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By Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry (ret'd)
CurryforAmerica.com
A few times each century “The Awesome Hand of God” sweeps down from heaven and punches the world’s “reset” button bringing mankind up short by defining things with a ringing purpose and clarity. Not in the sense of God actually materializing and throwing bolts of lightning at us, but in the letters and documents passed on to us by our Founding Fathers that make it clear that most of our founders believed that events on earth were controlled by a divine providence that was more powerful than man himself.
Perhaps that is why Thomas Jefferson wrote so boldly in the Declaration of Independence that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator … with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence … I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” In Haiti last week in the twinkling of an eye, God showed that, as our founders suggested, he is still reigning from his throne in heaven and feeble man is still scrabbling about on earth reacting to unforeseen events and trying to pick up the pieces.
Thousands of years ago King David the great Psalmist wrote, “When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon and the stars you have set in place – what are mortals that you … should care for us.” Until this week our government in Washington was dramatically proclaiming that health care was a great crisis and that if a solution to it was not found immediately the nation and its economy would be seriously damaged.
But God in heaven, with the tapping of a single finger, put health care back into its proper perspective for us. In effect God said, “Health care in the United States is not a major crisis. Health care on the Island of Haiti is a major crisis.” It is most unfortunate that it requires a catastrophe of world wide proportions to sort out our thinking and to put mankind back into his proper place and to remind us of how meager our ability really is to influence God’s universe.
Just as epic world events redirect our attention, so too can the hollowness of a Senator’s character and whether his or her vote can be bought for a hundred (or three hundred million dollars). How have we arrived at the point where our legislators’ character is publicly impaled on a big “For Sale” sign? It was not always so on Capital Hill.
In 1833 Congressman Davy Crockett faced a vote as divisive as today’s health care vote. He summed up his dilemma in these words, “It was expected of me that I was to bow to the name of Andrew Jackson, and follow him in all of his motions, and standings, and turnings, even at the expense of my conscience and judgment …. His famous, or rather I should say his in-famous, Indian bill was brought forward, and I opposed it from the purest of motives in the world. Several of my colleagues got around me, and told me how well they loved me, and that I was ruining my self. They said this was a favorite measure of the president, and I ought to go for it. I told them I believed it was a wicked, unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost to myself be what it might.”
All Congressmen and Senators would do well to examine the current health care bill that Congress is gorging and gagging on, in light of Crockett’s example and that of our Founding Fathers. It would be a noble and trustworthy act should our political leaders declare that, “I believed it was a wicked, unjust measure, and that I should go against it, let the cost to myself be what it might.”
Unfortunately, too few of our political leaders today march to Crockett’s lonely drum beat. Too many of them would rather clasp to their bosoms the words of Niccolo Machiavelli, “[He] did nothing but deceive and never thought of anything else and always found some occasion for it. Never was there a man more convincing in his asseverations nor more willing to offer the most solemn oaths nor less likely to observe them. Yet his deceptions were always successful for he was an expert in this field.”
Too many of our law makers subscribe to the philosophy of Groucho Marx, “These are my principles, and if you don’t like them … well, I have others.” Groucho may have had a haystack full of examples ready to be selected from at random to fit any situation, but we should know better -- especially our Congressional leaders should know better. But no matter what, God is still keeper of the “reset” button.