely certain that everyone involved knows we reject Obama's designs. Stand up for the right. Email your representatives every day. Your voice counts only when enough of us speak up loud enough to penetrate the Washington echo chamber. Write your newspapers. Let no one doubt we want our country back.

Independence

Two hundred thirty-three years ago, brave men committed treason against their King and countrymen to declare a new form of government for the men, women, and children of thirteen English colonies in the New World. They risked not only their lives and fortunes, but also the lives of all those whom they loved and held dear, to create the opportunity for freedom to rise up and show the world how it could let human beings live, love, worship, and achieve without the heavy hand of masters.

There was no precedent for their planned society. It synthesized noble bits of many western cultures. Its idealism outstripped the practices of the day; almost a century passed before human slavery was outlawed in this new land. But its principles were, and remain, singular in human experience.

By declaring independence, the founders laid down a challenge to all of us who profit from their wisdom, bravery, and persistence. They challenged us to live up to the promise of the new nation they birthed on our shores. They dared us to keep our borders safe, our culture alive, and our God-given freedom. They declared that we are endowed by our Creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the "pursuit" of happiness. They declared that the fit purpose of government is to safeguard these rights.

Now we are at war with ourselves over the desires of some to exchange these rights for more modern causes: security, fairness, and government-managed compassion for the poor. Men and women of good conscience vie for these causes with fortitude and perseverance. When they confront the ills their efforts have wrought on our society, they see only their good intentions and they redouble their efforts to accomplish their goals. Their faith is in the virtue of their cause. When opposed, they point to the ills that have befallen our fellow citizens and others in the land when the imperfect execution of the founders' plan has allowed bad outcomes. You see, outcomes matter to these warriors - when the outcomes may be blamed on their opponents.

I declare for freedom. Were I to lose all I have accumulated in my life and have no ability to earn another dime, I would rather depend on the charity of my fellow Christians than to receive government largess. Were I to fall ill and have no means to pay for my care, I would prefer to await my end than to conspire with the enemy to take what is rightfully yours for my care.

I declare for freedom. Though the taxman take a ghastly share of my income and deplete my accumulated earnings, I will continue to contribute to charities that help men, women, and children in the United States and abroad to learn, to know the love of Jesus Christ, and to be healed of their ailments. You who would increase my taxes, do you contribute to a poor child overseas? Do you support the homeless mission in your home town with your own money? Are you contributing to the ministry of God's word? Well, I will continue to do so for as long as I have the means.

I declare for freedom. No thief in the night will be safe where I live. While I cannot stop the thief who silently robs my paycheck, I can surely protect the property I hold. Yes, I will call the police, but the thief who breaks into my home is unlikely to hear me make that call, or anything else, ever.

I declare for freedom. I will not support any politician, any organization, or any business that would deprive me and those I love of the freedom to be born, to worship God, to express myself within the confines of decency, to spend my money lawfully, to invest, and to keep what I earn. I live in a state where neither senator enjoys my support. I will work to unseat them. I have put my political party on notice. I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart when they declared support for government-mandated health insurance (since Target had lower health care costs).

I declare for freedom. I want every lawful resident of the United States to have every opportunity to achieve individually to the maximum extent possible. No person should gain or lose a benefit through membership in a class - be it race, sex, religion, membership in a union, political view, or any other. I also want every unlawful resident of the United States to leave. We'll just have to figure out how to get along without you. We've done it before; we can do it again.

I declare for freedom. I want Congress and the courts to take a deep breath and read the Constitution of the United States. Then I want each member to remember the oath of office. Were this to happen, most of the legal structure of government would be struck down in a trice. There would be no McCain-Feingold limitations on free speech. There would be no Department of Education, no Environmental Protection Agency, no Federal Protective Service, no Department of Housing and Urban Development, no Department of Energy, and no deficit. The tax reductions would restore America to its past role as the manufacturing and productivity leader of the world.

I declare for freedom. Were we free in the sense the founders intended, there would be no forum to agitate for homosexual marriage, because there would be no benefit to be gained. The role of government in our lives would be so minimal that there would be no difference for those who claim this lifestyle. Personally, I want to be free from the claim of this and other social groups that I must acknowledge the moral equivalence of their choices. There is and can never be moral equivalence, or there would be no morality. Were we free in the sense our founders intended, the unwillingness of practitioners of the new morality to donate would not matter to the needs of those who must rely on charity for housing, sustenance, and health care; the unfettered productivity of free men and women who follow Christ would be sufficient to fuel the charities of our nation.

I declare for freedom. Left to the miracle of economics, the needs of the nation for water, power, and food would be met with ease. Only the heavy hand of government can create shortages.

Please, let me be independent. You go be independent, too. We will all benefit. And you liberals who suffer loss of self-esteem because time will prove we don't need you to tell us how to live will eventually get over it. Trust me. God has a plan for you, to prosper you and to keep you safe. You just need to put away the things of the world and listen to Him.

Happy Independence Day! Long live liberty in the United States of America!