Contributed by Wes Keller
Belated Happy 4th! We must recognize the significance of this national holiday more than ever before. By next July 4, 2022, we will be in the big election cycle of crucial significance for future generations. The long-standing awe and esteem for the superiority of America’s founding values has been tarnished by the polarization of the 2020 election fiasco. The power and dignity of voting was gravely damaged and must be restored quickly. Our society has been rudely jerked out of an era of lackadaisical voting to suddenly find our voting power was likely stolen! We had better spare no expense re-certifying election credibility if we expect meaningful future July 4th celebrations. I encourage you to keep the red, white and blue décor up all year! This is a way we can each take part to help defeat the ridiculous aversion to patriotism we are seeing happening recently while watching for other things we can do to help repair the damage.
It is as if we have researched and found a perfect house, car, property to buy… a “deal”. But, when we try to pay, we find our identity has been stolen, our bank account emptied, and our credit destroyed. There is no “quick fix”, we have simply become marginalized because of theft! As voters, we seem to have lost the control and rights we presumed we had! The only consolation we have is we are supposedly “on the Board of Directors” to catch and punish the thief and re-secure our dignity. It turns out we really haven’t been paying enough attention so now there is confusion on how to make the repairs.
My hat is off to the few State legislatures who understand this, and to various organizations in America such as the Heritage Foundation, who are working hard to restore election credibility. Do not make the mistake of just assuming justice will automatically prevail in this matter! We must never forget the Judiciary and Executive Branches have an intrinsic interest in an ever bigger and stronger government! By original design, applying founding values, government power is supposed to be limited by “We the People” via elected representatives in the legislative branch. It is very disappointing to see our Alaska Legislature continue to flounder on this issue. Some good election bills have been introduced by clear thinkers, but they languish in committees as victims of ignorant, petty politics. If our legislature does not stand up and assert Alaska’s constitutional state sovereignty in our national presidential vote, Alaska will be part of the problem — the national crisis we are facing.
We celebrate, confirm, and review the source and maintenance of “unalienable” human rights described in the Declaration of Independence every July 4th; “…certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men…”. The parades, the red, white, and blue, the picnics…, they all celebrate what the Statue of Liberty iconically proclaims to the seven continents of the earth; our government (America) is here to secure these rights for all who legally join us and become Americans! We dare not forget this bottom-line, intentional design for our limited government. We have become “dull” and lost much of the excitement of America’s greatness and how it is sourced in traditional, monotheistic, constitutional values. We need to sharpen-up these values immediately to defeat the foolish, failed philosophies being promoted in our schools, our reactionary knee-jerk social media posts, and the popular media.
Ask yourself what “unalienable” human “rights” are: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is not as simplistic as you may have come to believe. Every signer of the Declaration — actually, every rational human being — can and does “justify” the denial of these rights in certain circumstances! Such as cases of self-defense, war, incarceration for crimes committed, and pursuits oppressing another’s pursuits without restraint. The default question is what rational moral standard will be used to restrict unalienable rights? If you think it through, you will see this question inevitably requires religious analysis! If our society claims no absolute values, to be utterly secular and areligious, we would not be able to claim “rule of law”. Law is not law if it is not based on some ultimate moral value.
Religion is inevitable and, as goes the individual “religion” of voters, so goes the nation. Remarkably, our government is specifically banished from “establishment” of ANY religion, so each person must bring his or her standard of absolutes with him/her when voting or working for government. These standards are meant to be applied in transparent public debate to shape and enforce our laws. This has been working wonderfully well (America IS Great), arguably because the voting majority embraced “true” religious concepts of justice, forgiveness, mercy, love, holiness, and Supreme-ness of the one true God. We are about to find out if these foundational truths will prevail so America’s greatness can be restored!
Wes Keller | www.WesKeller.com