I've been thinking lately about what direction my future essays should take, now that I have barked and nipped for two years at the heels of the cowardly, cynical, lazy, arrogant and criminal elements of our American population.  There are among us, I admit, a few honest people, a few loyal politicians and if you were to really press me, I suppose that I would admit that there remain a few honest cops. These would all be people of virtue. Our society consists mostly of thieves, cowards and hypocrites on the one hand and on the other hand, an array of bullies, braggarts, exploiters and murderers.  Smart thinkers today make their demands without a thought for tomorrow.  They never leave money on the table, regardless of the ultimate cost or consequences.  Somehow, we have lost virtue as a society. What I mean by "virtue" is a fair frankness and honesty in our daily lives, in our dealings with our family and friends and most of all in our dealings with our fellow Americans. The kind of open frankness which earns honorable and mutual respect.

If we had virtue in our society, we would not have attempted the Americanization of the globe.  If we had virtue in our society, we would not permit our representatives to give us everything that we ask of them.  If we had virtue in our society, we would have respect for ourselves and for our neighbors on this globe.

We have no virtue.  We have no self-respect.  There is no honor in this country.Charity is a virtue.  Self-reliance is a virtue.  With these two simple statements it is easy to show why there is no honor in this country.  To give or to receive charity in an honorable society presumes that each individual of the society has a decent self-respect and a level of honor which drives them to self-reliance and thereby assuring the ability to give with a charitable hand.  Honorable and self-reliant people create a prosperous and strong society with both a willingness and an ability to share among themselves to strengthen and preserve their society. 

A society without virtue is a dying society.Virtue cannot be bought or sold or delegated.  What you give must be of what you have.  If you give of what you do not have, but which must be taken from someone else before you give it, it is theft. It is not charity, it is the distribution of stolen property.  The virtue of self-reliance is also a very individual virtue.  In our modern, urban setting, true self-reliance seems to be a forgotten virtue of forgotten times and forgotten circumstances.  Yet, for our society to live and to prosper, the restoration of self-reliance is an essential prerequisite.

Every public policy today has at its core the destruction of virtue, self-reliance and honor. Without our virtues, we become wholly subservient to the people who are the instruments of public policy.It is nearly impossible for us to notice the many ways in which the environment of public policy molds our circumstances and guides our choices.  Because we do not feel that ever present hand upon our decisions, we believe it is not there at all.  Worse, because we do not feel that ever present hand of tyranny, we do not resist it.  By not resisting it in our own lives, we are accustomed to not resisting it as it destroys our virtues and thieves from our lives and our wealth to impose its murderous desires upon other Peoples.

You know their truth, but you do not accept them as reality.  Every element of virtual slavery that encompasses every act, every moment of every day, seem to be natural self-expression.  A true slave does not feel chains that bind his soul as strongly as his life.If you have traded your virtue for public policy, nothing of you is your own.  You have been bought.  You are property. And you love it.

In the months not far away, you will have a choice again and it will be a difficult choice.  You will have to choose whether you will continue to live as you have lived throughout your entire life, as a virtual slave, the compliant tool and submissive resource of the people in our government and other public policy entities or whether you will regain your virtues of self-reliance, charity, honor and self-respect.

Be Prepared. Choose liberty!