The Grand Alliance

“Where there is no vision, the people perish….”  (Proverbs 29:18, KJV)

My fellow citizens:

DESPITE THE SPECTACLE we are forced to witness on a daily basis, and the doubts that arise, America is not in decline.  America is in confusion.  Some have forgotten, or never knew, or could care less about the mission.

     America is an idea as a much as a country, and thoughts placed upon a pedestal—“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”—become ideals.  But much is required to close the gap between our ideals and the reality of the moment.  And in the midst of battle, even a patriot’s mind needs to be refreshed and the heart renewed.

 

     After the Federal Convention, Alexander Hamilton had high hopes for the former backwater province of the British Empire that he called “a country, which with wisdom, might make herself the admiration and envy of the world.”  (The Federalist Papers, No. 11)  To the powers-that-be, he seemed unduly optimistic.

     We need help to become transcendent, as Job discovered during his debriefing with God.

     “Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?”  (Job 39:27, KJV)

     To fly, lift and thrust must overcome gravity and drag.  To take flight, America’s lift and thrust—ideals and effort—must overcome gravity and drag, that is, doubt and resistance; the latter being anything that undermines, whether arrogance, ignorance, or stupidity or the infinite permutations thereof.  But, if we master them, we will become what Hamilton imagined—“a country, which with wisdom, might make herself the admiration and envy of the world.”

     The Great Seal of the United States of America is a reflection of the fact that we are spiritual beings in material bodies.  The eagle can mount up.  But she can only make her nest on high with Divine Providence.  For here, citizenship is about character—the union of thought, word, and deed directed toward a noble end.

     Thomas Jefferson compared and contrasted rival systems.  One is open, the other closed.

     “…(T)here is a natural aristocracy among men.  The grounds of this are virtue and talents….  There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, without either virtue or talents….  The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature for the instruction, the trusts, and government of society….  The artificial aristocracy is a mischievous ingredient in government, and provision should be made to prevent its ascendancy.”  (Emphasis added.)

     One way to prevent the ascendancy of the artificial aristocracy is through public financing of campaigns, free air time for candidates, a strong conflict of interest provision that requires officials to place their holdings in Treasury securities, restoration of the fairness doctrine, and paper ballots.  A passage in the report that President Washington had Secretary of War Knox send to Congress in support of Universal National Service laid out another:  “If wealth be admitted as a principle of  exemption, the plan cannot be executed.  It is the wisdom of political establishments to make the wealth of individuals subservient to the general good, and not to suffer it to corrupt or attain undue indulgence….”  (Emphasis added.)  Therefore decisionmaking must be based upon knowledge, not the influence of privilege.

     High ideals cannot become reality unless we continue to exist.  Thus, the need for the common defense, which has a clear purpose—survival.     

     The United States must negotiate an executive agreement on coordination—between NATO, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea—to create the Allied Clean Energy States or ACES.  Together they can offer assistance to other cooperative nations that aspire to be free.

     A grid upgrade—more efficient and secure—would make way for massive use of solar panels, wind, geothermal, and wave generation.  Helium-3 recovered from the Moon could power safe nuclear reactors.  But energy independence revolves around our star.  And since Australia and America get more sunlight than any other nations—they are No. 1 and No. 2 respectively—the advantages are readily apparent.  They can become the energy hub of the Alliance.  Then support for electric car stations on two continents will result in reduced carbon emissions, a positive development in regard to climate change that would spread elsewhere.  Thus, clean energy is an internal improvement that creates jobs and weans the Allies off a Nineteenth Century fuel source.  Finally, sanctions will become more effective as the revenue vital to Russia declines due to an Article V type of response that, although short of war, would be in retaliation for interference in Allies’ elections.           

    “The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind,” said Thomas Paine.  “Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested.”

     To achieve true greatness in the material world, represented by the eagle on the Great Seal, we can no longer ignore the reverse side with the All Seeing Eye.  To make our nest on high, there must be an American Renaissance, what Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom.”  Then we can complete the mission and fulfill our destiny.

     “…(T)he United States will be ready for a Declaration of Interdependence…,” said President Kennedy on July 4, 1962.  “Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world; we cannot insure its domestic tranquility, or provide for its common defense, or promote its general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.  But joined with other free nations, we can do all this and more.”

(c)2020 Marvin D. Jones.  All rights reserved.

In memory of Mary Ellen Addison

February 28, 1882 – November 1, 1978