Renew America rally in Alabama
Alan Keyes
April 29, 2000
Good evening! Thank you for
coming. I am going to, I guess, have to repay your willingness to come out
and listen for a few minutes in an unaccustomed way. Because, while I do mean
to show my gratitude for your being here, I also think it would be important
to spend the next few minutes--fewer than I would usually have because I have
to catch a plane--so I am faced with the challenge of having to lay out for
you what I believe to be the critical stage that this nation is in, with
perhaps a little more directness than I might otherwise do. And as all of
you've probably heard, I'm pretty well known for my directness anyway, so
you're in for something special. [laughter]
But, I think that we are coming down to the wire in terms of the fate of this
nation's freedom. I was thinking of that over the course of the last weekend
when, as you know, this famous episode in Miami occurred. We saw sent around
the world this picture of a six-year-old with automatic weapons stuck in his
face, as they grabbed him out of the clutches of the wicked, evil, bad folks
in Miami, whose crime was that they loved him too much. And they decided to
take him off, and, actually, take him off under an understanding that sadly,
though we ought to know this as Americans, we no longer seem to understand.
Because I was noticing a cover on TIME, I think it was, that has
"Papa!" and so forth. And the whole mythology that Elian is going
back to his father really irks me. You know that that cannot be true in Cuba.
Don't you? Because Cuba is a Communist totalitarian society, one of the few
on the face of the earth where they thoroughly implement the concept of
Communism, and that means the children are not raised by their parents in
Cuba. They are raised by the Castro Communist totalitarian state. And as I've
often pointed out to folks, I deeply believe that fathers have the right to
decide where their children are living. And with the mother gone and so forth
and so on, it is absolutely the right of that father to decide whether that
child is going to be with him or not, provided that the decision can be made
in freedom.
There's just one problem with Cuba. No decision taken by a parent in Cuba can
be made in freedom, because no parents in Cuba live in freedom. And that
faces us with an awesome dilemma. It means we've got a government that just
did the bidding of the Communist master of Cuba, and he decided this time
that he would do it in the fashion of the Communist master of Cuba. So,
they've implemented this thuggery against citizens
of the United States.
And I don't even think we even recognize what's going on because people are
coming out saying, "This is a family dispute," and so forth and so
on. Last time I looked, you don't solve most of these family disputes with
automatic weapons. And there are a lot of other ways this could have been
dealt with. Why do you think they did it this way? Well, they did it this way
because this is THE way of the Clinton era in order to get the American
people accustomed to the fact that we are no longer the free people we once
were. Knocks on the door in the middle of the night with people coming to
snatch away your children or yourself--those are things we used to associate
only with the Communist tyrannies that we fought against. But now this is an
image you must associate henceforward with your country! And if you think it
will be confined, in the days to come, to families like that of Elian
Gonzalez, think again. For, what we are looking at is a dress rehearsal for
your future.
The tyranny in this nation has already begun. They're easing us into it, so
that by the time the stench grows bad enough, we will have gotten so used to
it. We won't even recognize the images of that tyranny. And this is sad. But
it's where we are, and it's where we've been heading for a long time. And, I
don't think that we have much longer to turn around. I cannot understand why
Americans believe that we can go on destroying the most important foundations
of our whole way of life, and expect it to survive. Why do you think this is
going to happen? I guess it's because, like so many other things, we tend in
our political life to take everything for granted. "Always been this
way, therefore, it will always be this way." That's not true.
We live in a century that proves it without a doubt. There were whole
civilizations wiped off the face of the earth in the 20th century. Even the
one in Europe, which they claim to have rebuilt from the rubble, is not today
what it was before it destroyed itself in two world wars. And the people who
lived both before the first one and in the interim between the first and
second, they thought it would always be thus. They lived oblivious to the
destruction that would be wrought in their own society--and, sadly, I think
we do, too.
And right now, in the midst of a little material prosperity, and so forth and
so on, some of us believe that nothing bad is ever going to happen. That's
not true. I think we're just in a little lull before the storm. Given the
nature of our technology, and the new means that we have, not only to abuse
man's physical nature, but to distort and abuse the very essence biologically
and genetically of that nature itself, the tyranny that is to come will
fasten itself upon us in ways that we have not even begun to imagine.
