A Deadly American Sin: We Don’t Give a Damn
By James T. Moore (08/15/07)
Today’s Americans have replaced Patrick Henry’s stunning utterance “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, Give me liberty, or give me death.”, with the attitude--never verbally expressed,--“Who cares?” A lot of pages on a lot of calendars have been turned over between 1775, when Henry uttered that startling remark, and year 2007, when many Americans aren’t even sure who Patrick Henry was. So one can perhaps be justified in suggesting that the passing of time, the illusion of peace, and the tedium of the status quo are apt to begin making the dissolution of any country’s values, principles, and visible blessings inevitable.
But America isn’t just any country. After all, aren’t we the country that has always, with the exception of the few wars we stumbled into, been a nation of relative peace and harmony? Hasn’t America, for the most part, been a nation of progress and promise? Haven’t we, as American citizens, been blessed from birth with God-given freedoms, opportunities, and rewards?
And hasn’t this (now be honest), hasn’t this great and gracious land been so good and fruitful for us that we have dropped our guard, forgotten our obligations, taken our comfort in stride, and simply let the good times roll? Of course we have. We would hardly be Americans if we didn’t. But that kind of blasé contentment comes with a dead end. It has not only inured us to the realities of life around us, but more importantly, it has allowed the chaotic situations we get involved in to shut out the voice of reason and override the need to protect the very things we take so much for granted-- the things that make America unique.
In this context, it really doesn’t matter whether you are for or against the war in Iraq that is far from winding down. Or whether you are for or against the wars that are waiting in the wings, with Iran, Syria, North Korea, et al. What matters most is not that we have American troops on foreign soil, as if that violation of our principles wasn’t enough, but what these wars are doing to the “inside” of America, our sovereign home.
What effect is the cost of war having on our faltering economy? How is waging these wars weakening our Constitution and making us question the lack of caution, even the motives, of our leaders? How do we feel when the casualties come home? What freedoms are we losing to “protect” us from domestic terrorism? How will our participation in this war and other wars affect the lives of our children, our grandchildren, and their children?
But who cares, right? Look and listen to the people around you. Who really gives a damn? Our lives, as Americans, have been so out of touch with the chaos and tragedy that consumes much of the world that we force ourselves to believe that most of it is not happening. Or, if we bother to think of it at all, it can’t hurt us. We in the United States have lived in a secular paradise so long that we cannot see, or won’t acknowledge, that the hell we are experiencing has a life of its own that is bedeviling us in onerous ways.
But we are oblivious to it, aren’t we? Life in America has become routine. We get up, have breakfast, go to work, come home, play with the kids, have supper, watch TV, brush our teeth, and go to bed. The warm blanket of the American milieu covers and protects us from the cold facts of the iniquities and horrors that stalk the “other” side of the planet. Being unaware of anything other than our contentment, we observe the world’s conflicts-- even get involved in them —not realizing what military overreach, enormous expenditures, sacrifice of lives, and losses of freedom are doing to the foundation of liberty in a nation that it took our forebears more than 200 years to build.
But do we care? I submit that most American do not care because, by and large, we’ve never had to. Too much smooth sailing, for too long, has not prepared us for the storms that can swamp us. We have become so hardened to a soft life that our susceptibility to being led down the garden path is almost a fait accompli. We are sheep in peoples’ clothing. A lemming society.
The result is predictable, and disturbing. When we are asked to go to war, we say, “sure, where?” When more money to perpetuate the war is asked for, we say, “no problem, how much?” When bodies come home we say, almost in cadence, “they made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.” When America’s values and principles are in danger, we say, “everyone must give up something.” When our founders’ warnings about foreign entanglements are brought forth, we say, “they were talking about THEN, and this is NOW.”
This article, then, is not about trumping nature, changing the world, avoiding responsibility, or allowing evil to flourish. It is about doing our duty without doing ourselves in. It’s about finding our place in the struggle against evil, without losing the ground we have gained in our struggle for good. It’s about giving help, because that’s who we are, without giving away anything that makes America what it is.
As this war goes on, Americans will continue to wallow in a kind of sickness that infects and kills the complacent and ill-informed. We can take on burdens, but we must know whose burdens, and why we are taking them on.
Before we acquiesce to more wars, and have more of our freedoms aborted in the process, I suggest that we think about Patrick Henry’s words, and start giving a damn.
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