Freedom of man

One evening while we were on the back porch just enjoying the warmth of the evening and feeling a soft breeze as it floated gently past us I asked,

"Grandpa what would you do if you were elected the President of the United States?"

Grandpa looked at me and it seemed as if he was startled by the question. Then he smiled as he said,

"Boy, at times you ask the darndest questions" then he just laughed. But, as usual, he answered it by saying,

"First off, boy, I would never accept the job of President. The President is not as powerful as many think he is. It is the power that this nation possesses that makes him appear to be more powerful than he actually is. We must remember that our government is set up so that the President can only execute the laws as enacted by Congress.

His greatest power lies in the international area where he and he alone can interact with the representatives of other countries in an official manner. Even then his power is restricted because he must have the approval of the Senate in regards to any agreement that he may come to with the leaders of other nations.

Remember this, boy, when you hear discussions of government and you hear people talk of what it should do. They do so with the idea of exactly what they would do if given the power and authority to make the changes as they want. But in order to make the changes as they see necessary they must have the power and authority of a dictator. And the President cannot have that power and authority.

One more thing, boy, and it is something most persons never realize. It is the fact that the central government was set up to represent the states of this nation not the people of those states. It was the states that had to give up some of their rights to make the central government functional not the people of those states.

So, if I was given the power and authority of a dictator for one day the first thing I would do is return the power and authority that the states possessed and taken away from them back to them. Then I would revoke any and all laws that were or appear to be beneficial to one group of individual but harmful to others. It is time we finally put the words of one of the greatest men in American history to work. A man, that I might add, who truly understood the meaning of freedom.

'The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us... I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! ... And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... your interference is doing him positive injury.'

The man be Frederick Douglas and I would dictate that government apply those words not to just Negroes but to every man. Every man deserves the right to know of his own achievements as well as his own failures. For that is the essence of the meaning of freedom. That be the American dream."

I just grinned at his words and sat there with eyes closed as I envisioned grandpa being a dictator of this country.