Near the end
of the movie, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, a character portraying
extreme greed for material gain is only a single choice away from the real
plum, his personal immortality. All he had to do was correctly choose the
chalice from which Jesus drank from the many in front of him and everything
would be his. To put it mildly, things did not turn out as he expected and the
ever faithful knight who was the centuries long guardian of the chalice’s on
display said the only three words needed to be remembered from that film. With
dignity and a touch of sorrow he said “He chose…poorly”.
Another
example of choosing poorly can be found in the biblical story of why the Jews were
forced to wander in the desert for forty years. According to what I have read,
Joshua and Caleb were selected along with ten other men to explore the Promised
Land to give a report to Moses and the people. The explorers were gone for 40
days. Ten of the men saw only potential troubles, and possible failure. Joshua
and Caleb tried to get the people to believe that the same Lord that got them
out of Egypt would keep them safe. God, in this story became angry because the
people did not trust him to do what he said he would do.
For their
wickedness and ungratefulness, “God judged the people of Israel by making them
wait 40 years to enter the land” which had been chosen for them. He promised
that every person 20 years old or older would die in the wilderness with two
exceptions. Caleb and Joshua would survive. (“Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua
son of Nun”) This curse or promise came
true and Joshua led the people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land
after the death of Moses forty years later. At least two men of the twelve
indeed chose wisely.
Is there a
parallel story in the nation called The United States of America? I really do
not know. Written history does, however, speak of a man named John Winthrop who
preached a sermon from the deck of a ship named Arbella that directed the
listener to visualize a “City upon a hill”. Clearly a city on a hill cannot be
hidden. In his sermon, Winthrop clearly expressed our nations “exceptionalism”
and our sociopolitical separation and superiority when it is compared to the
Old World and that world is indeed watching us still.
As Ronald
Reagan said in his farewell address to the nation (1/11/89), “I've spoken of
the Shining City all my political life” … “God-blessed, and teeming with people
of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed
with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had
doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get
here.”
President-elect
John F. Kennedy said, in an address to the Massachusetts Legislature on January
9, 1961 I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop set before his
shipmates on the flagship Arabella [sic] 331 years ago, as they, too, faced the
task of building a government on a new and perilous frontier. “We must always
consider, he said, that we shall be as a city upon a hill -- the eyes of all
people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch, at every level,
national, State, and local, must be as a city upon a hill – constructed and
inhabited by men aware of their grave trust and their great responsibilities.
Carefully
note that neither of these modern day presidents spoke of this nation as a
democracy. It is not. It is a constitutional republic. Those who would have you
to believe that our constitution provided for democracy are historically
mistaken.
“A democracy is an assurance of mob
rule where minority factions lose their liberty through legislation and when
power is consolidated over the subdued masses.” James Madison wrote about this
in The Federalist Papers #10. Madison also added “the ancient democracies never
possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny.”
John
Adams our 2nd President stated “Democracy, while it lasts, is more
bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts
long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There is never a democracy
that did not commit suicide.”
Abraham
Lincoln our 16th President stated “America will never be destroyed
from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we
destroyed ourselves.”
History has
taught us and continues to teach us that it is “We the People” who must and
will choose to save or destroy our nation. It is our responsibility to vote and
to choose wisely.
As you vote, remember to consider the
final stanza’s words in the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
“I
shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere
ages and ages hence:
Two
roads diverged in a wood, and I---
I
took the one less traveled by,
And
that has made all the difference.
We are the
latest people to live in the shining city on the hill and there is much for us
to trust in our constitution and our inalienable guaranteed rights. Success and
failure for future generations still remain in our hands. Consider carefully which
of the two candidates before us will prove to be the best for the lifeblood of
our remarkable nation.
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