Our Doctrines Forgotten

On August 29, 2012 Condoleezza Rice said “The essence of America, what really unites us is not nationality, ethnicity, or religion, it is an idea and what an idea it is, that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things-that it does not matter where you came from, it matters where you are going. My fellow Americans, ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlements, we have never believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well; we have never been jealous of one another and never envious of each other’s successes. No, ours has been a belief in opportunity…There is no country, no not even a rising China that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we do not do the hard work before us here at home.” In the January 7, 2012 debate Romney said the question is what the soul of America is going to be. He said he wants to return America to the first words that were written down in the Declaration of Independence – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as people pursue education, work hard, take risks and build enterprises of all kinds they make us better; we have a President who doesn’t understand that in his bones.

Have we forgotten our doctrines? The 1776 Declaration of Independence says– When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, the 1787 Constitution (before Washington became President) starts with-We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union and the 1791 Bill of Rights (first 10 Constitutional amendments) I believe are the soul of America; they gave us leaders who, without regard to their political party, did the right thing to make us a country like no other. I believe it’s what we stand for-not our riches-that make us great. They didn’t consider the rich without thinking of the poor and they didn’t use religion to take away the rights of others. They believed the health and character of our people made this country great and these were national concerns. In attaining riches we have had Presidents sway from the intentions of our founding fathers. Romney has said that both health care and human rights (marriage equality) are state, not national, issues and I beg to differ. I believe in what we stand for - not in what we’ve become; a nation judging its greatness by an economy benefiting the rich-not hardworking people, a nation divided by its many religions instead of one joined by none. Rice is right-there is no country that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves. We must free our country of those not willing to uphold our doctrines-put their politics aside in order to maintain the values of our founding fathers.