And why would this happen? Because, as a people, we took the heritage of
freedom, threw it away. We watched it be destroyed before our very eyes! We
sat by silently while the basic principles and concepts on which it rests
were taken out of our public life and wrested even from the very
consciousness and souls of children, and didn't even know what was going on.
That all sounds very dramatic; why would I say that? I think it's very clear.
This nation was founded on a clear, simple and easily stated premise. Right
there in the Declaration, they make it crystal clear: "We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." The
importance of that statement is that it makes it clear that the claim that we
have to human rights and dignity does not come, as some folks in the ACLU
want us to believe, from the Bill of Rights and it doesn't come from the
Constitution, and it doesn't come from the laws passed by the Congress, and
it doesn't come from the decisions that are taken by the Supreme Court. That
claim to human dignity and human rights, which is the foundation of our whole
way of life, rests on the power and the will, the existence and the authority
of Almighty God--not on any human foundation.
That is a powerfully important statement, because it contains that creed
which then becomes the basis for courage and perseverance, even in the face
of the vast array of human power. Why we are fighting for our rights is
because we know, or at least we have grown to be certain, what most people at
most times in the history of the world did not even imagine: that we have a
dignity sanctioned by the most awesome power there is in the universe--and
that when we fight to sustain it, we do not stand alone, no matter what
powers seem to stand against us. I think that that has emboldened many hearts
in the history of this nation to fight for its independence, to fight against
slavery, to fight for the rights of women, to fight against the abuses of workers,
to fight for all those things that, down through the years of this nation's
life, have extended the promise and reality of freedom to more and more of
our people, have allowed more and more of us to stand with that dignity which
was the promise of our founding. And the courage that allowed folks to
achieve all those results, even when the world stood totally arrayed against
them, came ultimately from that belief that, though you may seem at first to
stand alone, you can still prevail, because the Lord stands with you.
What do you think happens, then, if we let that go? And we are letting it go.
We have already let it go in so many ways. We have let it go by buying into
the lie being told by the folks in our courts right now who have taken the
principle that our rights came from God and thrown it on the ash heap of
history. That's the significance, by the way, that is so often lost about the
abortion issue, and it's why I always get to it, at some point or other, in
my discussions of America's present life. Because some people think, even in
the right to life movement--I was at a dinner the other night in which, you
know, a very big right to life organization was holding its national dinner.
We go through the whole evening and they'll talk about wonderful achievements,
getting the numbers of abortions down, and all this other sort of stuff. They
talk about the abortion issue as if it is only an issue of how many babies we
have killed, and how many we are going to reduce the number of, as if nothing
else is involved than that loss of physical life.
That loss of physical life is indeed bad enough. It's heinous. It's criminal,
but, at the end of the day, that is not the only loss this nation suffers.
And no matter what specious arguments can be used to try to demean and
degrade the physical life in the womb, those arguments don't hold a candle in
their effect to the one reality that, once we have adopted the principle of
this abortion lie, we have abandoned the principle of our freedom.
Our rights don't come from God if they are based upon our mother's choice.
And once we have banished God from the throne of that authority, then we have
no claim to liberty or dignity that cannot, in the end, be trampled down and
destroyed by the superior power of force, or wealth, or ability. And one of
the things this nation is suppose to stand for is the equal dignity of all,
regardless of station, standing, intelligence, ability, whatever it might be.
That acknowledgment that in every human being, in every human life, there is
present a kernel of God's word and divinity that must be respected by every
human will and power whatsoever. But once we embrace the abortion lie, we
throw away that truth that is the foundation of our justice.
And it is not the only area in which we are fast abandoning our
acknowledgment of that sovereignty of God. We're doing it in our schools! I
find it amazing. Here we live in a country, the first principle of which is
"all men are created equal," and yet you go into our tax-funded,
government-dominated schools, and it is forbidden to teach the concept of the
Creator, or even to acknowledge His existence or mention His name, much less
speak as if His authority has meaning for our lives. You really think that
the children in these new generations are going to grow up with the courage
to stand firm for their liberty, when they no longer acknowledge the
authority from which that liberty is derived? Still think they're going to
have the courage to stand against the vast array of human material powers, when
they no longer believe that their claim to dignity is sanctioned by an
authority greater than those powers?
