"Lesson" #1 Prerequisite

Over the last few days I have been asked by more than a few, in particular by those who have known me the longest, why I decided not to vote for the first time in my life. Now that the election is over and we have chosen a new President, I think its time I really shared the things that took me from where I was to where I am.

I haven't been completely open and honest about all the things I've learned. People have to live and survive and have hope and believe that life will be better for their children than it was for them. Do people really want to hear about the possibility of a future in which everything we understand as being American is gone or perverted? What right do I have to take that away from someone?

I decided last night it was time to share what I've learned, even if people think I'm crazy, because the stakes are just too high. If I hurt someone's feelings or make someone angry or make someone nervous about the future so be it. Everyone is going to learn it, one way or another. I love this country and everything the Founding Fathers intended it to be and I'm going to do everything I can to fight for it in the only way I know to do it. As much as I would like to disappear into the Montana wilderness and leave these problems behind, I know that isn't a solution. First, there is no where to hide in order to escape it. Second, my conscience won't allow me to do it - bad things happen when good people do nothing.

I am going to try to avoid preaching and simply present the things as I found them. I more than willingly acknowledge that I could be wrong about things. If I have learned anything in the last few months it is just how dangerous it is to believe you cannot be mistaken.

I have, on more than one occasion, made reference to the movie The Matrix and the scene where Neo is offered a choice - take the red pill and see the world as it really is or take the blue pill and continue to live as you were.

I do not have any pills, at least in the literal since, but I am offering them digitally - changing the colors lest anyone attach any ideological significance them. You have a choice:

Take the green pill, follow these "Lessons," challenge yourself to see through everything that has been put in front of you to prevent you from understanding the truth and see the real world of American politics. This will not be easy and it will probably leave you with feelings of emptiness and fear. One of the hardest things a person can do is acknowledge to themselves they have been wrong about the things in which they believed the most and the people they trusted have lied to them. I have likened this to discovering that your long-held religious convictions were based upon a lie. There is an alternative.

Take the yellow pill, read some of the things I post and ignore the rest. You can assume that I am misguided, ignorant, crazy, under the influence of the devil, lying for my own benefit or whatever other reason you wish to concoct and you can continue to live your life as you were.

Its your choice. I can't make you do it.

Prerequisite -

In order to understand where things went wrong you must first understand how things were supposed to be. Even if you have read them previously, read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I don't mean read them the way you read an assignment in fifth grade history where you fly through the words in a race to get finished. I mean really read them - do google searches for words and terms you may not fully understand, think about why they did what they did, etc. Think of it as a couple of hours in deep conversation with James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and many others who contributed both directly and indirectly to them. These documents, while not perfect, remain the greatest form of government ever conceived by man.

The Declaration of Independence -
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.html

The Constitution of the United States -
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/constitution/text.html

The Bill of Rights -
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/bill/text.html