THE REBUILDING AND RE-DEFINING OF AMERICA.

[E St. Kruiser50]

Every since this great country of ours was founded, and even through it's founding, this has been a country that has prevailed, even through much adversity, not unlike many of us here on this forum.

In fact to me, this country of ours reflects in a larger way, the strong and courageous spirit of each individual who has faced their own challanges and failures in life, and yet somehow, managed in their own strength to forge ahead, not skirting around their trials, but meeting them head-on, and believing in themselves, and the people believing in their ability to overcome and once again be successful.

I SEE NO SOUP LINES - I SEE NO BREAD LINES.

When this country was founded, it was founded as ONE NATION UNDER GOD.

The only country in the history of the world from the beginning, to CHOOSE GOD to form a country under.

THIS ISN'T RELIGEOUS STUFF YET FOLKS - IT'S JUST PLAIN HISTORY.

THIS COUNTRY WAS DEDICATED TO GOD BY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS, AND THE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES WERE FOUNDED ON GOD'S EQUALITY OF TREATMENT AND LOVE FOR MANKIND.

That's why we're different than any other nation on the face of the earth.

That's why we prevail and succeed through trials and adversity, and come out stronger and better.

We as a country are a beacon to the needs of the rest of the world.

We as a country feed more of the world than any other single country in the world.

We send more on going aide to countries all over the world, than any other single country in the world.

This country has it's ups and downs just like us humans do - IT'S CALLED THE CYCLE OF LIFE.

Our country is not perfect, any more than any one of us are.

But it's NO ACCIDENT that no matter what we face we come out of it, better and stronger and some times even somewhat wiser.

FOLKS IT'S ALL BY >HIS DESIGN< WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IT OR NOT.

HE'S STILL GOD, AND HE STILL LOVES US ALL EVEN WITH ALL OUR IMPERFECTIONS.

DO YOU KNOW MANY OTHER PEOPLE LIKE THAT???

WE DON'T HAVE TO WRING OUR HANDS IN FEAR AND WORRY.

WE JUST NEED TO DO WHAT PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY HAVE ALWAYS DONE SINCE IT'S START.

BELIEVE IN OURSELVES AND OUR ABILITIES, HAVE FAITH IN THE FUTURE AND GOD BLESSING THIS COUNTRY THAT HE LOVES SO MUCH, THEN ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES AND WORK HARD LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW, - AND ENJOY IT AND THIS LIFE, AND GOD WILL BLESS THE HARD WORK, AND THIS COUNTRY, AS HE ALWAYS HAS - AND WHETHER YOU BELIEVE IN HIM OR NOT - HE STILL BELIEVES IN YOU.

THIS WORLD OF OURS WAS CREATED WITH A ">SHELF-LIFE<" LIKE EACH OF US.

OUR LIVES WILL END - THIS EARTH WILL END, AT A PRE-DESTINED TIME. NOTHING WILL STOP THAT - NOT EVEN ANY OF YOU BELIEVING I'M WRONG WILL CHANGE IT.

WHAT'S REALLY COOL, IS THAT THIS IS STILL THE RICHEST AND MOST POWERFULL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, WITH MORE RESOURCES AT IT'S DISPOSAL, THAN ANY OTHER NATION ON EARTH.

THIS COUNTRY HAD BEEN ADJUSTING AND REDEFINING ITSELF SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY - THAT'S ONE OF THE THINGS THAT MAKE IT SO GRAET - IT'S ABILITY TO ADAPT AND CHANGE QUICKLY ENOUGH TO WORK FOR MOST EVERYONES GOOD - EXCEPT THE WHINNERS AND COMPLAINERS .

NEVER COULD SEE WHAT THEY GET OUT OF THAT

THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME THIS COUNTRY HAS GONE THROUGH ROUGH TIMES. PROBABLY JUST THE FIRST TIME FOR MANY OF YOU WHO ARE YOUNGER TO EXPERIENCE THIS.

LASTLY, MOST PEOPLE IN DEVELOPING NATIONS, LOOK TO THE "WEST" AS THEIR ROLE MODEL FOR THEIR LIFESTYLE AND THEIR CULTURE.

