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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 12:44 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

A growing number of Americans believe our constitutional republic is in decline. Students of factual history know that our blessed nation is making some of the same mistakes that led to the fall of the Roman Empire and the enslavement of ancient Israel.

Dr. Ben Carson and his wife Candy published a book in 2012 titled, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made this Nation Great. The book is an excellent read and a factual brief review of United States History.

Carson, who recently became famous as the only American with the courage to challenge the current President of the United States in person before a ballroom full of people on national television, has now become a potential president candidate.

Dr. Carson reminds his readers that in years past, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, France, Great Britain, and Spain “all enjoyed their time at the top of the world, so to speak.” In many cases they remained powerful empires for several hundred years. He notes that as they began to decline, they all experienced some peculiar similarities.

They experienced “an inordinate emphasis on sports and entertainment, a fixation with lifestyles of the rich and famous, political corruption, and the loss of a moral compass.”

The same pattern that led to the downfall of these empires is being seen in the United States today. No one can deny that many Americans have become sports fanatics, from high school to college to professional and the Olympics. College and professional coaches and professional sports players are some of the highest paid people in the nation. That is because sports fans are willing to pay ridiculous prices for tickets and other items.

Television has become both an educational and destructive means of entertainment. So has the internet. Many Hollywood actors and producers have become extremely wealthy due to the addiction of Americans to entertainment. The sports and entertainment superstars that are created by their fans, become idols and models for youth – and they are not always good role models.

Political corruption may be at an all time high from Washington, D. C. down to the county, city and school board level. South Carolina is no exception. The last duly elected Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina was removed from office for ethics violations. The current House Speaker is under investigation by a grand jury. One of the more popular, longest serving sheriffs in the state has been indited on numerous charges of bribery and other felonies.

Government officials and other citizens in general have lost their moral compass. The President of the United States and members of his cabinet are routinely accused of lying. They ignore the Constitution that is the Law of the Land.

Our current President appears willing, or even desirous, of allowing or favoring the takeover of our allies in the Middle East by radical Muslims, Our Southern Border is unprotected and the President seems unconcerned. Thousands of gang leaders, drug dealers and human traffickers importing calamitous diseases are streaming across the border. With more than two years remaining in the President’s second term, there is little hope he will take corrective action to seal the border and deport criminals in the foreseeable future.

“If we continue to follow the course of other pinnacle nations prior to us in history, we will suffer the same fate,” predicts Dr. Carson.

In less than 300 years, the United States of America through application of its strengths, has done more than any other nation to transform the existence of humankind.

The question we must ask and answer now, according to Carson is: “Can we learn from the experiences of those nations that preceded us and take corrective action, or must we inexorably follow the same self-destructive course?”

It is my concern that we have gone so far in a destructive direction that there is no successful turning back short of divine intervention or bloodshed.

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