See, I think that, once you've convinced people that this material equation
is all there is, you've put them in a position where, when faced with overwhelming
odds, they're going to surrender. And that has been the case throughout most
of human history. Most people didn't fight against tyranny, they simply bowed
down to it, surrendered to it. I often used to marvel, as I read the accounts
of all these great empires in history where a handful of human beings had
managed to subjugate masses of millions. Ever wonder how that can happen?
Well, it happened because, in the end, human beings are not subjugated by the
force of sword and gun. They are shackled by the fears that darken the mind,
that cloud the vision, that destroy the courage, that undermine the sense of
dignity, that make people believe that, in the end, whatever it is that is
meted out by power is their just desserts--because "might makes right,"
because force legitimizes everything.
We live in a society where that ugly principle of destructive injustice was
overturned and thrown aside, in order to lay the foundation for that land
whose freedom we enjoy, but the foundations of which we are now neglecting.
How much longer can we go on before we will fully reap the bitter fruits of
that neglect? In terms of the destruction of our moral character and decency,
I think over the last several years we've already seen that the fruits are
already there, undermining and destroying our institutions at the highest
level. And I don't only mean the lack of decency, the shameless lack of
integrity of our "President," so-called, Bill Clinton. I mean, even
more so, the fact that those who should have called him to account for his
shameless lying and disregard for the Constitution and the integrity of our
institutions--those sitting in the Congress and sitting in the Senate of the
United States--did not have the integrity to kick him out when he deserved to
be gone. That's an indictment of their integrity, but it's also, I think, a
telling warning of the extent of which we have lost our own. For, they are
our representatives, and you do at some point have to wonder whether they do
not represent us all too well.
And I think that that is, in fact, what's at stake in this election year, in
which many things are coming together to make it clear that Americans are
going to have to decide for or against the moral heritage that makes us free.
We have an offer, of course, in the Democrats, in the Clinton administration
now, a road clearly marked as the path without decency, without dignity,
without moral consciousness. In which, once again, we have enshrined the
worship of force, even at the most intimate levels of our lives, "might
makes right" and the only thing we need care about are the material
results that are produced. And if we get the bitter bark of tyranny, then we
will subject ourselves to tyranny, so long as we have the little material
things that we think we need to get along.
Isn't that living in slavery? See, I've always thought it is because, well, I
guess it's because of my own sense of the background of my ancestors in this
country. People always badmouth slavery, with good reason you know, but, when
you read in depth about it, what you realize is that there were the
"good plantations" and the "bad plantations." There were
plantations on which people were deeply brutalized, and abused, and treated
worse than animals, and destroyed in their integrity, and so forth. And then
there were others that were run by half-way decent people, in which the only
thing that they were deprived of was their human dignity and the essence
of their humanity! But in every other respect, they ate well, dressed
well, slept well, were cared for in their health, had a guaranteed job, a
little income on the side, and nothing too much in the way of abuse. When the
Clintons are done and the Socialists have triumphed, you tell me what will be
the difference between America and that plantation with a good master!
See, what I learned from that history is what Frederick Douglas taught: the
question isn't whether you have a good master or a bad master, it's to be
your own master. That is the dignity of humanity.
We have surrendered it in principle. We are surrendering it in fact. We are
surrendering it in fact when we allow them to assault our Second Amendment
rights and take away the wherewithal to defend ourselves against the abuses
of government power. We are surrendering it in fact when we stand aside and
allow them to create new categories of law like "hate crimes" that
can only be abused, in order to bring government power against our free
exercise of speech and religious conscience. When are we going to wise up and
realize what's going on?
See, I've watched this whole development of the hate crime thing. And some
people might say, "Well, Alan, you can't be in favor of hate
crime!" Frankly, my friends, I'm totally against that category. I don't
see what is added to the concept of crime by putting "hate" into
it. I mean, after all, if I go out and murder a bunch of people, and they
come to me and say, "Why did you do it?" And I say, "Well, I
did it because I deeply believe that the afterlife is waiting for all of us,
and it's wonderful and glorious and full of things that all will enjoy. And I
just wanted to dispatch them to those places sooner. I did it because I love
them so much." Now, do you think that when the jury hears the full
account they ought to exonerate me for that love crime? [laughter]
See, the point I'm making is pretty clear, isn't it? It's not the hate and
it's not the love that makes the crime. It's the deed! And if you perform the
deed, we should punish you for the deed.
But when we start to examine it and start to say, "Well, we're going to
take a different attitude toward the deed if you did it out of hatred."
