Value of promises

I watched Glenn Beck's show on unity, and belonging last night. Read more about the project here. I felt a lot of things including, admiration, trepidation, cynicism, and even down right worry. I believe that his intentions were to remind us, his viewers, of the importance of community and that we are indeed powerful if we choose to be.

He succeeded in many moments but not all... I was turned off at the showmanship of some of his selections. I believe that many if not most of the shed tears were real. I pray that his intentions go far beyond his show and its ratings.

The stories were powerful and the invocation of the memories of 9.11 was an influential choice. I hope that the population of our United States will indeed remember the feelings of 9.12 and the days that followed.. More importantly, I hope that we will look deeply into our actions and rely on the principles that Mr Beck is so capably reintroducing to us all.

We can choose to help one another and devote ourselves to service. We should do so. We are responsible for ourselves and we can make a difference.

9 Principles

1. America Is Good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
God “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the external rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.” from George Washington’s first Inaugural address.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
Honesty “I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider to be the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” George Washington
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
Marriage/Family “It is in the love of one’s family only that heartfelt happiness is know. By a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a family.” Thomas Jefferson
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
Justice “I deem one of the essential principles of our government… equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.” Thomas Jefferson
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness “Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.” Thomas Jefferson
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
Charity “It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer.” George Washington
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
On your right to disagree “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or more properly without thinking.” George Washington
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
Who works for whom? “I consider the people who constitute a society or a nation as the source of all authority in that nation.” Thomas Jefferson