Secrets of Success

Is Freedom going the way of the horse and buggy?

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law in St Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting statistics regarding the 2008 Presidential election:

Number of States won:
Democrats: 20 /Republicans: 30

Square miles of land won:
Democrats: 580,000/Republicans: 2,427,000

Population of counties won:
Democrats: 127 million / Republicans: 143 million.

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won:
Democrats: 13.2 / Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson clarifies these statistics and others by explaining, ” The map of the territory that Republicans won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in rented or government-owned tenements and already living off various forms of government welfare…”

There was a time when only people who owned land or a business were considered responsible enough to vote. Whether or not you or I would vote to re-enact that policy, after this last election was won with the help of ACORN-tampered votes harvested from the poorer neighborhoods of Ohio and other states, it is certainly easier to see the merits of such a stipulation.

Indeed, these statistics and interpretation would suggest that this election was determined by people who are in a state of dependence-not on their own entrepreneurial spirit or resources-but on our government. And if that is true, what better way for candidating politicians to secure those votes than by promising-and delivering-handout after handout?

From Liberty to Bondage

Apparently, the greatest danger with Democracy is that, in time, it can allow the majority of needy/greedy citizens to set the demeanor of the government for all other citizens. The fallacy of this kind of thinking reminds me of something that occurred during World War II. After loosing the majority of the U.S. Navy Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, we responded by building a fleet of newer, faster warships. However, our convoys that traveled the oceans were restricted to the slowest speed of the older ships, putting the whole convoy at risk from the fast moving modern underwater German Submarines and their torpedoes. The old ships were setting the pace of the fleet and it was disastrous for the new as well as the old ships!

The disintegration of democracy into a political machine driven by greed and self-interests is not a new concept. About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic (the first known Democracy) some 2,000 years earlier: ” A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.” (My question to you: Can our current government’s give-away-type fiscal policy get much looser? Consider the major, major bailout of the banks and the auto industries as well as all the other give-aways.) Professor Tyler continues… ” The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence of changes:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacency to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage.”

Professor Joseph Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the ” complacency” and the ” apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s sequence of changes. With some 40 percent of the nation’s population already having reached the ” governmental dependency” phase, it’s only a short time (4 to 6 years) to Step #7: D ependency.

IF this is truly an accurate summation, then we are closer than we think to step #8, which is from dependence back into bondage. What might that look like, I wonder? Might it include the welfare state becoming openly socialist and increasingly totalitarian? Could it include a dictatorship? One thing is certain, under the bondage stage, our civil liberties will become extinct in the name of ” public good” or ” safety.” The progressively liberalelement of our government is already trying to remove many of our rights, including our Constitutionally-protected right to bear arms to defend ourselves from criminals as well as from the possibility of a hostile enemy takeover. Hard to believe? Then look at website: http://ammunitionaccountability.org/Legislation.htm

It appears that none of these disturbing developments would surprise our founding fathers, if they were still around to see where we as a nation are today. Even as Benjamin Franklin pleaded with his colleagues on September 17, 1787, to sign their names to the Constitution of the United States of America, he acknowledged the possibility and even the probability that the form of government they were about to embrace was destined for failure.

Here is part of Dr. Franklin’s passionate speech to President George Washington:

Mr. President: I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better informa­tion, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on impor­tant subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to question my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe further that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need a despotic Government, being incapable of any other.

Agreeing that the corrupted, despotic end which Dr. Franklin foretold was a dangerous possibility, our Founding Fathers attempted to secure our inalienable human rights in the Constitution by mandating that all future laws and government actions must be kept in line with and conformed to the new Constitution.

And yet, despite their precautions, it appears that Dr. Franklin’s dire pronouncements are on the verge of coming true. This is happening because the very Supreme Court Justices who are sworn to protect our Constitution are, instead, constantly hammering away to neuter the Constitution so that it can be manipulated to the changing motives of the politicians. More frequently than ever before, we see Supreme Court Justices making rulings that are not only contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, but which are also often made despite vast citizen opposition (consider the tenacious efforts to legalize full-term abortions and gay marriages despite majority objections). Favoring a few rather than the country as a whole, these decisions seemed based on political agendas rather than what is good for a nation.