THERE ARE THOSE HERE WHO COULD USE LOADS OF NUMBERS, ARIFICIAL AND OUT OF CONTEXT HISTORY LESSONS TO PROVE SOME SORT OF POINT ABOUT THEIR "higher thinking" ABOUT THE FUTURE, BUT HEY FOLKS, WE'LL STILL BE AROUND LONG AFTER THE PERSON PASSES ON WHO WROTE IT.

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED OVER THE YEARS, IS IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW BAD i MESS UP MY LIFE , OR HOW BAD WE HAVE MESSED UP THIS COUNTRY - - - "GOD WILL BLESS THIS COUNTRY AS HE ALWAYS HAS - - BECAUSE THIS COUNTYR IS NOT ABOUT OUR PURPOSE - IT'S ABOUT HIS PURPOSE.

BUT YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE TO SEE IT .

THE ONLY PEOPLE I EVER SAW WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE IN THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY,

WERE THOSE WILLING TO QUIT COMPLAINING, BELIEVE HARD ENOUGH, AND WORK HARD ENOUGH TO MAKE GOOD CHANGES HAPPEN.

I BELIEVE THE BEST IS YET TO COME - GOD HAS PROMISED .

[Peter Lombardo]

Hey Dave, what happened……couldn’t sleep? I completely agree with you as to the importance of God in our country. As you stated, belief in God and a supreme power greater than man has guided us and given our country strength through out our history. But, and there is always a but, things are changing here in this land of ours.

Little by little, and very steadily the Progressives in our society are chipping away at the cornerstones of our democracy. It begins with the removal of the Morning Prayer in school and than the removal of the Ten Commandments from statehouses and courthouses. Next the banning traditional Christmas displays. There is a strong movement to have the phrase “In God we Trust†removed from our currency. Before you know it, all references to God, and the foundations of our democracy will be wiped away. It is just like that little story I posted a few days ago about “How to boil a Frogâ€. Slowly but steadily, our country is changing and it is not for the better.

You can say that I am just a complainer, but I see my discussions more as a call to action or an attempt to awaken those of us who have fallen asleep. Many good people have been lulled into a comatose state believing that we, our country is fine and will always be fine, regardless of the attacks upon it. I don’t see it that way. I see the very fabric of our society being torn apart by misguided individuals who want to change our once great “Landâ€, ruled by the “Rule of Law†into a Godless, virtuous less Socialist state that can no longer stand as the beacon of freedom in a world gone crazy.

Am I overreacting? I do not think so. The dangers are real. The attacks are real. The threat from within is very real. Look, we are on the very brink of Socialism. The end of Capitalism and everything that made us great is at hand. Love it or hate it, Capitalism is the force that has made America the greatest industrial and financial powerhouse this planet has, or will ever see. Our financial wealth has given the US the ability to help millions of people world wide annually. Socialism will end that. Socialism will kill personal achievement. It will kill American Exceptionalism. With the socialization of the Banks, Insurance, Automobile and Healthcare industries we lose the very ability to “strive for betterâ€. Once you limit the human spirit from reaching out for more, he is stifled and demoralized.

The Noble Peace Prize award is a perfect example of the type of attack we are under. It is an intellectual attack, more than a physical attack. I am not taking anything away from the President, but lets get real here. He was in office for an entire eleven days when he was voted the award. So clearly it was not an award for any actual accomplishments but rather an award, or a “call to action†by a group of extreme Left Wing Socialists from outside of America who are saying, “this man (Obama) is not George Bush, who they hated, and we can try and influence his future actionsâ€. Actions like cutting the Afghan war (I hate to call it a war because we are forced to fight it like a bunch of handcuffed amateurs) and leaving Iraq prematurely. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a war lover or happy to hear of a single American death. I just am fearful of the terrorists and their ability to bring the attack to our shores. When that happens, what do the Liberals say then? We need to stop them now, stop them over there before it comes back to America again…..remember, they started this.

The Noble committee see in our President a person very similar in thinking to their socialist ways. If they see it, why can’t many here in America?

