Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 26, 2012

16

LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 Mountain Views News Saturday, May 26, 2012 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN 
AMERICAN?

 Every President that I’ve ever heard deliver a speech in my 
half century of life has ended his major speeches with “God 
bless the United States”. But what do we really mean when 
we ask this? It’s not that we’re asking God to bless this piece 
of land which stretches between the Atlantic and the Pacific. 
Fortunately, the answer to this question has been eloquently 
and persuasively presented in the just-released book, Still The 
Best Hope, by Dennis Prager.

 In the spirit of complete disclosure, much of my article today 
is drawn from Dennis’ book, so all acclaim is his, and his alone. I am only summarizing 
some of his 12 years’ of thought and effort. Additionally, my eldest son works for Dennis, so 
there are familial reasons for championing this cause as well as philosophical ones.

 To answer the question I posed, Americans are not simply asking God to bless the land 
mass we call home. In our hearts, we know there is something unique and noble about 
what America stands for. We sense in our hearts that America is represented by a unique 
set of values – American values – and that they are uniquely moral and also universally 
applicable. Yet, most Americans would have trouble explaining concisely what these values 
are, and sadly would face a wave of liberal derision even if they were able to.

 Our inability to articulate what American values are has meant for too long that we 
really aren’t capable of defending those values. And today, more than ever, they need to 
be defended. That is a major part of what November’s election is about. We used to teach 
this in our schools. But we’ve become so accustomed to being Americans and enjoying 
the fruits of American values that we’ve stopped formally teaching them at any level from 
kindergarten through the college years. We’ve treated them as if they are as natural as the 
air we breathe and warrant no further attention, even as we’re finding that they are under 
increasing attack both from within and outside our borders.

 So, what are these values? Dennis Prager separates them into three major principles, 
interestingly enough all found on our coins and paper money: “Liberty,” “In God We Trust,” 
and “E Pluribus Unum” – Latin for “From Many, One”.

 “Liberty” means exactly that: the freedom to conduct our life as we see fit so long as we 
do not infringe on our neighbor’s freedom. But individual freedom can exist only where the 
power of the government is small enough not to threaten that freedom. 

 “In God We Trust” references the Judeo-Christian belief that a decent society is only 
possible when the citizenry feels morally responsible to a God who will one day judge our 
actions. Without a belief in a God who demands moral action, freedom would only lead 
to chaos. We can remain free only if we can control ourselves, and to do that we must fear 
either a moral God or a powerful central government.

 “E Pluribus Unum” (From many, one) means that our individual ethnicities, race, or 
cultural heritage are not as important as the need for us to all become American first and 
foremost. The great irony here is that Americanism has succeeded in peacefully assimilating 
a greater number of people from a greater number of different ethnic, religious and national 
backgrounds than any other country in the world in history, while at the same time not 
erasing the unique cultural traditions of each participant. It may seem trite to say, but 
Spaghetti is as American as apple pie, even though it is a staple Italian meal.

 American values stand in stark contrast to their philosophical competition which 
emanates principally from the left. Liberty is under attack from the left’s belief that equality 
is superior. If we are all to be equal, there can’t be any freedom. Belief in God is under attack 
from the left’s insistence that all things religious be stripped from the public square. And 
“From Many, One” is under attack from the left’s emphasis in multiculturalism, which insists 
that we identify as a member of an ethnic or racial group, not as an individual. In their view, 
rights should be awarded to groups, not to individuals.

 Americanism represents the last best hope of earth because it is the only set of values that 
has proven its ability to protect society from tyranny, peacefully enforce moral behavior and 
ensure that we willingly work together rather than fight one other. So, God bless The United 
States of America, God bless the value system we’ve created, and God help us if we ever let 
it slip away. 

About the author: Gregory J. Welborn is a freelance writer and has spoken to several civic and 
religious organizations on cultural and moral issues. He lives in the Los Angeles area with 
his wife and 3 children and is active in the community. He can be reached at gregwelborn@
earthlink.net.

HOWARD Hays As I See It

 
“We find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a 
company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.”

- Former Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

 “If you’re a victim of Bain Capital’s downsizing, it’s the ultimate insult for Mitt 
Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain, because he caused 
it.” - Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

 The last time we went from a $236 billion surplus to a $1.2 trillion deficit was also 
the last time we had a president with an MBA degree. This might suggest someone 
wasn’t paying attention in class, but the Bush Administration was in fact a large-
scale reflection of practices employed in the private sector by another MBA-holder 
who’d bring his “business experience” to government.

 The policies under President Bush were those of Bain Capital under Mitt Romney; leveraging assets 
to incur debt, diverting proceeds to the pockets of well-placed principals at the top, then walking away 
leaving others (mainly taxpayers) to foot the bill.

 Texas Gov. Perry described it as “vulture capitalism”; “. . . sitting out there on a tree limb waiting for 
the company to get sick and then they swoop in, they eat the carcass. They leave with that and they 
leave the skeleton.”

