NO. 927 A PATRIOT SHARES HIS HEART!
No. 927
Jim Davidson -- NEWSPAPER COLUMN
A PATRIOT SHARES HIS HEART!
There is a man who lives down on the bayou in South Louisiana whom I have come to really appreciate, admire and respect. He is someone who has the courage of his convictions and tells it like it is, and someone I believe is a true patriot.
This man is someone I have told you about before -- Dale Brown, former coach of the men’s basketball team at Louisiana State University. Dale sends me things he has written quite often and I have his blanket approval to share anything he writes with you, my greatly treasured reader. I want to pass along something today that I hope you will really think about, and if you are a praying person, to also pray about. I am just going to share his comments with you and then I have some comments to make before we end our visit together.
Dale begins, “I know that some of you that receive this might be saying, ‘Oh no, another complaint from Dale’. Well, get used to it, because I love this country with every fiber of my body and will not stand on the sideline and watch it be destroyed by incompetency or apathy on Capitol Hill. Abraham Lincoln described what is happening to us now when he said, ‘America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedom, it will be because we destroyed ourselves’.
“We are destroying ourselves by partisan politics, greed, apathy, hypocrisy, selfishness and lack of common sense, taking God out of the picture, and not putting the good of all our citizens as the primary goal for being in office. We have a right to demand a candidate who will lead with strength and commitment but at the same time listen to us. We are entitled to someone who wants to do what we want but isn’t afraid to propose ideas and suggestions of his own. I think most politicians want to get into public service for the right reasons, but then it goes haywire with the money, perks, crooked lobbyists, advisers, spinners, power, and now we have pseudo leaders. A true leader is interested in finding the best way to keep our country strong, fair, and free and not have his own selfish way.
“We don’t need any of our leaders building monuments to themselves or pompous self-serving attitudes that weaken the fiber of our country. Most politicians who receive this correspondence will not answer, answer with a form letter, or not act in any manner -- and these are the ones we need to vote out of office. Now, the biggest problem is citizen apathy by saying there is nothing or little I can do. Edmund Burke, an 18th century English statesman, said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little’.
“Will your decision be to ignore what I am saying and do nothing or will you do your very best to save the greatest country in the history of the world? I am hoping you will be motivated, mad enough, and love this country enough to stand up and be counted. Remember, once you choose apathy, you now have turned all the power over to government and once you abolish God, the government becomes god.”
Well, that’s the end of it and, as the old saying goes, “I wish Dale would have told us what he really thinks.” We need more people like Dale Brown.
My final comments are these. I took note that Dale did not talk about any particular office holder or party but rather he talked about the character of individuals who put the best interests of our nation far above politics or personal gain.
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim Davidson is a public speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034. To begin a bookcase literacy project visit www.bookcaseforeverychild.com. You won’t go wrong helping a needy child.)
