-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! I Had a Dream Diane Alden March 16, 2001 You have to ask yourself sometimes: If you could dream up a world where things made sense to you, what would that world look like? I suspect those dreams are as individual as the dreams of each single individual. Ted Turner's dreams would be a lot different from the pope's or Jerry Falwell's. The dream of the EarthFirsters! would be different from the dreams of Exxon. Rosie O'Donnell's dream would be antithetical to Charlton Heston's, and Bill Clinton's would be vastly different from Ronald Reagan's. To have a dream is to have hope. To have a dream is to begin the process of reinventing ourselves and the society around us. To be free to dream is the best of all possible worlds. I had a dream that all the politicians of all political persuasions decided that the government had grown vastly too large and too powerful. That it had become corrupt and unresponsive. That it was swayed by notions that really had nothing to do with what was good for people, but rather that which was good for government. I had a dream that the leviathan state went on a diet and lost about 2/3 of its girth, thereby becoming slimmer and healthier. The dream of limited government and individual liberty. I had a dream that the First Amendment to the Constitution and its subgroupings such as freedom of religion, press and speech were respected across the board. That toleration and freedom meant each and every person understood the Bill of Rights as written. That it was a list of particulars which were simple in concept and meaning and did not require nine people in black robes, with their individual prejudices and mindsets, getting in the way of the simplicity of meaning. I dreamed that everyone understood that with the rights contained in that document, each citizen of the United States had the same respect for responsibilities toward exercising those rights. That self-discipline based on the founding principles under the Judeo-Christian tradition was recognized as the basis for our rights and duties. I had a dream that 50,000 pages of the Federal Register had to be archived because they no longer applied. I had a dream that the country lost its obsession with sex, with perversions of the sexual act, that we once more connected that act with consequences – moral, mental, spiritual and personal. That we understood it is at its root an act of creation rather than recreation. That it is about the beauty of life rather than the ugliness and selfishness of seeking the perfect sex partner in serialized narcissism. I had a dream that people talked to each other again rather than talking AT each other. That for two days a week the TV went silent. That we introduced ourselves to reading a good book, hard copy or on the Net, and had an understanding what really great literature is about. To paraphrase William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize for literature acceptance speech: “If it isn't about honor, growth, courage, if it does not speak to both the heart and mind of man, it is not great literature.” Frankly, we live in a culture where most modern literature is nothing but words on paper. Difficult to understand because it has become cute tricks of style rather than substance, raising victimology above insight into the human condition, meanwhile overlooking the irony in life as well as the simple good things in the triumph of the human spirit. It is mean and debasing, bringing us closer to a dark age of the mind and the soul. It no longer enlightens or illuminates, and even the rage in much of it is canned and phony and predictable. It is boring and self-defeating and is full of forgettable characters that are neither interesting nor humorous in their evil, debauchery or downtrodden condition. They are forgettable because they are self-absorbed. I had a dream it was just as easy for a conservative writer to get published as it was for Toni Morrison or Norman Mailer. That conservative male writers other than Tom Clancy were given opportunities to have their works of fiction published even when they are not politically correct. I had a dream that music returned to itself as it sings to the mind and heart rather than to the crotch or the ego. That music left infantile self-abuse in Eminem and Madonna behind. If there are no more great musical forms to be discovered, and dissonant noise is not music and verbal guttural certainly not, then return to the old great musical forms and improvise until new instruments and greater forms come along. Remake the radio and MTV airwaves as places to hear and see music that involves rather than music that requires you sit back and comment on how outrageous it is. Today’s music will not last. Today's pop music will not have the staying power of Scott Joplin’s Charlie Parker's jazz. Nor will it be resurrected in the future like the Big Band music of the ‘30s and ‘40s, the rock of Buddy Holly or Elvis, or the country of Patsy Cline and Hank Williams. There will be revivals and imitators of greatness, but it is doubtful anyone in the future will be reviving Eminem. Like our literature, our music is loud, outrageous, soul-deadening and forgettable. In 50 years, "As Time Goes By" will still filter from an open window on Main Street and it will still be a classic, but not one single song by a current pop star will be remembered except for its outrageousness. I had a dream that they limited the number of law schools to the same number of medical schools nationwide. That to become a lawyer one would be required to spend two years reading the Federalist Papers and the letters of the Founders and Blackstone's edition. That would-be lawyers would be well acquainted with the works of Frederick Bastiat as well as Blackstone, the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. That another five years would be required to study the law and spend part of the time learning what that law has done to and for society. I dreamed that frivolous lawsuits or lawsuits that destroy livelihoods should be paid for by the losing parties that brought such suits. That lawsuits should be the last weapon of justice rather than the first. I had a dream that business and industry would find it profitable to be responsible toward their employees and toward society and their