I was talking with two of my young children last night as they lay in their beds, ready for prayers. And I reminded them, as I often do, of how blessed they were, more than billions of people, simply by virtue of where they were born.
"You were born in America, where you can live and do as you please. And, if you work hard, you will be able to enjoy all that life has to offer." And then I stopped and felt, truly, for the first time, as though I was lying to them. It was beyond depressing.
I think for the time being I will stress to them that they are Texans. By choice. And for good reason.
There are two very distinct and incompatible philosophies reaching a peak right now... the one of those who believe that by virtue they must rule others for the common good and their enablers who seek to benefit from that, and the one of those who wish to be left the hell alone.
These divergent opinions have drawn blood and cost lives before. We really need to keep battling this out at the polls and in the courts and in the schools so that it never reaches such an extreme again. We are the smallest most precious minority, the individual. And we're endangered. Remind somebody of that today.
“I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, natural history and naval architecture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, tapestry, and porcelain.”
and
“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”
~ John Adams
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