Physically, in resources and industrial power America is still the leading power in the world. We have proven ourselves to be survivors. We are individually honest and hard working but spiritually we have allowed there to be a dangerous lapse in our moral strength. Every day's newspaper chronicles the latest scandal in high places. From a fifty- million dollar Ponzie scheme to a senate seat for sale to the highest bidder.

Our founding fathers did not intend for our nation to be governed by a favored few. Service in the government was a place of honor and integrity. An elective office was within the grasp of any citizen who felt that he, and in later years she, had something to offer as a representative of the people. This is much less true today because of the power of the political parties and bosses.

We, “the people,” have largely abdicated our place of honor and many of our freedoms for the sake of our ease. The credo of modern Americanism is that the government has an obligation to take care of me. It begins in the no-fail classroom of our public schools. It takes root in the halls of our universities where the government is taught as a godless democracy that will take care of us from the cradle to the grave.

“Our government has become too responsive to trivial or ephemeral concerns, often at the expense of more important concerns or an erosion of our liberty, and it has made policy priorities more dependent on where TV journalists happen to point their cameras.... As a nation we have lost our sense of tragedy, a recognition that bad things happen to good people. A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident, risks an even larger loss of life and liberty.” ~William A. Niskanen, “For a Less Responsive Government,” Cato Policy Report, 1996?

As we enter this New Year, while I am optimistic, I fear for my grandchildren who face a world as different from the world I have known as my own was from my grandfather's world. They will face challenges I have never dreamed of facing. We owe them a better chance. One of our resolutions should be to open our eyes to the reality of our society and, by our participation in government, demand a return to the basics of the world's only successful democratic government. There is reason for optimism but only as we ourselves seek a truly constitutional government.