Sorry, I can’t sit back quietly and watch our great country being torn apart. Most likely my, and others ranting will not stop it from happening but at least I will not go down quietly.

[george 53]

THANK YOU, DAVE!!! It's about time someone looked thru the haze and saw reality. I DO get tired of people beatin the drum over the"demise" of our beloved country. One time someone started a thread about starting a revolution. What a joke! NO one in his/her right mind wants ANYTHING THAT drastic. If you've never been in a war it might sound exciting, and in truth, for about a billionth of a second it IS! UNTIL it settles in that the "other" guy beleives in his cause so much, he's willing to KILL YOU to prove his point! Like we were told in boot, if HE WANTS to die for his cause, WE(The USMC)will GLADLY accomodate him. We ARE the GREATEST MOST POWERFUL nation this world has EVER seen! We got that way thru ONE reason, Almighty GOD! I DON'T care if folks beleive that or not,but I know it to be TRUE! And NO ONE will EVER change MY mind. I feel sorry for those that don't. Energy NEVER DIES, it's only converted. Who we are, spiritually CAN'T be terminated, ONLY changed, to some other form. If you have NO spirituality, you are doomed to cease to exist. whatever that person feels thinks or did, will cease to function on his termination! That won't happen to me. I KNOW that God exists because I HAVE MET HIM!!!!! He changed and saved my poor pitiful arse just to bring me home an raise a family and be a good person. This I TRY to do with all my heart! I try VERY hard to live by the "Golden Rule" you remember that one,Dontcha? Sometimes it IS hard to do, cause there ARE so many a$$holes around but somehow my faith in HIM gets me thru it all. This country WON'T go down the tubes,regardless of WHO is in power. dubya, to me, was the MOST IGNORANT person in MY lifetime to hold the office of President. The man COULDN'T even SPEAK ENGLISH PROPERLY!!! THIS was the message we wanted to convey to the WORLD??? The fact that he BOUGHT the Presidency(with the help of his brother an daddy) should have made us ALL wonder how it happened! WE, THE PEOPLE, are who make the decisions that affect OUR lives in this country. If Obama can't get it together , then in another 3 years, I'll vote for somene else! All this gloom an doom prophecy talk is JUST that, TALK! We AREN'T goin ANYWHERE! We'll be here as long as HE wants us to be! I really beleive that. We have survived 2 World Wars,(And won them,I must say)a "Great"deppression, AND Korea,Viet Nam, and now our brother Clay has put himself in harms way just to prove to the rest of the country that we DO beleive in God enough to show the WORLD that WE aren't afraid to die for OUR beliefs. The GREAT thing about it is OUR God DOES love us, and he doesn't want us to die in vain. ANY "SO CALLED" God that advocates KILLING your fellow man ISN'T a god of ANY sort. It's just some screwballs way of subjecting his people to their own ideologys. To tell them if they die for him they'll get some stupid thing like a virgin is just the most stupid ridiculous thing I've ever heard! A REAL god rewards you for your faithfulness with SEX??? C'mon, that's just some a$$holes WISHING it was like that.That's just a mans carnal desires, NOT Gods wishes for us. The only thing we have to concern ourselves with is being good and fair to our fellow man, so that when the time comes WE, US EACH individual among us can recieve our judgement with a CLEAR consicous. There IS NO one among us who is perfect, the last one was crucified because HE WAS!!! We DON'T hafta be Bible thumpin zealots, just do to others as you'd like to be treated. It's THAT simple! In fact it's SO EASY, lots of folks DON"T do it cause they CAN'T beleive it IS that simple! But it IS! I REALLY don't mean to put people off with my opinions, but that's the TRUTH to ME, in a nutshell. If others don't beleive it, that's THEIR buisness, but for ME, I don't worry about the trivial things in life, cause I know the TRUTH, and I derive GREAT comfort in it! As a combat Marine, I've done VERY questionable things, but that was THEN, an THIS is NOW. I DON'T feel bad about my deeds or actions then, just as I DON'T feel bad about my actions NOW. I just did what needed to be done at the time. Now, all HE asks of me is to be as GOOD and DECENT a person as I can. Nothing more ,nothing less. I DO put all my faith in Him, and NOT in the hope of something as ignorant as a VIRGIN to be my final reward.( I married one, an she DIDN'T stay that way for long!) Thanks for this thread Dave, I just had to expres myself a bit, an maybe now some of my forum brothers'll get what makes me tick. Just remember guys, it's called "The GOLDEN RULE" try it ,it works! This is the ONE and ONLY time I'll bring this subject up, cause I KNOW there's some out there that THINK they know it all, and THAT's a shame cause NO ONE does but our Almighty Father! God Bless ya Dave, for bringin this up,your a GOOD man.

