Long before our own time, the customs of our ancestors moulded admirable men, and in turn these eminent men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however, inherited the Republic like some beautiful painting of bygone days, its colors already fading through great age; and not only has our time neglected to freshen the colors of the picture, but we have failed to preserve its form and outlines. For what remains to us, nowadays, of the ancient ways on which the commonwealth, we are told, was founded? We see them so lost in oblivion that they are not merely neglected, but quite forgot. And what am I to say of the men? For our customs have perished for want of men to stand by them, and we are now called to an account, so that we stand impeached like men accused of capital crimes, compelled to plead our own cause. Through our vices, rather than from happenstance, we retain the word “republic” long after we have lost the reality.
—Cicero, De Re Publica
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The sad truth is that, by nature, true conservatives believe in the goodness of Man. They believe that there are self-evident truths. They fail to take the offensive to defend their way of life; choosing instead to view the very best of man while allowing the aggressive pursuit of freedom's demise by those that care only for themselves. They wait patiently in their proper lane in traffic while others zoom past on their right and left and force their way into the lane ahead. I fear that by their very nature, conservatives are cursed with the eventuality of watching everything they love be corrupted by the aggressive pursuits of others who care not for their fellow man, but only for their own personal gain.
I have found, especially with people like Cicero, that half of what they wrote over 2000 years ago is so applicable today. What he said here is completely true of America today. I hope one day a great artist comes along to freshen those colors for us!
When I read this I think of our Founding Fathers who fought and died for Freedom. They wrote the US Constitution in order to keep government from becoming to powerful. Yet many of our Founding Fathers such as George Mason refused to sign the historical document because it didn't protect individual rights or the people. As a result James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights based of Mason's ideas. These are the First 10 Amendments are they are DECLARATORY and RESTRICTIVE CLAUSES which means, they are above the US Constitution and They cannot be altered and changed. As Citizens we are born with these freedoms to religion, speech, the right to bare arms, the right to due process. These are unalienable rights."You can not surrender, sell or transfer unalienable rights, they are a gift from the creator to the individual and can not under any circumstances be surrendered or taken. All individual's have UNALIENABLE RIGHTS." The Founding Fathers wrote these Precious documents as guide lines for the people elected in government to follow. It doesn't matter if the government shreds the documents…because we are born with these natural rights and freedoms and they cannot be taken away. But you only have the freedoms you are willing to fight for.
This is a Poem from Martin Niemoeller in 1938
"In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me."
Over 200 years have passed since the adoption of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and many of us have taken it for granted. Let's not be ignorant and sheep-like but instead let's become educated and similar to pack of wolves when they come treading of our freedoms.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make a violent revolution inevitable." -JFK
"I know not what course others may take but for me; give me liberty or give me death." – Patrick Henry
"They that can give up essential liberty obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." – Benjamin Franklin
"America will never be destroyed from outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." – Abraham Lincoln
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, at last resort,
to protect themselves against tyranny in government." – Thomas Jefferson
"The man who reads nothing at all is better than educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers." -Thomas Jefferson