Robert. E. Freer, Jr.
By Robert E. Freer, Jr. || “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” ~Will Rogers
Benjamin Franklin, older, ailing, clearly in his twilight is one of the few of our founding fathers to participate actively in both our national formation as a member of the Continental Congress with the Declaration of Independence and in the drafting of our governing principles at the Constitutional Convention eleven years later. As delegates to the later event were making their way to the table to sign the Constitution, he commented on the difficulty of determining whether the rendering of the sun against the horizon on the back of General Washington’s Chair was rising or falling, and with satisfaction said, “But now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun.”
Two hundred thirty five years later, we continue to gaze at that sun. Is it still rising, or must we now trim aspirations that have propelled us as a people through the centuries and accept a diminished setting sun? The answer is for you to decide. The future he saw was built by hundreds, then tens of thousands and finally millions of Americans. It took pluck, imagination, and the freedom to act on both to get us to the plateau we now inhabit.
“We the People”
If we are to ascend from here, the nation, as a people, has to decide that we still believe in ourselves. If ever there was a time for Faith in our Founders, this is such a time. Individual freedom, with all of its challenges and a morality based on Judea Christian principles – actively practiced – is the only path that offers an opportunity to recapture the future glimpsed by our Founders.
We may not produce heaven on earth, but by an investment in ourselves that starts with a stern finger of self- reprimand for allowing doubt to erode the edges of our confidence, we can and will continue to create individually driven opportunity for our country to prosper. Nor do the benefits of this approach, stop at our shores. If we can get our “mojo” back, our fellow inhabitants of planet earth will directly benefit. Our future is only circumscribed by the limits of our imagination and daring. The task for this incredibly important year is to come to terms with our history and accept our destiny of exceptionalism.
Capitalism works for all of us!
What road would you rather tread, One which already accepts we are in a lifeboat and must ration whatever is within our borders, medical care, power, water resources? Is freedom to choose, strive and excel to be sacrificed for some notion that the economic pie that exists today is all that there will be, and it must be shared as Washington directs in survival portions?
History confirms that collective, planned communities invariably are reduced at their best to sharing scarcity. Is this our future?
It needn’t be! Vibrant capitalism if allowed to operate, as it should, will produce substantial surplus to meet the needs of an increasingly affluent people. Surely as a society benefiting from free market economics, we are equal to devising mechanisms relying on the same forces to meet the need for continuing education throughout a lifetime, reaffirmation of the obligation for continued personal charity, and attention to the health of the communities in which we live. None of those efforts should undercut the conditions that produced it, and will do much to sustain the society it produces.
###
Robert E. Freer, Jr., after an extensive career in government, law and business, serves as the first BB&T Visiting Professor in Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel. Prof. Freer may be reached at robert.freer@citadel.edu. The opinions he expresses are solely his own.
By BigT January 27, 2012 at 9:24 am
FITS, you’re a librul, but I’ll suck your cock dry.
By eggaday January 27, 2012 at 1:35 pm
sorry Mr.Freer, We the People don’t get any say anymore. you haven’t noticed obviously.
By Crooner January 27, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Ah, but the devil is in the details.
By RAS January 28, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Unfortunately, professor, there are 7 billion of us sharing a planet with no way out. We are operating in scarcity mode, resources are limited and no amount of Rah-rah can change that reality. Yes, the Constitution is great, and go to church on Sunday if you wish, but get real.
By TontoBubbaGoldstein January 28, 2012 at 10:27 pm
Hey T, you and I feel EXACTLY the same. It was an excellent article and….yes….I….believe you would Lewinski ol FITS….dry.
By BigT January 29, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Yeah, I would!! That’s one delicious sausage. It probably still tastes like Queen Nikki’s asshole, though. That’s OK, I’ll still take it all in.
By BigT January 29, 2012 at 1:38 pm
FITS: will you forward Mr. Freer, Jr. my e-mail address so you, and he, can pay me royalties???
This is guy is what I’ve been trying to tell you people for a while…
By RAS January 29, 2012 at 4:11 pm
As you can tell by the comments of some of the FITSnews faithful, this is a low-brow site. Not a place for thoughtful commentary, Mr. Freer.
By BigT January 29, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Actually, RAS…There is no better way to expose these leftists…
To see them stoop as they do shows you their intellect.
And from there you can behold the Obama Campaign 2012…Hate, Obscenity and Vulgarity…It’s all they have…No logic or reason
By BigT January 30, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Although, that big black cock of Obama’s looks mighty tasty.
By Mr. Dixie January 29, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Pluck and imagination, and the freedom to act on them won’t get us anywhere anymore. The will of the people has been usurped by lobbyists and big money. It is just that some of us are too dumb to realize this fact.
By notagain January 30, 2012 at 10:24 am
So, if we keep educating ourselves, act charitably and provide health care, we’re gonna be OK? Come on, Doc. You gotta do better than that. You’re preachin’ not teachin’. You need a better formula to get us out of this mess than that. Start thinking instead of regurgitating.
By notagain January 30, 2012 at 10:44 am
The more I read this, the more disgusted I get. This is apple pie in the sky thinking. Why don’t you come up with some concrete suggestions which address some real issues:
How can we actually increase the wealth of the world?
How can we turn around the flow of jobs out of our country?
How can we produce cheaper and cleaner energy?
How can we minimize partisanship which ends in stalemate?
How can we encourage better leaders to offer for public office?
How can we control increasing costs in health care?
How can we revise our tax structure?
How can we develop a cogent foreign policy?
How can we shore up our failing infrastructure?
How can we keep the foreigners we educate from leaving?
Etc., etc. etc.
Half your comments are spent musing on Benjamin Franklin’s musings about George Washington’s chair. Your time and intellect would be much better spent on figuring out exactly what steps to take to get us out of this muck we appear to be mired in. Developing a better attitude, as you suggest, probably just doesn’t go far enough. Ask yourself, given our circumstances, not what he would muse about but What would Benjamin Franklin DO to make our country better? Remember the old addage: Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. Teach well, Professor.