Really? There's going to be some different punishment or degree of
punishment? If I kill you in cold blood without hatred because you queered my
drug deal, I'm not going to be treated quite as badly as if I killed you
because I hate this or that group? I mean, what are we doing here? Well, I'll
tell you what we're clearly doing. The concept of hate crime adds nothing to
the concept of crime whatsoever, except an opportunity to put into law
legislation that moves against those who foment the attitude. And that's
exactly, it's the only reason why this category has been invented--and don't
think that's an academic discussion either, because it's not.
Already in Illinois, a bill is going through the legislature, the premise of
which is that you're going to get fined and thrown in jail if a speech that
you give is later cited by somebody who commits an act of violence as an
incitement to their act. Can you imagine anything more chilling to free
speech than that? You have no control over what people are going to do in
response to what you say, but, regardless of that fact, you could be held
accountable, because you're "fomenting hate."
And the interesting thing, too, for a lot of you to consider, is that this
concept of hate crimes seems to be a little selective. Because I've noticed
now that when folks go out and kill people whose primary distinguishing
characteristic seems to be that they're Christian, that's a shame. When they
go out and kill one of the darling protected groups of the left-wing
ideologists, that's a "hate crime." Have you noticed that? Because
I've noticed that. And that tells me that this category of "hate
crime" is being set up particularly in order to move against certain
kinds of opinions that are not now in line with the politically-correct
sectioning of moral destruction and perversion that is trendy with the left.
It's all done so that religious conscience can be assaulted, and religious
belief can be overturned, and the force of law can be used against those
opinions that are not in line with the moral degradation of our time. This
means that the assault upon our religious liberties is already well underway.
In every area, therefore, even in the economic area--I believe that this
whole concept of the income tax is a way of enslaving us with our own means
and then dribbling it back to us a little bit in the way of results, so we
can be grateful when they let us keep our own money. See, that ought to tell
you something about the nature of those who are putting such a system in
place. Because the kind of people who make you feel grateful when they let
you keep a little bit of your own money are the kind of people you're liable
to meet on a dark street. And you'll feel grateful because they could have
taken it all when they mugged you, but instead they left you with enough to
get home.
This is not how we are supposed to regard our political leaders. But it is
what our economic system today is organized to make us feel. And that's true,
even on the Republican side. I used to watch my colleagues stand up there,
they're debating back and forth their wonderful tax schemes, and it turns
out, what are they debating? How much or how little of your own money your going to be allowed to keep! And if they let you
keep a little bit more, you're to get down on your knees and thank "massa politician" and go on back to the office. This
is not the right attitude of a free people, and it's not an economic system
compatible with our freedom.
You know, the sad thing about that is we've lived so long with the stench of
it that we don't even recognize anymore that it is a system that subjugates
our liberty. I think there was a good reason why our Founders wrote the
original Constitution in such a way that a federal income tax could not
constitutionally be imposed on the people of this country. And I think that
we will perform the greatest blessing that we could for future generations if
we find it in ourselves, soon, in this generation, to correct the error that
was made at the beginning of the 20th century.
We don't need to reform the tax, we don't need to change its rates, we don't
need to tinker with it, we don't need to take the code and do this or that,
we don't need to simplify it, we don't need to flatten it. We need to abolish
it, get rid of it, and return to the original Constitution!
By the way, when people try to pretend, "Oh, how are we going to fund
the government?" Under the original Constitution, there were many
sources of revenue--tariffs, duties, excise taxes. And if you examine the
record of the 19th century, as I understand it, they actually managed to
produce surpluses in the years of our development. When this country was
going through the challenge that, in many respects, is the most difficult
challenge of economic life, moving from the pre-development stage to the
stage of a modern industrialized economy, the whole business, the development
of the infrastructure, the opening of the west, the fighting of this or that
western war, all of it financed under a system that did not have a federal
income tax. And during the Civil War, when they did impose one, it had the
wonderful effect of producing the only years in which there was a deficit.
Fascinating, isn't it?
So, I think that all these so-called objections are simply ways of
distracting us from the truth. The aim of the income tax system does not have
to do with the revenue, because there are other ways to generate the revenue.
The aim has to do with control, and making sure that we are not back in
control of the hard-earned money that we make. That might be a good objective
for the politicians. I don't see how it does a thing for us.