Our rights as defined in the Constitution are being redefined daily. The phrase ” inalienable human rights” is supposed to mean “rights that are incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred or removed in any way.“

Apparently, many of our politicians didn’t get the memo.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…

The foundation of Democracy upon which our liberty and rights were carefully crafted is being eroded from beneath us and we are headed for national calamity. And yet I probably don’t have to tell you this. Chances are good that you already feel it in your spirit.

The truth is that, as I write this, Democracy as we have enjoyed it in the United States of America is no longer protected by the Constitution. Can we save our nation? Or are we already beyond repair? There comes a time when something becomes so broken and in such disrepair that there are no earthly resources that can put things right again. Just ask Humpty Dumpty. Pretty scary stuff, isn’t it?

I’m praying it’s not too late. Corporately and individually, let’s get off our seats and on our feet and start doing something (anything!) to recognize and empower good Supreme Court Justices and honest politicians who will protect our Constitution. Let’s put God fearing men back in charge and give them the power they need to reinstate the spirit and intent of our original Constitution. I am praying that God will speak to His people and give us ideas and instructions regarding how to save our country. As you can see, I am really hurting over this dire situation and want to see some kind of action to defend, protect and re-empower the Constitution and our freedoms.

Let’s not be like the frog in the following story: A man caught a frog, took it home and put it in a pot of cool water and put the pot over a small fire. At first, the temperature of the water-not unlike the river water where the frog once lived-felt familiar and safe and the frog just sat there. The water warmed so slowly that the frog wasn’t alarmed. And by the time the water started boiling, it was too late; the frog was too weak to jump out. The rest is history: frog legs for dinner.

Please! Wake up, America, before it is too late!

” Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” -Winston Churchill, from a House of Commons Speech, November 11, 1947

” We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs …but to secure liberty for their souls.” -Robert McCracken

” No man escapes when freedom fails. Good men just rot in filthy jails. And those who cried ‘appease’ , ‘appease’ are hanged by those they tried to please!” - Hiram Mann

My name is R. Gene Scalf.  The beginning of my journey was in Corbin, Kentucky in 1932.  I Graduated from Holmes High School in Covington, Ky. in 1950.  After separation from the Army Security Agency in 1956, I remained in California and entered college at the Vanguard University where I met Geri, who became my wife in 1959.  After bouncing through a lot of life’s pot holes—learning the lessons of each—I chose to become a Student of Life, learning all I could learn from life itself.  Sir Winston Churchill once remarked: “Many men in life will stumble over a truth, pick themselves up, dust themselves off and move on as though nothing had happened.”  I determined not to let that happen to me.  I would pause at each pot hole and learn the lesson what it would teach me. 

Since 2000, my home has been in Colorado Springs .  Hopefully, you will be reading my blogs and I wanted you to know a little about the writer.  I am and have been for ¾ of my life a self-employed business man of one business or another.  Some ventures were successful and some were just training experiences; however, each made a great contribution to who I am today.  Someone (maybe me) once said: “We are to enjoy our successes, and learn from our mistakes.”

The pride of my life is my family: a wonderful wife, 3 fantastic daughters, and 6 grrreat grandkids—from 8 ½ to 22 years of age.  3 boys and 3 girls.  My gratitude goes to each of them for allowing me to be who I am, do what I do … and they still continue to love and support me.  WOW!  It doesn’t get any better.

Over the next so many blogs; I will be talking about the subject of “The Secrets of Success.”  I really should not call them secrets for they are not hidden.  They are life principles that are available to anyone who will take the time and spend the effort to look for them.

Contrary to many opinions, success does not just happen if you’re lucky … neither does failure just happen if you’re unlucky.  We either plan for success or we don’t plan for success and we get failure.  Those who neglect to learn the principles of success will actually be planning for failure.  Einstein once said: “There is no darkness, only an absence of light that we have named darkness. There is no cold, only an absence of heat that we have named cold.”  I say: “There is no failure, only an absence of success that we have named failure.”

IF you are interested in learning positive success principles that will change your life; continue to read the “Secrets To Success” future blogs.