We often view the use of the word, creed, in a religious context, and rightfully so; but at its essence, a creed is a belief that is fundamental, a guiding principle. This Podcast is dedicated to the principle of freedom and liberty. The antithesis of freedom and liberty is oppression. The right to be free is a fundamental belief in American culture, and must never be taken for granted or abused. Therefore, the creed of freedom is more important than any other principle or belief...indeed, perhaps the most important.
The history of Revolutions far and wide are common knowledge. But the American Revolution was the first of its kind. May the birth of our nation continue to give rise to a burst of freedom and liberty throughout the world!
SPEAKER_00
Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Today is Sunday, July the 4th, 2021. And I typically publish episodes on Tuesday or Friday during the week, but I decided to do an Independence Day episode for this week. So I want to go ahead and get right into it. And I just want to talk a little bit about the history of revolutions. Now, the history of revolutions obviously goes back a long way, and there are tons of different uh types of revolutions, but I want to focus on three different revolutions. And then end up talking a little bit about our very own revolution. The history of many revolutions, where there is an overthrow of a monarchy or imperial rule, and it's done presumably for something better, achieving a better way of life. But most revolutions throughout our world have led to worse conditions for the peoples of the countries where they took place. And the first example I would give is the French Revolution. Now, Napoleon came into power and he grew his empire by fighting wars, ultimately making things worse for the people. The Russian Revolution gave rise to Vladimir Lenin, and he is responsible for the deaths of untold millions of people, many millions, and that gave rise to the Soviet Union, which gave rise to Stalin, who's responsible for tens of millions of deaths in the Soviet Union. Now, Mouth China, similar things. He believed that the communist leaders were taking China in the wrong direction. So he started or this he headed this cultural revolution. And under him, his rule, there were reportedly upwards of 80 million people killed because of Mao Zedong. Whether that was people who were deliberately murdered by his regime, or people who just simply starved to death because they had most everything taken away from them and couldn't even provide for themselves to feed themselves. So isn't it interesting that these revolutions came about supposedly to give people a better way of life? But in reality, what it did is it gave those tyrannical rulers a better way of life, and maybe some who were close closely associated with them, but for the vast majority of people, it was not better for them. So what are some of the results of the American Revolution? Well, the U.S. Constitution, for one, it was ratified in 1787. The Declaration of Independence came about in 1776. Of course, there were the Articles of Confederation, which were ratified in 1781, a few years prior to the Constitution's ratification. And though the Articles of Confederation never really panned out for the country, it was a good stepping stone to the U.S. Constitution. And the Articles of Confederation, of course, led to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Now it's been 234 years since the Constitution was ratified. For the most part, the U.S. has not sought to build an empire in that time. Isn't that pretty remarkable, given the objectives and the things that happened in these other revolutions that I have mentioned? The Declaration and Constitution were set up for the people, for the people to govern themselves. So the people would not have any reason to build or expand an empire, much like what Napoleon did in France. Have atrocities taken place here in the United States? Of course. The American Revolution is historical, though, in that 234 years since the ratification of the Constitution, there has been no widespread usurpation by any president, by any, by any member of Congress to expand or create an empire that would even be remotely comparable to the empires that resulted in the revolutions of which I spoke previously. And it's been 245 years since the Declaration of Independence was established. There's no doubt that we've had our struggles, even in my lifetime. I was born in the 1960s. I think about all the strife and wars we have fought since then against other nations, not necessarily amongst ourselves. It's no secret that not everybody likes each other in this country. I mean, that's been going on since the revolution. It's what led to the revolution. It's what led to the people desiring to have liberty and to be able to choose for themselves. It was going on during the fight for the ratification of the Constitution, pinning the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Second Continental Congress, all those things, up to the current time that we now live in, with all the strife that goes on in the halls of Congress today. It's, well, it's been going on for a long time. But think about all of the other countries in the world. And as far as those countries are concerned, we as a nation are still, comparatively speaking, in our infancy. We've experienced threats to our republic from within, but we have weathered those storms over the decades, these centuries now. And I certainly pray that we can continue to do so. I wanted to keep this short on purpose, and I just simply wanted to express my heartfelt opinions and belief about this country. I know it's not perfect, and none of us are perfect. I've talked about this before, and certainly we have had our struggles, and we still have struggles today. That's true. I'm not going to deny that. But also, I would implore people not to deny the progress that has been made and to see things for how they really are. Look for ways that we can improve upon what we have and build upon it and learn from the past. Because truthfully, if we don't learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it. And as for me, I don't want to repeat some of the nasty things that have taken place in the growth of our nation from the time of its inception till today. To end this abbreviated episode today, I want to end with a quote by none other than a gentleman named Paul David Hewson. You may know him better as Bono from the group U2. In 2012, he gave a speech at the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. And I want you to listen very carefully to what he said. And perhaps some of you have heard this quote before. If you haven't, get ready. It's a great quote to me, and I really love it. He said this, speaking of the United States of America. Quote, it's not a right or left issue, it's a right wrong issue. And America has constantly been on the side of what's right. Because when it comes down to it, this is about keeping faith with the idea of America. Because America's an idea, isn't it? I mean, Ireland's a great country, but it's not an idea. Great Britain's a great country, it's not an idea. That's how we see you around the world as one of the greatest ideas in human history. The idea the American idea is that you and me are created equal. The idea that if we have dignity, if we have justice, then leave it to us and we'll do the rest. This country was the first to claw its way out of darkness and put that on paper, and God love you for it, because these aren't just American ideas anymore. There's no copyright on them. You brought them into the world. It's a wide world now. I know Americans say they have a bit of the world in them, and you do. The family tree has lots of branches. But the thing is, the world has a bit of America in it too. These truths, your truths, they're self-evident in us. End of quote. And I love her, and I know that you love her as well. It's my hope and my prayer that we can take these truths that are self-evident to people from outside the country and continue to make them a beacon of hope to those who are still in our day trying to get to this land of a great idea. With that, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.