So, in all these different ways, in the area of religious liberty, in the
area of principle, in the area of our Second Amendment rights, in the area
even of our economic life, we have already surrendered our liberty. The
question that is before us in this time is not whether we shall lose it, but
whether we shall recognize in time the loss, so that we can get it back. And
that's what I think people ought to be thinking about when they go to the
polls in this election year. We ought to be thinking about how we get it
back.
Now, I know that there are some Republicans who disagree with this, and they
seem to believe, for reasons I do not understand, that "all we've got to
do is go out there, bad-mouth some Democrats, and we'll win." I've got
news for them. Unless something drastic happens to the economy--and I know there
are some in the Republican leadership who, although unaccustomed to prayer
under normal circumstances, are assiduously praying that the economy will
collapse before November. Now, I am, I guess, as partisan in that respect as
anybody, but let me just ask you, how many of you are praying that the
economy will collapse before November? See, the interesting thing about that
is even though some politicians might benefit from the economic collapse, I
think most of the rest of us understand we would be on the receiving end of
that collapse. And I don't think there are too many people in their right
mind in America who, for the sake of getting some Republican in the
presidency, would like to see our people jobless, and suffering, and
homeless, and deprived of that which is the fruit of their work. I don't want
to see it.
So, I don't want the prosperity to end. I want the prosperity that, in any
case, is not produced by Bill Clinton, or the Congress, or any other
politician--it's produced by the hard work, and sweat, and sacrifice, and
genius of the American people. I want to see it continue. But I also know, my
friends, that if it does continue, the historical record suggests that if the
prosperity continues, if the economy is chugging along pretty well in
November, then the Republicans are going to lose--because the American people
have, in the course of the 20th century, never taken the White House from an
incumbent party in prosperous times. They don't do it. This actually makes a
lot of sense when you think about it. You see, all other things being equal,
why on earth would you want to take the White House out of the hands of a
party that, if nothing else, hasn't interfered with your prosperity, and
entrust it into some other hands unknown in their results? In that respect,
Americans are pretty common-sense people. They'd rather keep a bird in the
hand than get a dozen promised by G. W. Bush. And I have a feeling this is
how it's going to prove out in November, all other things being equal. But
guess what? All other things are not equal.
On the economic front things may be going okay--even despite the egregious
betrayals of our national security and interests, despite the fact that at
every instance, including this most recent thing with Castro, this
administration proves itself to be not only the willing cooperates of the
Communist regimes, they are the willing puppets and cat's paws of these
Communist dictators, and have been every time they have been asked to do the
will of any Communist government. They have bowed to the will of the
Communist Chinese dictators and the North Korean dictators, and now the
Castro Cuban dictator. It seems to be their way. But in spite of all that, we
are still not in the midst of a great international crisis which will likely
have any effect on the election in November.
But there is a crisis. It is the crisis of our moral decency and integrity.
There is a betrayal. It is the betrayal of our most sacred moral principles.
There is a dangerous assault. It is the assault upon that moral heritage
which is the source of our strength. And never before in the history of our
country have we seen an assault so deep, so sharp, so shameless, and so
sustained upon our moral heritage as the assault that has come from Bill
Clinton and the Democrat party during the Clinton era. For that, and for the
sake of the future that depends upon the restoration of our moral decency,
they should be driven from the White House and from every office of
responsibility in this land.
But, truth to tell, in order to make that case, we're going to have to make
that case. And this is one of the things that deeply worries me. What we need
in November is someone who is going to go out and be accurate and true in
drawing the bow of our moral concern, and driving the arrow through the mark
of Democrat betrayal and moral turpitude. And what I fear is happening in the
Republican Party, some say has happened, is that instead we will entrust our
nomination to somebody who can't even draw the bow. And I don't mean that as
a personal disparagement. I mean it as a simple comment of competence. In
order to get people to understand the political significance of this moral
betrayal, you must understand the moral roots of our political system, and
you must be able to articulate them in every area of policy that faces us, so
that the American people can understand the relevance to our lives and our
practice of those moral principles. And, if you can't do that, then this
fall, you will not be able to defeat our Democrat opponents in the presidential
election. And that's the sad factor that, I believe, they are totally
vulnerable on, the moral flank. We need a champion who can attack them
effectively on that flank--and judging by the way things are going at the
moment, we won't have one. That's going to result in a loss that will not
just be a loss for the party but for the country.
