Sunday, March 02, 2008

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.

10 comments:

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

Brilliant! How do you come up with these?

The Griper said...

he smiles thank you Word. I just happen to be one with a lot of time on his hands to think of things like these. and political philosophy has always been an interest of mine.

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

Do you have any formal education in writing?

Sugarbabe said...

I found your artical most interesting but the last part has some flaws in it..Every man deserves a right to know his own achievements as well as his failures..Fine and dandy, but all too often his failures are at the expenses of others, even a whole country..Our president has not shown he is standing on his own two feet but on the feet of all in our county..His chance to stand on his own two feet has taken many lives and a great expense to our county.. Freedom can be carried too far and needs strong suppervision and approval by the people before some of it is undertaken. Even then there are mistakes.. Freedom and mistakes kind of go hand in hand.. Both words carry a lot of meaning.. Freedom good, mistakes bad.

The Griper said...

sugarbabe,

very nice rebuttal and one that shows thought was behind it.

mistakes is how we know that as human beings we are imperfect. while it is inevitible that we will make them whether or not they be bad is dependent upon what we do with them. if we learn the right lesson from them then it is good. if no lesson is learned then, as you say, it is bad. mistakes are one of the processes we use to learn. and we all must learn. so, even without freedom mistakes will be made.

it is not freedom that needs to be supervised but the power that may accompany freedom that does. this is why the founding fathers of this country set up the government as they did. not to curtail freedom but to keep power in check.

and yes, the decisions made by our government has cost lives and the expense has been great. but the value of those lives and whether the expense was worth it will be determined in the future not now. history will be the one making that determination, not us.

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

and yes, the decisions made by our government has cost lives and the expense has been great. but the value of those lives and whether the expense was worth it will be determined in the future not now. history will be the one making that determination, not us.

Those who oppose Iraq hold certain preconceptions about it that I find flawed, leading them to a faulty premise to base their opinions. This leaves them with citing body counts and financial costs, without understanding what those sacrifices are "buying" us, in the long term.

Sugarbabe said...

Thank you Griper for your reply to my comment. I think that issue was well covered. Now my concern is whether it will be best to pull our troops out of Iraq for our own safty in this country. If any of those countries can build up enough power they will hit us like Japan did.. A keen eye should keep watch on whats going on over there in whatever manner it takes. Let them fight their own wars, we mind our own business if it does not concern our country..I don't think any of them would be sending troops over here to help fight our battles.. I guess at this time it is a wait and see what the future holds.. Scary stuff!

The Griper said...

word,

the use of body count and expense is an emotional argument not a logical argument. and you only resort to emotions when you cannot defend your stance logically.

The Griper said...

sugarbabe,

if we were to pull out now we will not have finished the purpose of going there in first place and every soldier who died so that we could finish the job will have died for nothing. we will have wasted a very valuable life.

if we leave now the possibility of their building up to be powerful enough to attack as japan did becomes a greater possiblity not a lesser one.
reason:
if we leave the enemy will declare victory over us and enbolden them to attack more not less. for they will believe that Allah is truely behind them and will continue to sanction their goals of universal dominance of the world. they have stated that as their goal.

Sugarbabe said...

I think Bush thought he was doing the right thing going into Iraq. If a mistake was made he certainly didn't do it on purpose. Now that is hasn't turned out as he had planned, as you say Griper we need to stick it out and hopefully finish what was started rather than it all having been for nothing. And how do we know for sure what would have happened had we done otherwise? Our country definately needs to show it is not going to be crapped on and I think we have done that. Our country cannot afford to be caughts with its pants down ever again...

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