It's all in the title, Main Street!

Friday-August 19, 2011

It’s all in the title, Main Street!

This week, I have started to define “what I would do” instead of complaining about what others do. A very good friend of mine asked me that question and it has stuck with me and it has motivated me. Sometimes friends have that effect!

In days gone by, when our country was governed under a constitutionally limited government, it must have provided a true sense of National Security in that the citizens of the newly formed United States of America had security in the National purpose. Its time has come to consider just what the National purpose of the country will be going forward, while keeping in mind what our founding principles are. You will notice that I didn’t say what the founding principles were. I believe the founding principals are still alive today, some of us have just forgotten about them.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to Samuel Smith in 1788: "We are now vibrating between too much and too little government and the pendulum will rest finally in the middle."

The full impact of bringing back a sense of national purpose is to appeal to the higher sense of the voter. The final impact of bringing that pendulum back to the middle will be to make an argument that appeals to the hearts and the souls of each American. The appeal will have to raise the conscience level and will have to appeal to each voter’s sense of purpose. Jefferson wrote in his Rights of British America in 1774: "The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."

It is time to wake the public up from their long hibernation of relying on entitlements, relying on big government to do the smallest things that most in this country are capable of doing themselves. It is time to create the sense of community that has walked off of America’s Main Street. That process of thought, that has escaped some of us, created the most dynamic of economies, it built the highest buildings and it has created the highest standard of living in the history of the world. People from other countries stop and marvel at it and that is what motivates them to come to this country to partake in its freedoms, the liberty that is ours and the independence, that when practiced, will create the sense of community that we miss today. It is time to wake up the nation, one community at a time.

Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Stephens Smith in 1787: “Lethargy is the forerunner of death to the public liberty. “ Jefferson also said: “We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves.”

Some Americans are lethargic, because some have lost the confidence in their government from ever doing the right thing again. I come across many people who tell me one man cannot make a difference any longer. I say to them that they are just plain wrong. I tell them about what Jefferson wrote to C.W.F. Dumas in 1787: "To inform the minds of the people, and to follow their will, is the chief duty of those placed at their head”.

This was the thought of men at the time of our founding, this is part of the founding principles that I believe people still want to see, but more importantly still want to believe. But they can’t, because this is not what is practiced in Washington, in our City Halls and our State Houses. This is what I believe is appealing to the higher sense, this is what I believe will appeal to the hearts and souls when demonstrated. This is what must be on display to bring back the trust and to bring back laws that are designed for the benefit of the community and the benefit of America’s Main Streets.

The Main Street of America took another hit yesterday. The threat of recession is in the air, new claims for unemployment hit 408,000 people, home sales are down to an eight year low, and the market is in full swing because of world wide financial fears.

A little known title to many is The Philly Fed index (Philadelphia Federal Index) is at a negative 30 (-30) today. This is a regional federal-reserve-bank index measuring changes in business growth. The index is constructed from a survey of participants who voluntarily answer questions regarding the direction of change in their overall business activities. The survey is a measure of regional manufacturing growth. When the index is above 0 it indicates factory-sector growth, and when below 0 indicates contraction. This index is published by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank on the third Thursday of the month at 10 am EST. It is considered to be a good gauge of general business conditions. This little known titles report is what is sparking the fears of another recession.

When Jefferson spoke about honesty, the political pendulum, lethargy and the importance of informing the minds of people, he was speaking about leadership and the importance of other leaders to recognize when leadership is absent. He said to Edward Rutledge in 1796: “I love to see honest and honorable men at the helm, men who will not bend their politics to their purses nor pursue measures by which they may profit by their measures.” As Wall Street trades, Main Street feels the pressure. As the President uses his title to enact laws that will cost Americans, yet unborn, in ways we cannot fathom, all economic indexes are in the negative range. As some in Congress complain that the President is using his title for campaign purposes, while on official business, America did not grow this week.

The leaders of America fell short this week on the promise of the liberty that creates free markets and the freedom that should not bind us with laws that restrict via the regulations that the many faceless titles in Washington creates. Those titles with those unfamiliar faces stifled the independence that Jefferson spoke about when he said: "I will not believe our labors are lost. I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on steady advance." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1821

Today, I hope that the history of Jefferson’s words made sense. I hope that the title of today’s FORUM struck a thread in your conscience. I will be doing more of this, as I move along Main Street in the coming months. Our Constitution was created to benefit the people of Main Street and it was written to protect the people of Main Street. Jefferson wrote: “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.”

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Main Street is where you can get the pulse of America today. The pulse on Main Street is a bit slow, but you can strengthen it by relating to people by appealing to their higher senses. Its not about having skin in the game, it’s all about how to save the people on Main Street from all the faceless titles in Washington that think they know the people on Main Street.