And why are we heading in this direction? I hate to tell you this, but
judging by what I see now in the preparations for the Convention, one of the
reasons we're heading in this direction is because that's where many of the
leaders of the party want us to go. They're doing their best to set us up to
destroy the moral heart of the party, to dilute to pro-life plank, to stomach
some pro-abortion person on the ticket. And if we do those things, we will
betray the moral heritage, not just of our country, but of our party. We will
destroy our political prospects because I, and many millions of other
Americans like me, will not abandon our God for the sake of any party label.
On a practical level, this is the challenge I would like to leave with you
this evening, because some people think it's all over, and I know it's not.
In terms of the great issues that confront the country, we need to have a
Republican convention where the delegates are committed to standing firm on
the moral issues of our time. I look over the scenery right now, and all I
hear coming from around the country suggests that the folks who appear at
that convention as Bush delegates are going to be kind of a mixed curve. Some
folks who don't care too much about the moral issues--there will be some who
are committed, there will be others who are right clean on the wrong side.
It's going to be a far greater mixture of elements than we had at the Dole
convention. Some people don't realize this, but we are in for a different
world. Bob Dole came, regardless of his later stances and what he did during
the election, he came from the solid Conservative wing of the Republican
party. G. W. Bush comes from liberal wing that traces its roots back to
Rockefeller and all the other people like him. And that means that you're
going into a convention in which those elements are going to have a role.
There will be others, but even though they'll side with the Bush delegation,
they'll be kind of a mixed bag. The McCain delegates are going to be awful,
in my opinion. People will say what they will about Mr. McCain, but what he
represented was the introduction into the Republican Party of elements of
liberalism and moral betrayal that will speak their mind at the convention to
destroy the pro-life plank, and to preach tolerance for some pro-abortion
nominee in the Vice Presidency. This will destroy us.
So, we're going to have at work forces at the Republican convention that are
going to be pretty bent on achieving what they could not achieve the last
time. And some of the forces that were there to fight them last time won't be
there. Bay Buchanan, for instance, who was, along with other of the Buchanan
folks, part of the coalition of people who put together a strong Conservative
platform. They're now over working in the Reform Party. Gary Bauer was
instrumental in those days, and sadly he betrayed every principle in his
political career by endorsing a nominee who stood for everything he had stood
against. We'll have some good-hearted folks ready and willing to work, but it
seems to me we're going to need to maximize that number as best we can. And
of this I am sure. You will find that every single person who goes to that
convention, and who is representing the cause of the Keyes campaign at that
convention, will be solid for American principles, solid for the American
Constitution, solid for the conservative values and goals that will guarantee
our liberty, solid for that agenda which alone can assure the survival of
self-government in this country. And it seems to me that if we care about our
party, we need to make sure there are as many such solid voices of
Conservatism as we can get at the Republican Convention this summer.
So, I think that if you really care about this future, you will understand
that there is no such thing in this election cycle as a wasted vote. If you
care, and if you believe, then go cast your vote for your beliefs. There is
work to be done. And if those of us who care are willing to take the risk of
standing firm in our beliefs, then I believe that work can be done
successfully.
We may not be able to buck the tide this time around and assure that we don't
have to face more years of misrule and betrayal by this Democrat coalition
that has abandoned our moral heart, but we can at least work to secure the
position of the Republican party as a solid vehicle for our moral hopes.
Because I know this. If we continue to fight so that the leadership in our
party provides to the American people a clear, articulate, effective voice
representing the moral alternative, the heart of this nation is hungry for
that truth.
The only thing that keeps us now from victory is the half-heartedness of
those who have the spotlight on behalf of the Republican Party. With our work
and our perseverance, we can change that. With your support we can change
that. So long as in our conviction we do not flag. So long as in our vote we
do not betray the principles of our heart and conscience. If you can
persevere in this task, then I believe we set the stage for that renewal of
American hope, that restoration of American principle, which will guarantee
that the light of our liberty will continue to shine in the 21st century, as
it has against the darkness of tyranny in the 20th.
I am not sure how this will turn out--for we are at a crossroads between the
dark night of liberty, and the continuance of that hope we are suppose to
represent. But I still shall put my faith in the American people, but above
all, in God Almighty--in the knowledge that if we walk that walk that is
consistent with His will, in the end we will prevail.
God bless you.