At the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Dr. James McHenry, a Maryland delegate, followed Benjamin Franklin from Independence Hall. He recorded a question asked by a lady, directed at Dr. Franklin.
The lady asked, “Well Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy?”
“A republic,” replied Dr. Franklin, “if you can keep it.”
Indeed. The stuggle to keep it will be the most difficult challenge we have faced since the Civil War. Our enemy is an intoxicating ideology, foreign to the American experience, that is being embraced by those who purport to represent us. Extricating this cancer will not be easy and may shake the very foundations of our republic.
Many of us have forgotten what liberty is; they have confused it with freedom. Liberty assumes that individuals take responsibility, and that responsibility guarantees our freedom. When we turn over our responsibility to the government, we lose our freedom.
No comments:
Post a Comment