How long do we have?

[NCangler]

A friend sent this to me and I couldn't help but post it. It has nothing to do with fishing but it speaks loudly to our freedoms as American citizens and our responsibility to maintain our system of laws, our personal responsibility/work ethic and the need for accountability in public service. I've posted it as food for thought. It doesn't matter which political party you ascribe to (if any). What ultimately matters is our individual responsibilities and how we live out our freedom in community and service to one another. I agree that we are somewhere between stages 6 and 7 as a nation. We have to be vigilant to protect our freedom. We cannot afford to become apathetic about liberty.

How Long Do We Have?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution
in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University
of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some
2,000 years earlier:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government."

"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover
they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury."

"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who
promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that
every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is
always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning
of history, has been about 200 years."

"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the
following sequence:

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul,
Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000
Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580 ,000
Bush: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was
mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country.

Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in
government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government
welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency
and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some
forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the
"governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal
invaders called illegal's and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the
USA in fewer than five years.

Apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom