Pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps

As we emerge from a weekend defined by two horrendous mass shootings, I listen to the commentators trying to explain the “why.” I think the best over-arching answer was provided by our second President, John Adams, in 1798.

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

When government and the establishment has legislated our religious heritage and much or our history out of the classroom; when our “culture” preaches that objective reality is not real if it conflicts with your personal feelings; when we elevate “self-esteem” above achievement; and when we import millions of immigrants who have no concept, or desire to appreciate, the genesis of a government system predicated on personal morality and responsibility to contribute before demanding handouts: Adams correctly forecast that chaos would ensue.

We have dug ourselves into this mess over decades, and no overnight “assault weapons ban” will extricate us. We need to restore the vision of our founding, and that must start with teaching it to our children, in the classroom and by acting it ourselves. Or we need to abandon liberty and seek security in a totalitarian government.