Greetings Folks,

 

Today I am a man with two minds.  From the beginning I had no Idea what children of liberty was meant to be. At first I just wanted to get a few people together to talk about our country and our founders and the principle that made our country great.  From there it evolved, we did some good things and we made some mistakes, but most importantly we met each other and found out we were not alone.  From the beginning my gut told me that we were not a tea party, the tea party was destined to become political and issue orientated, and I deeply believe that the answer will not come from politics or politicians.  The answers will not come from DC, Columbus or the city leaders.  The answer will come from We The People as we focus on our first guiding principle “To reclaim God in our lives, and in so doing, secure His place at the center of our country’s social and political conscience.”

America became great, because Americans were virtuous.  Are we virtuous today?
Do we take care of our neighbors? Do we even know our neighbors?

Jesus summed up the Ten Commandments with Two commandments, “Love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”   “Love your neighbor as yourself”

There is a time and place for politics and electioneering, and there are many in our group that are passionate about those things, and I will find those folks and turn over the political/electioneering to them, I will give them my support and help to organize and mobilize COL so that we can effect elections, but  my personal focus going forward will be on hope, faith and charity through service.  In order to become great again, Americans need to become virtuous.

Hope:  Too many people have lost hope for a better life; they do not believe that their lives can be anymore than what they are now. They feel their lives are without purpose without meaning.  They have no dreams, no goals.  They don't have an understanding of how the past effects their present.  They are stuck in neutral.  Our current culture tells us that all that matters is now, the past is old news, the future… who has time to worry about it.  We need to tie the past the preset and the future together.  If we don’t know the past, we don’t understand the present, if we don’t consider the future; we are stuck in the present and we have got to get what we can now, the future is irrelevant.

Faith:  If there is no God and nothing outside of ourselves to live for, what incentive is there to be good?  If all that matters is now and there is no judgment, no heaven or hell, why not cheat and steal?  This is why I have always had a problem with Ayn Rand’s “objectiveness” idea, I believe that while we are all individuals, if we do not believe there is something greater than ourselves; if we do not have faith we will not realize our fullest potential.

Charity:  What greater gift can we give than our time, treasure and talents?  As Jesus told his apostle’s in Mark 7 “the poor will always be with you”.  Not just the monetary poor, but also those poor in hope and faith and we must reach out to them, helping to lift them up.  It is not about a hand out but and hand up.  It is our duty to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty and comfort the sick.  For too long we have abdicated these responsibilities to the governments and others, now is the time to accept these responsibilities for ourselves.

Service:  the progressives and those that encourage larger and more controlling government have forgotten what JKF said in his inauguration speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  As a society we have become ME focused, it is all about me, me, me.  Look at the OWS movement, it is all about I want this and I deserve this and I should not have to work for it.  This is not what made our country great.  Our founders did not risk their lives, fortunes and sacred honor so that they could make a buck.  No, they did it because it was the right thing to do.  they believed that our freedoms come from God and it is our responsibility to protect and fight for them.
We need to turn our focus to others in need; if we truly want small government then it is our personal responsibility to take care of our brothers and sisters when they hit hard times.  Then we can tell the government they can keep their food stamps and WIC because we are helping each other.

The truth is there is darkness coming and we cannot defeat darkness with darkness.  You must shine the Light on it and once exposed to the Light, the darkness will scatter.   We cannot out evil the evil, out big the big or out slick the slick.  Virtue beats evil, small beats big and honest beats slick.  We need to become virtuous, small (local) and honest, then we can’t lose.  Freedom yearns in the heart of everyone; we just need to touch their hearts.  People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.

If you wish to join me as we develop this new arm of COL, I ask you to contact me @ [address removed]  or sign up at http://www.meetup.com/COL- Lighthouse/

You must be willing to leave your self-interest, ego and pride outside the door, this group is not about us, it is about Him and about shining His light to those that are mired in the darkness.  We must show them that there is Hope, Faith and Charity and it all comes from service to others.
I am not sure where we go from here; I just know that this is the way I go.

Scott Allegrini
Laus Deo