In God We Trust

 A Resurgent America

 

By Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry (Ret'd)
CurryforAmerica.com

By nature, design and choice America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. God has blessed this great nation – within our geographical borders – with all the fuel reserves necessary to make America fully energy independent. Daily, Oklahoma City demonstrates to all of us that the American people would gladly rally behind any effort to fully develop and make available for use, all of the nation’s energy resources. Oklahomans allow oil rigs to be built and to pump oil right in the middle of their delightful city. And the local newspapers, magazines and TV news shows aren’t full of stories about how offended Oklahoma’s citizens and wildlife are by these oil rigs.

Why then do political, academic, environmental and news media elites in and around Washington, DC whine so much about caribou and other wildlife being offended by oil rigs pumping in ANWAR Alaska? Why is it standard policy to neglect and ignore our own domestic energy resources while buying oil from foreign countries who despise us? Why don’t we loose the shackles that bind energy production from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic coast?

We are the most technologically advanced, innovative, inventive and resourceful nation in the world. But we refuse to avail ourselves of the resources God has provided us. One of our primary goals for the next quarter century should be to make the United States of America fully energy independent. America’s supplies of natural gas, clean coal and untapped sources of oil, both on-and-off shore, are more than sufficient to meet the nation’s energy needs, especially in the transportation area. 

At the same time we have the availability of nuclear and green energy. Green energy is developing slowly and its supply will always be on the meager side. Nuclear power generation plants can provide a significant boost to our energy supplies but it is quite expensive. It also got an undeserved bad rap during the Three Mile Island incident.

The positive side of the story was buried or misconstrued. Contrary to what was reported, Three Mile Island proved beyond a doubt that nuclear energy plants are safe and, in a disaster, do exactly what they are designed to do. When the emergency occurred, the reactor shut itself down with no damage to the local community and no loss of human life. That is as safe as it gets.

Current energy policies are taking the nation in the opposite direction, toward energy dependence and economic stagnation. For example, the mating habits of the tiny snail darter fish or other members of the endangered species club cannot be the yardstick by which we determine how America’s civilization develops and grows. No one would deliberately destroy an endangered species’ habitat, at least no one rational. But if in the scheme of things it is impossible to protect the habitat of an endangered species without doing harm to humans or to their way of life then the more important value and the worth of human life has to prevail. If a human life isn’t more important to you than the life of a moth, you should never be allowed to serve in government or the Congress.

Over the years Congress has repeatedly demonstrated that it can and will wastefully spend the nation’s money without regard for responsible stewardship. Events such as the banking, sub-prime lending and housing fiascos are warnings that we need to be ever vigilant. It is time we got government spending, regulation and the narcotics of entitlements under control. This means it is time for the government to live within its means and budget and to introduce structural reforms in such a way and using such a timeline that it does not wreck the economy in the short term.

Our Founders would never have approved of whole cities and sections of our nation made dependent on government largess and of government legislating American morality, or of it telling our citizens when speech is free and when it is prohibited, the kinds of houses they are permitted to live in, the types of cars and trucks they can buy and drive, and under the guise of protecting the environment and the greening of energy prescribe the kind and quality of food our citizens can eat, and the kind of light bulbs they can buy, what is taught our children in schools, to set limits on how much money citizens can earn, and the type and cost of the medical care they can receive, to establish an agenda that makes most citizens’ and the private sectors’ decisions for them, plus tells them what is acceptable religion, what is not.

Wittingly or unwittingly, more and more, the federal government tries to control our lives and actions. They overwhelm us with such a sense of futility that it grinds down our spirits and ushers in a climate ripe for social chaos. Additionally, the government is driving the nation so far into debt and economic crises that avoiding a systemic failure may soon become impossible.

The government seems to believe that we the American people are becoming so overwhelmed by the plethora of unworkable programs and legislation bombarding us that we will voluntarily surrender our liberty and freedom to its control. The intent seems to be to so beleaguer the American citizen that we will finally cry out, “Please rule over us and sort out our problems for us and keep us from disaster, for only the government can save us.”

As a result, tens of millions of poor white and black people believe that they will survive only so long as they can rely on their welfare checks, food stamps and other government handouts. These voters can rely on their government handouts to keep coming only if they keep the party of big government in power. The party can keep the voters loyal only so long as they can keep them dependent on the party of big government. This is insanity.

But it works. The party of handouts and big government is kept in power by tens of millions of dependent voters whose ranks are further swelled by illegal immigrant voters. The immigrants can remain in the country and on the voting rolls only so long as they vote to keep in power the political party that sanctions illegal immigration.  Additionally, the political voter ranks are further swelled by government workers who will never lose their jobs so long as they vote to keep their political patrons in power.

President Washington was acutely aware of the special character of America and the special place it holds in God’s plans for the nations when he said, “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”