“But What Can I Do?”
By William J. Dell – 21 July 2010
The Rev. Edward Everett Hale is generally remembered for his famous story of one Lt. Philip Nolan, “The Man Without a Country.” Many of us today may share in this feeling of being without a country as our elected representatives treat We the People as if we were not Americans and their employers. Many of us may despair in the plight that seems to have fallen to our Constitutional Republic and ask, “But what can I do?” To this I would respond with a quote from this same Rev. Edward Everett Hale:
I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
The something I ought to do, I can do.
And by the grace of God, I will.
It is interesting to me that all the great decisions of one’s life must be made individually. There really is no “collective” without individual decision and commitment. During the era of the War for Independence, it was the individual decision and commitment of each of the signers of the Declaration of Independence to pledge their individual lives, their individual fortunes and their individual honors that gave the cause of Liberty its strength. In 1787 it was the individual decision and commitment of the delegates who signed the Constitution that began the process that made us a Constitutional Republic with a Bill of Rights. A Constitution which states that We the People are sovereign and that the government only has such powers as We the People grant to it.
So it has been throughout the history of our Constitutional Republic. As each crisis has arisen, individual Americans have risen to defend the cause of freedom. Each has determined within his or her own heart that tyranny and injustice will not stand and that freedom and our Constitutional Republic will prevail. As each of us has done this, we became as a single strand in the rope of freedom and our Republic. Separately we were of little force but together, whether as the Founding Fathers or the “greatest generation,” we became strong and our freedoms and our Constitutional Republic were preserved. It will be no different for We the People, the patriots of today, if we but return to the same principles which gave our forefathers their strength of purpose and individual commitment. If we, individually and as a nation, return to that “Power that hath made and preserved us as a nation!”
On December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. In the aftermath of that attack, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is reported to have said: “I fear that we have only awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.” In the face of the challenges and threats to our Constitutional Republic today, from within and without, if you are part of a new awakened “sleeping giant” asking, “But what can I do?” may I suggest the following as “The something I [and you] ought to do.” And may each of us by the grace of God have the commitment of our forefathers to do it!
Let each of us, personally, read or reread, the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. How can we, personally, understand our heritage if we know nothing of these great documents which I believe were inspired by our Creator? How can we defend the principles which they contained if we have no personal knowledge of those principles?
Let each of us, personally, weigh the issues of our day in the light and truth of these principles. Let each of us measure the issues of our Constitutional Republic today against the Scriptures, our founding documents and the words of our Founding Fathers just as our forefathers did. For example, the Old Testament tells of the foolish act of Esau, brother of Jacob, who sold his birthright for a “mess of pottage.” This is surely a lesson for We the People that a free meal is NOT worth an inheritance of tyranny in exchange for our God given rights to Life, Liberty and Property. We the People cannot permit those of the Progressive Movement to destroy our inalienable rights from God and the principles which have made our Constitutional Republic great! Principles which were and which continue to be purchased by the blood of patriots.
Let each of us, personally, write our elected representatives and let them know how we feel about the issues that confront us as a nation. Let each of us inform them that if they hope to retain their job they had better listen to We the People, their employers. Let each of us tell them that they are Americans first, representatives of We the People who have employed them, and members of their political party second. Let each of us tell them that we EXPECT them to be behave like Statesmen and not Politicians.
Let each of us vote! We cannot harbor thoughts that our vote won’t count, Every vote counts! Just as a sports team cannot win the game without every player’s participation, in our Constitutional Republic we cannot retain our freedoms without each voting citizen’s participation. We the People cannot permit anyone to suggest that our vote doesn’t matter. We the People cannot permit anyone to intimidate us and keep us from our responsibility of voting. If Iraqis can proudly display their ink stained fingers after casting their ballots under threat of death, how can we not vote in this the land of the free?
Let each of us talk to our children and grandchildren about our heritage. They surely are not receiving a true picture of our Founding Fathers and the principles of our founding documents from liberal academia which is bound by “political correctness.” Political correctness has no room for, nor does it allow for, principle. The Judeo-Christian principles upon which this nation were founded and our true heritage will only be taught if each of us does the teaching within our own homes and families.
Let each of us do ALL that is within our power to unite rather than divide us as a nation. Let us return to the sentiment of our National Motto – “E Pluribus Unum” – Out of many, One. We, as a people and as a nation, need to put away the hyphen which has divided us for years. Most of us were born within the 50 States. Many others, who have come here legally, have gone through the citizenship process. As such, we are Americans – First, Last, Always – and that says it all. This does not mean that we forget our roots, but that our roots become and are secondary to being an American. That our allegiance is to supporting the Ideal of America, our founding documents and our Constitutional Republic.
Let each of us become an involved citizen. In our own way, let each of us support God, Family and Country. Let each of us utilize our time and talents actively in our chosen church, our schools, civic organizations, town hall meetings, the political process, etc. to ensure that the blessings of Liberty we inherited from our forefathers are passed, intact, to rising generations – our posterity.
Lastly, let each of us, in our own way, enlist other patriotic Americas to go and do likewise!
I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
The something I ought to do, I can do.
And by the grace of God, I will.