 Bain Capital leveraged an acquisition’s manipulated value to facilitate massive borrowing, laid-off 
workers, looted pensions, stiffed creditors, and made sure their bounty was protected from ensuing 
bankruptcy proceedings.

 The Bush Administration leveraged the full faith and credit of the United States to borrow $1.8 
trillion to finance tax cuts for those who didn’t need them, and borrowed another $1.47 trillion for 
discretionary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 Mitt Romney made off with $200 million from his time at Bain Capital. The top one-percenters 
made off with incomes that tripled from the Bush years, while most of the rest of us lost ground. 
Our troops were sent to war under-funded, under-supplied, and under-cared for when they returned 
home, while Vice President Cheney’s firm Halliburton, through its former subsidiary KBR, made off 
with $30 billion in war proceeds.

 (I wonder if any Republican condemning Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin for renouncing 
his citizenship to escape U.S. obligations had anything to say when Halliburton relocated to Dubai for 
the same reason.)

 Columnist Walter Shapiro writes, “What mattered at Bain Capital was the bottom line. Everything 
else was an extraneous detail and, in the case of job loss, collateral damage.” The “bottom line” for 
Romney now is election, and a casualty of “collateral damage” is whatever might contradict the 
consensus message of the day.

 That includes the record of Romney’s 1994 Senate campaign against incumbent Ted Kennedy and 
of four years as Governor of Massachusetts. It’s a record of advocating for gun control, gay rights 
and fundraising with Planned Parenthood. It’s also one of enacting a healthcare plan that served as a 
model for the national Affordable Care Act.

 When looked at within the context of a career, this record reflects not so much a set of principles, 
but of calculated adjustments to the realities of political survival in a “blue” state. Sen. Kennedy 
alluded to this in their 1994 debate, when he declared, on the subject of abortion, “I am pro-choice. 
My opponent is multiple choice.”

 (Unlike Romney, Sen. Kennedy never campaigned with a just-plain-folks pretense, attempting to 
mask a privileged background. At the debate, when Romney accused his opponent of involvement in 
a sleazy real estate deal, the Senator shot back: “Mr. Romney, the Kennedys are not in public service 
to make money. We have paid too high a price.” Romney’s poll numbers were even with Kennedy’s 
before the debate. They dropped after.) 

 Now that his handlers have nixed campaigning on his record of public service, Romney is left to 
argue that because of his record in the private sector, “I know how to create jobs” – which comes off 
as convincingly as Sen. John McCain’s assertion four years ago that “I know how to get Osama bin 
Laden”.

 After lauding President Obama on MEET THE PRESS last weekend, Newark Mayor Cory Booker 
(D) said, “I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity”. He added that “this kind of stuff is 
nauseating to me on both sides”. When Republican operatives gleefully ignored the “on both sides” 
part, Mayor Booker clarified that “Mitt Romney has made his business record a centerpiece of his 
campaign . . . Therefore, it is reasonable for the Obama campaign to examine that record and discuss 
it.”

 That record was examined by laid-off workers from a Kansas City, MO steel plant in an ad discussed 
on the show with Mayor Booker. One steelworker of thirty years observed, “He’s running for president, 
and if he’s going to run the country the way he ran our business, I wouldn’t want him there. He’s so 
out of touch with the average person in this country, how could you care? How could you care for the 
average working person if you feel that way?” 

 President Obama weighed in by observing that with Romney, “He’s not going out touting his 
experience in Massachusetts. He’s saying, ‘I’m a business guy, I know how to fix it,’ and this is his 
business.” He explained the job of a president “is not to simply maximize profits”, but rather, “Your 
job is to make sure everyone has a fair shot. . . If your main argument on how to grow the economy 
is that ‘I know how to make a lot of money for investors,’ then you’re missing what this job is about.”

 NBC’s Chris Matthews noted that Barack Obama “hasn’t run a company, but he’s shown he knows 
how to run a country.” As I see it, the most compelling argument for being leery of electing a president 
with an MBA is that we know what happened the last time we did.


NEW CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL, STATE ASSEMBLY & SENATE DISTRICTS


District 21District 23District 29District 26District 32District 22District 20District 18District 31District 35District 37District 30District 24District 16District 25Angeles Natl ForestAngeles National ForrestMount San AntonioUplandGlendoraSan DimasMonroviaClaremontDuarteAltadenaLa VerneLa Cañada FlintridgeSan MarinoSierra MadreLa Crescenta-MontroseEast PasadenaGlendaleBurbankPasadenaI- 10I- 5I- 210State Rte 2Angeles Crest HwyVentura FwyFoothill BlvdCo Hwy N4I- 5California State Senate District 25Created From CRC Certified Map: crc_20110815_senate_certified_statewide.zipSHA-1: 14cd4e126ddc5bdce946f67376574918f3082d6b
¯01234MilesNMap created by Healthy City, a project of the Advancement Project, August 2011. Created from CRC Certied Map: 
crc_20110815_senate_certied_statewide.zip SHA-1: 14cd4e126ddc5bdce946f67376574918f3082d6b. Basemap 
from US Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapeles.