A Time For Choosing

While on Pinterest this evening, I ran across a quote that was attributed to Ronald Reagan.  He was an eloquent and powerful speaker, so I wanted to learn more about where and when the quote originated.  From what I can gather, the only thing accurate about the Pinterest quote was the title. 

 

In October 1964, Reagan gave a televised speech endorsing Barry Goldwater for President.  A Time For Choosing was this speech.  Given fifty two years ago, so much of this is valid, maybe even more so, today.

 

You can read the speech here or watch the video below.  The thirty minutes it lasts is very much worth your time.

 

 

"For three decades, we've sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.  The latest is the Area Redevelopment Agency.

They've just declared Rice County, Kansas, a depressed area. Rice County, Kansas, has two hundred oil wells, and the 14,000 people there have over 30 million dollars on deposit in personal savings in their banks.  And when the government tells you you're depressed, lie down and be depressed."

 

* * * *

 

"Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so." 

 

* * * *

"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.  So, governments' programs, once launched, never disappear.

Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth."

 

 * * * *

 

"Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment."

 

* * * *

 

"They say we offer simple answers to complex problems.  Well, perhaps there is a simple answer -- not an easy answer -- but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based on what we know in our hearts is morally right."

 

 AMDG

Swimming Upstream

I have yet to venture into politics in my little bitty part of the blogsphere.  Until now.  Unless you’re a Luddite or living off the grid, by now you have heard about the eleven year old recording of Trump’s “vile” bragging about his prowess with women.

Please, don’t tell me you were surprised by that.

We have known all along that what we were getting in this candidate was a man who is lewd, crude and rude.  Our other choice is a woman who is corrupt and crass.   Rules don't apply to her.

Take your pick.

Himself and I often talk about politics and the state of our world.  Long ago, we have come to the conclusion that politics is downstream from culture.

In "The Everlasting Man", GK Chesterton tells us that “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

Many years later, St. Pope John Paul II warned us “This situation, with its lights and shadows, ought to make us all fully aware that we are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the "culture of death" and the "culture of life".  We find ourselves not only "faced with" but necessarily "in the midst of" this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life.” (EVANGELIUM VITAE 28)

If things are going to change, we need to be among the living, part of the culture of life, and swim upstream.  We have to work to change the culture.  And in doing that, maybe then, and only then, can be get leaders, not politicians, that are worthy of the job.

I have come to the conclusion that it is going to be painful.  Going against the current culture may cost us friends, family, jobs, and more. 

But, that is better than losing my soul.


AMDG