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America is the only country ever founded on an idea. The idea resonated in hearts and minds around the world. It said a person had inherent rights that no government could justly take away. People traveled across oceans in answer to its call. They came from every corner of the globe, journeying across a continent to realize their dreams of freedom and opportunity. The Conestoga wagon is a rolling symbol of their efforts. The wagons' wheels carried them to a better life. Each of those wheels had a hub, spokes, and a rim. The pioneers knew that if the hub broke the entire wagon stopped. So they paid careful attention to the hub. Since their society revolved around a wagon train, the hub was, in effect, the center of their society. We, too, are following the American dream.
And like our pioneer ancestors, we need to pay
careful attention to our society's hub because it
is the hub that controls the speed and direction of our journey.
The political establishment thinks that government
is the hub of society. We believe that the FAMILY is the hub, Since the hub determines the design of the
entire wheel, societies based on government do
not resemble societies based on the family. When government is the hub, there are no absolute standards of right and wrong. The government decides rightness or wrongness based on its own arbitrary standards, not reality or morality. When government is the hub, then government's might determines what is right. When government is the hub, then our worth as persons is not something we are born with. It is something government assigns to us, based on our productivity or political clout. When government is the hub, taxation, regulation and conditions of dependency are the spokes that bind the citizens. It fosters dependency, like a dysfunctional family which never lets children grow up. Government programs not only continue the dependent status quo of participants, they often punish people who seek to escape their rolls. Government deprives working citizens of up to 40% of their income through taxation, which is often just enough to force families into dependency on the very government which took their own money away from them. When government is the hub, citizens need to be controlled. The easiest way to control people is to isolate them. So its policies and programs undermine family ties and relationships, separating families into individuals with unique problems which only the government can "solve". Government's "solutions" often pit the needs of one generation against the needs of another - with government in the center, and in control. Government is a dark center in its wheel. It
creates no new life, no products, no services to
feed the larger society. Government is a parasite,
drawing its sustenance down the spokes
from the citizens. Like all other black holes, it
sucks everything into itself.
When government is the hub, eventually its
citizens become its serfs.
When the family is the hub, society has clear concepts of right and wrong, based on Judeo-Christian principles. Since family-centered societies acknowledge their Creator, they recognize that each person is endowed by Him with inalienable rights. When family is the hub, each individual is valued for himself. Families welcome and cherish all their members as unique and priceless expressions of a God who loves them. When family is the hub, the wheel is held together by love, not fear or force. A family's love is based on commitment and a sense of shared responsibility. These ties are permanent and unconditional, so they are not threatened by individual freedom. In fact, families encourage independence, initiative, and achievement. When family is the hub, its members care for each other, forming networks of support that both facilitate growth and help members in need. In family-centered societies, "children's rights" are not pitted against "senior rights" because the ties between grandchildren and grandparents span the generations. Families combine loving hearts with helping hands, reaching beyond their own members to their communities and providing assistance with accountability so everyone they touch is challenged to grow. Families are bright centers in their wheels.
They produce life and goods and wealth for
themselves and others. They send that life out
through the spokes into the larger society.
They don't seek power, they give it to their
members. Families rejuvenate themselves and
therefore their whole society.
When family is the hub, its members can reach their dreams.
Just as a wheel can have only one hub, a society can have only one center. We will either be family centered, or we will be government centered. There can be no compromise. In the end, only one philosophy will survive. The political establishment has become experts in focusing the debate AWAY from this truth. They work hard to keep the citizens dealing with the issues, just like the blind men in the story. As long as we keep fighting snakes and trees and walls and ropes, government's elephant can continue its rampage. So we must refocus the debate. We must force those who blithely claim that "it takes a village to raise a child" to admit that it takes our homes to make a village. In the months ahead we pledge to do just that. We will define issues in terms of the conflict between government and family. We will offer solutions that restore families to their proper role as the center of our society. We will work to return government to its appropriate, Constitutionally limited role, able to accomplish its necessary tasks in an effective manner. This was the structure created by our Founding Fathers. It led to the development of the most free and most successful society in the world. In protecting it, we are preserving our dreams and |
