What Comes Next. . .

Since this blog was started earlier this year, there have been several different topics addressed. We've discussed whether or not America is traveling a road that could lead to what David O. McKay called the "soul destroying land of socialism". We reviewed some fundamental principles that are essential to preserving liberty, and the importance of helping our children cleave to true principles. Then there have been many posts discussing the price that has been paid for our liberty, those who paid that price, and the responsibility we have in our day to bear our portion of liberty's cost.

This blog has tried to outline the mainstay of freedom that has been our heritage, and the fact that our country is changing in ways that threaten to diminish our individual liberties. In many ways this has been an attempt on my part to raise a faint and feeble voice of warning about the need to preserve the liberty to exercise our agency, which I believe is a fundamental part of God's plan for His children.

It is my intent to now start using this blog to take a closer look at those things happening in our nation today, review how these things contribute to the preservation or peril of our freedom, and to hopefully explore some ways that each of us, both as individuals and as a people, can stand up to defend our liberty and way of life. By doing this we can view actual examples of our freedom in jeopardy, and come up with ways to intervene in defense of our liberty.

But I'd like to take just one more opportunity to share a few thoughts about how important it has become to defend the freedoms we possess. This time, however, it will be in the words of someone whose voice is much more articulate and empassioned than mine.

Please consider the following words from Ezra Taft Benson:

"The one great revolution in the world today is the revolution for human liberty. This was the paramount issue we all faced in the great council in heaven before this earth life. It has been the issue throughout the ages. It is the issue today.
"It is difficult for Americans to understand the danger to our liberty. 'It is generally outside the range of our experience.'
"But we live today in an age of peril. We are threatened with the loss not only of material wealth but of something far more precious--our liberty itself.
"Never before in the history of our country has there been a greater need for all of our people to take time to discover what is happening in the world. Every day decisions are being made affecting the lives ofmillions of human beings.
"We as a people have never known bondage. Liberty has always been our blessed lot. Few of us have ever seen people who have lost their freedom--their liberty. And when reminded of the danger of losing our liberty and independence our attitude has usually been--It cannot hapen here.
"We must never forget that nations may--and they usually do-- sow the seeds of their own destruction while enjoying unprecedented prosperity.
"The children of Israel were willing to sacrifice liberty and wanted Moses to be their king. Generations later their descendants begged Samuel the Prophet to give them a king. He pointed out the fallacy of their reasoning.
"Samuel, like other great spiritual leaders both ancient and modern, saw the results that would follow the surrender of liberty.
"In that sacred volume of scripture, the Book of Mormon, we note the great and prolonged struggle for liberty. We also note the complacency of the people and their frequent willingness to give up their liberty for the promises of a would-be provider.
"The record reveals that men 'of cunning device. . . and . . . many flattering words, ' . . . sought. . . . 'to destroy the foundation of liberty which God had granted unto them. . .'
"Then Moroni, the chief commander of the armies. . . dramatically rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it--'In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children'--and he fastened it upon the end of a pole. . . . (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty, to rest upon his brethren. . . .' (Alma 46)
"This great general Moroni, like the prophets whose words are recorded in the Book of Mormon, spoke of the Americas as a choseen land--the land of liberty. He led the people in battle who were willing to fight to 'maintain their liberty.'
"This is our need today--to plant the standard of libety amoung our people throughout the Americas.
"While this incident ocurred some seventy years before Christ, the struggle continued through one thousand years as covered by this sacred Book of Mormon record. In fact, the struggle for liberty is a continuing one--it is with us in a very real sense today right here on this choice land of the Americas.
". . . There are, of course, many reasons. Our apathy--our complacent indifference is a major cause. Today, in America we are living in a fool's paradise. We have permitted ourselves to be pacified and lulled away into carnal security as the Book of Mormon prophets predicted.
" As a people who have known only liberty we are inclined to feel it cannot happen here. We have become lulled away into a false security.
". . . .Yes, we all say, we love liberty. But that is not enough. We must protect and safeguard that which we love. We must save liberty. God grant us the wisdom and courage so to do, before it is too late. "

So there we have it, from someone with much more authority and credibility on the matter than I could ever hope to attain.

If we love liberty, which I know we all do, whether or not it is at the front of our mind or just taken as granted, then "we must save liberty"! Please participate in this blog as one form of standing up in defense of liberty. As the coming content of this blog looks at examples of our freedom being lost, and explores ways to preserve it, please take the time to comment and add your voice to the dialogue, then share this blog with everyone you can so more and more people are involved in the discussion. In this way we can work together to make our individual contributions to this small discussion forum, which can lead to more and more people taking a stand. . . but it means we all must be active in sharing our thoughts, feelings and opinions.

Thanks,
Richard

Source: The Title of Liberty, A Warning Voice. Ezra Taft Benson (compiled by Mark A. Benson) Deseret Book Company pp 92-103