The responsible one!

Wednesday - July 6, 2011

The responsible one!

When we ask the question who is responsible for a crime, a heroic effort or a job well done, we usually get the answer quickly. The answer can come by what a witness says, a co-worker’s observation, a video taken by a passer by and even through written history.

Usually we find out who the responsible one was when something good happens but when something bad or unexpected happens this is when it becomes a bit more difficult.

This week we celebrated our 235 birthday of declaring independence from Great Britain and King George’s oppressive taxes and his oppressive rule over the colonies.

When we ask the question who is the responsible one, who gave us Independence, we can name off a list of patriots like Franklin, Payne, Adams, Hamilton and Jefferson. But, for today’s FORUM, let’s just say Jefferson was the responsible one. It is easy to credit Jefferson for the Independence that we celebrated on Monday, because he wrote the Declaration of Independence. After all it was submitted by him and it was written in his long hand style of the written word.

The question I have today is this: did Jefferson raise the bar so high that no one else could be the responsible one in giving us independence or in securing our independence. Is the bar raised so high that no one else today thinks that they could fill Jefferson’s shoes or walk a mile in them?

Today, we are waiting for the president’s summit tomorrow, Thursday July 7, regarding managing the nation’s debt and questioning just how high we should raise the debt ceiling, so that the nation can borrow more to spend more. Tomorrow, we will see the president act like the responsible one by coming forth and bringing the two sides of Congress together to find common ground.

When Jefferson and the delegates met, to initially discuss the notion of separation and declaring independence, it was for very much the same reasons that the summit is being held tomorrow. The difference between then and now is that we had responsible people who looked at the nation’s wealth, its promise and the notion that government is to be ruled by the governed.

It took responsible people to secure our independence, our liberty and yes, the freedom that was ours to take, because it was ours to have. While the president and some in Washington speak the words of liberty, freedom and say they want to give us independence from government, they have actually been doing the opposite.

Today’s title “The responsible one” should describe the one person who has striped us of the wealth, the leadership position in the free world and has reduced the capacity for this nation to remain the financial leader of the world. The responsible one has given us record deficits, record unemployment and record government growth into every aspect of our lives.

The responsible one today, the president, remains the leader of the free world. If he wants to lead the free world, why destroy all that secures this nations leadership position? This is the $64,000 question.

Leadership is not asking the other side to surrender. Leadership is not demanding that the rich pay their fair share. Leadership is not creating stimulus after stimulus so that your political allies can profit at the cost of their vote. The question of the debt ceiling, the creation of crisis is not independence and is not what the responsible one 235 years ago by the name of Jefferson had envisioned when he took pen in hand to write what became one of the worlds greatest documents of freedom. In fact, the responsible one 235 years ago has not been out done by the authorship of another document anytime else in history.

The responsible one today had a Twitter session answering questions about the debt and tomorrow’s summit. I don’t want a president spending time on Twitter. I want him to be responsible by following what the rules of the game are. I want a responsible president to manage the nation’s economy with fiscal strength and with moral authority. Jefferson had it, but this president doesn’t. The debt ceiling question can be solved if we solve the problem of spending. The president released a report on the effectiveness of his stimulus. It has cost 666 billion dollars to save or create the 2.4 million jobs that the responsible one said he has created. The 666 billion dollars that was spent to save or create those jobs equates to $278,000 per job. It would have been cheaper to just give each one of those who got those jobs $100,000 cash for their trouble and for the exchange of their vote.

The question we are not asking all those who are responsible is why can’t the government just live within its means? This is the $64,000 question that no can answer let alone gives a chance to be asked.

It took a responsible hand to create the freedom that was born 235 years ago. It also takes an irresponsible hand that will further destroy it tomorrow.

On today’s date, in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was announced on the front page of the “Pennsylvania Evening Gazette.” On today’s date, a year earlier in 1775, Congress issued the “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms”, listing a list of grievances against the King, but denying the intent to be independent. Even then politics played a role, but the politics led in the direction of independence. Today the politics are reversing the course set in motion by the patriots 236 years ago. The president, the responsible one, today, is leading in the politics of the reversal of our independence instead of the politics of preserving our independence.

Today, we need a leader that recognizes what independence gave us; not only by the words, but in the spirit of the responsible one who put the words to paper and whose actions caused other men to take action.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: 235 years of independence was the result of responsible leaders, 3 years of the loss of independence can be blamed on one person who now is the responsible one for the loss of our independence.