Proud to be an American

I sat down this morning with a bowl of Fruity Cheerios and the Saturday paper and was greeted by the following stories:

Man killed in Wal-Mart stampede
"A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors...other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man...at least four other people were taken to the hospital including a woman who was eight months pregnant."

When the police tried to make the people leave after the man's death and as the ambulances were showing up, "people were yelling, 'I've been on line since yesterday morning.' 'They kept shopping.'"

2 men shot to death in California toy store
"' I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toy's "R" Us?'"

As I finished my Fruity Cheerios and drank down the leftover sugary, purple colored milk, I asked myself, "Is this my America? Are we proud of ourselves?"

New American Rights

I have posted this verbatim from my buddy, Thomas Sowell. He has more authority than I, and says it better besides. My source for the text is here, and I originally read this published in Utah's Deseret News.

Take it away Mr. Sowell:

Among the many new "rights" being conjured out of thin air, a new one seems to be a "right" to win.

Americans have long had the right to put their candidates and their ideas to a vote. Now there seems to be a sense that your rights have been trampled on if you don't win.

Hillary Clinton's supporters were not merely disappointed, but outraged, when she lost the Democrats' nomination to Barack Obama. Some took it as a sign that, while racial barriers had come down, the "glass ceiling" holding down women was still in place.

Apparently, if you don't win, somebody has put up a barrier or a ceiling. The more obvious explanation of the nomination outcome was that Obama ran a better campaign than Hillary. There is no reason to doubt that she would have been the nominee if the votes in the primaries had come out her way.

As the election approached, pundits warned that, if Obama lost, there would be riots in the ghetto. We will never know. But since when does any candidate have a right to win any office, much less the White House?

The worst of all the reactions from people who act as if they have a right to win have come from gay activists in the wake of voter rejection of so-called "gay marriage," which is to say, redefining what marriage has meant for centuries.

Blacks and Mormons have been the main targets of the gay activists' anger. Seventy percent of blacks voted against gay marriage in California, so racial epithets were hurled at blacks in Los Angeles -- not in black neighborhoods, by the way.

Blacks who just happened to be driving through Westwood, near UCLA, were accosted in their cars and, in addition to being denounced, were warned, "You better watch your back."

Even blacks who were carrying signs in favor of gay marriage were denounced with racial epithets.

In Michigan, an evangelical church service was invaded and disrupted by gay activists, who also set off a fire alarm, because evangelicals had dared to exercise their right to express their opinions at the polls.

In Oakland, Calif., a mob gathered outside a Mormon temple in such numbers that officials shut down a nearby freeway exit for more than three hours.

In their midst was a San Francisco supervisor who said, "The Mormon church has had to rely on our tolerance in the past, to be able to express their beliefs." He added, "This is a huge mistake for them. It looks like they've forgotten some lessons."

Apparently Mormons don't have the same rights as other Americans, at least not if they don't vote the way gay activists want them to vote.

There was another gay activist mob gathered outside a Mormon temple in Orange County, California.

In the past, gay activists have disrupted Catholic services, and their "gay pride" parades in San Francisco have crudely mocked nuns.

While demanding tolerance from others, gay activists apparently feel no need to show any themselves.

How did we get to this kind of situation?

With all the various groups who act as if they have a right to win, we got to the present situation over the years, going back to the 1960s, where the idea started gaining acceptance that people who felt aggrieved don't have to follow the rules or even the law.

"No justice, no peace!" was a slogan that found resonance.

Like so many slogans, it sounds good if you don't stop and think -- and awful if you do.

Almost by definition, everybody thinks their cause is just. Does that mean that nobody has to obey the rules? That is called anarchy.

Nobody is in favor of anarchy. But some people want everybody else to obey the rules, while they don't have to.

What they want is not decisive, however. It is what other people are willing to tolerate that determines how far any group can go.

When the majority of the people become like sheep, who will tolerate intolerance rather than make a fuss, then there is no limit to how far any group will go.

The Uphill Struggle

Praying the other night I asked the Lord to help me with my addictions, weaknesses, and sins. I pleaded with him, in essence, to open a doorway and let me pass through to the other side where all my sins can tempt me no more. Lord, remove from me all my shortcomings. This, for me, is a standard plea. Help me, for I know not how to beat the natural man.

But suddenly I saw the truth of what I was asking: Lord, take away my sins and weaknesses so that I don’t have to struggle any longer with trying to overcome them myself. Lord, I want to be strong and good and if you take away my problems, I will be.

But isn’t that a weakness? That is laziness rearing its ugly head. Yes. I am saying that my heart is in the right place but don’t want to develop the self-discipline to get my body and life there. I don’t want to have to suffer or sacrifice. It hurts and is tiring.

The Savior has never said he will remove all our issues simply by asking. We say please, He then not only opens the doorway to overcoming our sins and weaknesses, but clears and sweeps the path, turns on the friendly neon welcome sign, and caries us in so as to not tire our feet.

No. If he did so, how would that benefit us? How would be grow? He is not willing us to be saved in our laziness. We believe in faith and works. Faith: we already know the Savior is strong enough to take upon him all our sins. Works: we need to learn how we can avoid and resist our future sins. Salvation takes work. Salvation and victory over our sin is hard. There is no quick and easy way “for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.” The Lord warns further, “narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it,” (Matt. 7.13-14). The easy way profiteth us nothing.

It is becoming clear. He will not save us by removing our problems, but He will make our burdens light. From the Book of Mormon, “yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease,” (Mosiah 24.15). He will lighten our loads, making them easy to bear. But bear them we must. The Savior will hold our hand and show us what to do, but we must do it. We must walk the path, we must clear the obstacles and debris, we must approach and open the door of the Lord’s Atonement. Otherwise our sins will always have power over us.