communities. That they would create a climate where unions would not be a necessity. That government would be so small they would no longer feel it necessary to buy influence from government. That they would find it in their best interests to be responsible in creating clean air and maintaining clean water, using the best available science and not the stuff trumped-up by the Marxists in the green movement. That their push for globalizing would not mean the end to American self-sufficiency. That the jobs they create overseas would not mean a net loss in jobs in the United States or jobs with less money and less hope. That instead of asking for worker bees from the education establishment, they ask for educated individuals with a grasp of the basics, in other words the old notion of a "liberal education." That the heads of multinational corporations would absolve themselves of central planning for the entire world. That George Soros and Ted Turner would stop playing god and get on with what they do best. That they and billionaires like them would take care in giving to causes that are destructive of liberty and the livelihoods of others. That they stop taking pot shots at religion and religious leaders and learn a little respect for the leaders in the spiritual realm as much as they revere those in other areas. I had a dream that they made a movie about Clarence Thomas and Danny Glover played Thomas and the movie was a truthful depiction of a good man. I dreamed that they made a move like ''Erin Brockavich'' about finding a woman who discovers ecoterrorists and their abuse of other people's livelihoods and property. Or a movie about government green bureaucrats who have destroyed entire communities with their actions and the politicians and foundations that make it possible. I dreamed they made a movie like ''American Beauty'' that showed the other side of American life, the side where people overcome great odds to become well-off without losing their souls. I dreamed that we put a stake in the heart of multiculturalism and diversity and just went back to being nice to each other without having to create laws or set in place the mindless intimidation of political correctness. I dreamed that we became just plain Americans again, without the hyphen. That we were nice to each other because it was the right thing to do. That homosexuals would have as much respect for the views of the Christian as Christians are required to have for them. Mostly, that we stop making a sexual OR racial issue of every single aspect of our lives. Frankly, I think there have been many scoutmasters who have been gay, but it is in-your-face drop-dead accept-it-or-else that is killing civility between straights and gays. I wish American Indians, Hispanics and African-Americans, Asians, and our hodge-podge of whites and mixes would get over feeling they have been unjustly treated, because in one way or another that is the case for all of us. I dreamed that people on the East Coast and the far West Coast would stop trying to tell the people in flyover country how to conduct their business and handle their money, their property, their kids, their lives. Since the people on the East Coast have a different outlook, they should have some respect that the rest of the country may not agree with their one-world-fits-all outlook. I dreamed that big cities got smaller. That we stopped living in concrete beehives where life seems cheap and brutish and air quality and traffic give us no room to breathe. Meanwhile, government salivates at inflicting environmental policies on every community whether or not they are needed in that community. Having a thousand great bookstores or music centers, eateries or amusements is not as important as the lack of humanity and barbarism that define current city culture. I dreamed we understood that inner cities are hellholes, camps of escapism where street gangs, drugs, cruelty, barbarism and incivility rule the day and the night. No government program has ever solved that problem and none ever will. I dreamed instead of creating more greenbelts around cities, industry and business scattered to the Dakotas and Mississippi and other states that desperately need commerce and industry. That those who left the great cities to live in small towns and rural areas would thereby absorb some of the decency which is out there in flyover. I dreamed that we went back to the basics in education, including a return to the "dame" schools where an intelligent man or woman with an education and a background plus parent participation could educate children better and for less money than we spend today. I dreamed that more families could keep their money rather than having to send it to the IRS to fund losing programs. Maybe then mom or dad might stay home and teach their own kids if they wanted to. I dreamed that we gave up on public education the way we give up on a bad relationship, rather than pour resources into a dead, corrupted and hopeless thing. Lastly, I dreamed I could think, say, write and do and accomplish within the constraints of a formed conscience and measure it all with a ton and a half of humor. That means following the Big Ten, the Bill of Rights and Constitution, Laurel and Hardy, Inspector Clouseau and a few personal rules my Mom and Dad taught me. But mostly I dreamed that there was a reason the Creator kept it simple. He gave us ten rules rather than thousands. He told us the results He would like to see and gave us a road map along with a conscience and a free will. The government can force us to do things, but even God Almighty does not do that. For those who don't believe in a Creator or for those who consider Him of no importance, I wouldn't try to change your mind. All I know is that without SOME of us believing in Him and following His lead, few dreams would be possible and none would succeed. If there were not a few old conservative-to-libertarian Christians or Orthodox Jewish Luddites around to believe in and follow the "old ways," society would continue down its decadent and dreamless road. I dream of the stars – what has been, is now, and could be. ---------------- Diane Alden is a research analyst with a background in political science and economics. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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