Hindsight

The patriots who declared the independence of this nation, who fought a bloody war to achieve that independence and drew up the federal papers - which describe the freedoms and liberties that independence would insure - promised us "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The government of this nation consisted of elected officials who came together periodically to pass the laws and chart the course of this new country, men who were plantation owners, lawyers, doctors and merchants whose interest in government was to steer it away from monarchy and dictatorship, to guarantee the rights of all men and insure their ability to go as far in life as their intelligence and work ethic would take them..

At that point government stepped back out of the way and let each man rise or fall according to what his wit and ingenuity were capable of. He could strike out across the largely unchartered plains and lay title to vast acreage by homesteading, or he could go into the mercantile business, open a store in one of the many towns that were popping up across the frontier or harvest the plentiful timber, or fish bountiful oceans, be a fur trapper or a ordinary wage earner.

Opportunity abounded and vast fortunes were invested in laying rails establishing freight and passenger lines to move a restless population across the endless expanses of this new nation.

If you farmed, you lived off what you could raise and what you could get to market. If you ranched, your living depended on getting your herds to the railhead and nobody was responsible for you, except you.

You stood on your own two feet, if your crop failed due to laziness you were in for a hard winter. If you didn't get your cattle to market, there was no money. No government subsidized your crops or moved your herds for you.

It was root hog or die. You depended on your God, yourself, your family and your neighbors. There were no safety nets. If you fell, you fell, got up, dusted off and started again.

The only social programs were the charity of good people helping those less fortunate folks who needed a hand up.

This kind of society, though it definitely had it's blemishes, bred a race of men who conquered the West, brought about the Industrial Revolution, abolished slavery, fought and won two world wars and stared down communism.

Nowadays instead of our government being our protector and the guarantor of our rights and freedoms, it wants to be the be all end all center of our lives, the authoritative Robin Hood taking from the "haves" and giving the "have-nots," encouraging the "have-nots" to be "never haves" with their "give fish instead of fishing poles" policies, fostering such a dependent mentality that much of society now believes they have to depend on government for even their contraceptives and that the government should force employers to provide them free of charge.

I am perfectly willing to help feed the poor, to provide medical care for the indigent to provide shelter and clothing to those who can't provide them for themselves, but in the name of all that's reasonable, I do not - emphatically do not - believe it's my place to provide contraception or abortion for anybody and resent my tax dollars being spent on it.

In my book, providing contraception is downright silly. That's not a government function. It's funny how the same people who demand federally subsidized contraception are the very same ones who scream to" keep the government out of the bedroom."

And you're right; the government should stay out of the bedroom, so provide your own contraception.

Nowhere in the Constitution or any of the other federal papers - except for the colossal socialist document known as Obamacare - can you find any provision for governmentally provided contraception?

Our problem is not about the free distribution of condoms and morning after pills, ours is a problem of self-responsibility, of letting irresponsible slugs father children and leave the expense of raising them to society.

Our problem is one of casehardened consciences that look at a fetus as a blob of flesh instead of a divinely created, precious new life.

Our problem is politicians who sell the future of America for another couple of years of power and a population whose morality is fashioned more by television than the Bible.

The battle that is going on between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church reaches far beyond the right or wrong of contraception, it is a battle to decide if government is going to dictate religious doctrine and practice.

If they can dictate to the Catholic Church about their contraception belief can they tell a preacher what to preach and what not to preach?

Does that sound far-fetched to you?

We are one Supreme Court appointee away from it.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, and for our country.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels