What are you willing to do?

I just read a fascinating discourse by Ariel Durant, presented as a lecture at Ripon College in 1970. The entire lecture can be read at this link: http://www.willdurant.com/candr.htm

What struck me most was near the end of the lecture where she says, "I prefer reform to revolution. If there anything clear in history it is that violent revolution multiplies chaos, disseminates destitution, and passes through the excesses of freedom to a dictatorship by an oppressive minority. Revolution is a master that devours both its parents and its children. Less alluring, but less costly, are those processes of reform, by persistent education and gradual public acceptance, which have achieved so many beneficent changes in our century."

The reason this statement strikes me so close to the heart is because so very frequently, I hear people express their willingness to take up arms in an effort to fix the problems of our society, to give up their lives in order to prevent the losses of our freedoms and rights. I learn through forums such as this and from other venues of those who will give up their well-being, their families' lives and all that they possess in order to pick up arms and pursue those freedoms which we have and perceive to be losing, bit by inexorable bit.

What I hear of much less frequently, indeed, quite rarely, are those who are willing to consider the prerequisites to revolution. Rarely do I hear of those who are willing to go to their local city council meetings, get up a couple of times a month and write effective letters and correspondence to their local and national representatives, to speak out when opportunity presents itself. To step away from their televisions and entertainments to speak up and voice their concerns about excessive taxation and overbearing government waste and excess.

There is a huge dichotomy of thought and action between the two. It never ceases to amaze me that there there is an appearance of a great many who prefer the idea of some supposed (mistakenly) glamor of bloodshed to the quiet, peaceful motion of written and verbal dialogue.

Be assured, if it were necessary to shed blood to preserve freedoms, there can be no doubt that rising up to face the enemies of freedom is the right thing to do. Until then, can we prevent it from becoming a need?

I suggest that yes, we can. Freedom-loving Americans such as ourselves can reverse the trend. We must look and see that the erosion we face at this time has been brought about by such means. There has been no military suppression to threaten our peace as a whole. The threat has been the oratory, the verbiage and the pen. Little by little, over the course of almost 100 years, have our freedoms been assaulted by and compromised because of the steady and devoted progress of opponents of rights and freedoms.

Can we do something to stop it? To reverse this trend? Can we end the divisions between us and unite together to bring about a restoration of our need to live free and not die? Is there a leader around whom we can gather in order to press our desires?

I speculate. I'm no expert. I do not see the desired progress. Am I blind? There are battles won, to be sure, but it seems that for each step forward, we have lost a couple of other steps. Nonetheless, I don't despair. I believe in all of us and in our sense of desire and urgency that will move us in the direction which pleases us. I would never attempt to foist a blood revolution upon us. It's too heady a responsibility. Rather, I would foster a revolution of the pen and the words of our mouths.

If you haven't been writing to your representatives, discoursing with your acquaintances, bringing up these issues at appropriate times and using the opportunities at your disposal to discuss such things, it's time. Time to arm ourselves with the written word and use the magnificent technologies we have at our disposal to begin to reverse the negative trends.

Are you willing? Will you?

--Wag--