Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
To Perserve Freedom and Liberty We Must Deny Power to Dissenting Voices
RECEIVED Fri., June 22, 2007
Dear Editor,
I cannot agree more with Michael Ventura’s positions in his June 21 article [“Letters @ 3am”]. America has huge problems. However, I take great exception to his not-so-subtle disdain for this greatest of nations. For more than a hundred years, America has been the beacon of liberty and defended freedom when threatened by tyranny – with blood and treasure. Mr. Ventura shamefully ignores that reality. This is a perfect example of how moral relativism produces an inability to think and act wisely.
So Mr. Ventura, what happens if the U.S. is eclipsed? Is communist China going to be the new leader of the free world? How about those good democrats in Russia? Or what about those paragons of courage in France or Germany? Oh, I know, we’ll look to those champions of human rights in the U.N. The truth is there is no other nation or organization to protect humanity from tyranny except America. And with the very real probability of European and Asian appeasement of the millions of radical Islamists the chances of liberty surviving are questionable.
But for people like Mr. Ventura these scenarios are apparently more appealing than evaluating history objectively and acknowledging that our shared freedom guided by rational moral clarity is the only hope for perpetuating civilization. He obviously does not comprehend that our culture of liberty has evolved over thousands of years. Its rarity is clear. Indeed, contrary to all former and current civilizational models, American culture alone truly honors individual freedom, dignity, and enterprise. And from the resulting prosperity all benefit greatly.
We can only hope that Mr. Ventura comes to his senses. That said, anyone who shares his current negative perception of American culture must never be allowed the political power to surrender liberty. For that is exactly what his mindset permits.
I cannot agree more with Michael Ventura’s positions in his June 21 article [“Letters @ 3am”]. America has huge problems. However, I take great exception to his not-so-subtle disdain for this greatest of nations. For more than a hundred years, America has been the beacon of liberty and defended freedom when threatened by tyranny – with blood and treasure. Mr. Ventura shamefully ignores that reality. This is a perfect example of how moral relativism produces an inability to think and act wisely.
So Mr. Ventura, what happens if the U.S. is eclipsed? Is communist China going to be the new leader of the free world? How about those good democrats in Russia? Or what about those paragons of courage in France or Germany? Oh, I know, we’ll look to those champions of human rights in the U.N. The truth is there is no other nation or organization to protect humanity from tyranny except America. And with the very real probability of European and Asian appeasement of the millions of radical Islamists the chances of liberty surviving are questionable.
But for people like Mr. Ventura these scenarios are apparently more appealing than evaluating history objectively and acknowledging that our shared freedom guided by rational moral clarity is the only hope for perpetuating civilization. He obviously does not comprehend that our culture of liberty has evolved over thousands of years. Its rarity is clear. Indeed, contrary to all former and current civilizational models, American culture alone truly honors individual freedom, dignity, and enterprise. And from the resulting prosperity all benefit greatly.
We can only hope that Mr. Ventura comes to his senses. That said, anyone who shares his current negative perception of American culture must never be allowed the political power to surrender liberty. For that is exactly what his mindset permits.
Vance McDonald
