The Future

The Future

Contributed by Brendan Johnson

There was a time in America when freedom had a definition, a meaning, and a future. That time is now past. When Paul Revere took off into the night to warn the colonists of the coming British troops, he did so because he believed in freedom. Freedom of man, soul, and country. He had a belief, and he acted upon that belief. He did so because of the simple fact of if not he, then who else? So, it worked. Today, that is not the case. If we pay attention, we can see what our founding fathers and ancestors' actions have led to. The world's superpower that is truly governed by its people. The problem is the people don’t want freedom. Freedom isn’t a belief anymore, it’s a reality, and every citizen has a personal responsibility to adhere to that reality.

Freedom isn’t the future, it's the present. Men got us our freedom; we were supposed to maintain it. Well, we have failed. We can’t show simple discipline in our daily lives, yet we blame the opposite party for all the problems. We ignore problems of our own and talk about the problems of others. We expect the government to govern us when we can’t even govern ourselves. But why would we? There has never been an easier time to be alive. The lazy get fed and paid, the criminals get released. The reward for laziness is an easy life. The reward for hard work is a fulfilling life, not a huge difference, for the individual anyways. As a group the difference is tremendous.

The reward for hard work is freedom and a country that booms because of that freedom. The result of laziness is the slow, falling on the knife death of that same Country. Our country is riding on the shoulder of the giants who built it, and it will soon fall. A small percentage would please old Paul, our founding fathers, Hugh Glass and Jim Bridger, and the countless others who have pioneered this country. A large percentage, quite frankly, would not. What category do I fall into? Someone might ask. Well, it’s not my decision to make. It’s yours.