[Modelmartin]

We are a diverse country and world. I do not believe any gods of any sort exist except in the minds of humans.

We are a diverse group of people on this forum, too. We gather here to talk models and sometimes other things, but we have learned(some of us) to not get too inflammatory with our rhetoric. You guys missed that memo.

I can see you two are all proud of your beliefs and views and that is just peachy. Many of us here believe other things just as fervently. None of us like to be called names or have our beliefs and motives slandered or our patriotism questioned.

Thank you very kindly.

[Harry P.]

Wow! You first three must have some pretty tired fingers by now!

Of course I could easily point out to you that if you ask the millions of Americans out there who are jobless today, or who have lost their homes, or who were driven into bankruptcy by medical bills because they either lost their employer-provided health coverage or never had it in the first place because they couldn't afford the premiums... if you ask those people how great this country is today, you might get a different answer.

It's amazing how different America looks to, say, a guy with a steady job, a vacation home, money in the bank and a nice health-care plan provided by his company vs. a guy who was laid off six months ago, lost his healthcare, lost his home, and can't find work. How America is doing is totally dependent on what side of society you look at it from.

Are most people still relatively happy? I would guess so... but the trends don't look good.

More and more every day, we are becoming a country of the haves and the have-nots. That great, vast majority in between that used to be most of us–the "middle class"– is being literally forced out of existence. As the underclass continues to grow, the middle class is charged more and more (through taxation) to pay for that underclass's care, education and well-being... and as the upper class continues to grow through corruption, sweetheart deals with our government and just plain greed, the same middle class is called upon to fund them, also! (Wall Street bailouts were paid for by you and me, folks!)

See anything wrong with this picture? This trend can't possibly continue. If the group in the middle is paying for the group at the top and at the bottom... what will happen when that group in the middle can't pay any more? Will we borrow even more from China to fund our own domestic social programs like Medicare and Social Security? What happens if our creditors decide that they want their money back?

There is talk now of replacing the dollar as the unit of currency that oil trades at. What happens if the dollar does indeed lose its place as the monetary standard of the world?

Serious questions... and serious (and troubling) things are happening in this country. We need to be aware of the facts... we can't just say "hey, everything will be A-ok because it always has been in the past." The world today is a very different place than it was even 50 short years ago. We may indeed still be the world's political and economic leader, but our once almost unquestionable place at the top of the heap is becoming less and less secure as other nations, on the rise politically and economically, are deciding that maybe they want more say-so as to how things will be from now on. And what's in their best interest isn't necessarily what's in our best interest.

It's unfortunate that now, of all times, when we need to all pull together as one, we seem to be at our most divided, politically, socially and economically, than we have been in a long time.

[old-hermit]

"The Golden Rule" = "He who has the gold makes the rules". Was, is, always will be !

As a wise old indian chief once told me, "Deal with it !"

[Zoom Zoom]

The more threads like this, the less I enjoy my hobby.

Way to go!

[Rob Hall]

Wrong place for this stuff. I have no need for religion or right-wing ideology with my modeling. It seems every forum or mailing list for this hobby is full of right wing religious zealots. Can't they just stick to talking about modeling????

Edited October 11, 2009 by Rob Hall

[James Flowers]

What is good about this country, is you can believe in what you want. I do believe that there have been more wars started over someones beliefs than anything else in history. We have not won a war since World War Two. You can not win a war when you have to choose who the enemy is in a country you are fighting in. Greed is the rule of today. He who has the most has the most say in this world. There money will buy it. When was the last time you seen a poor politician?

[Harry P.]

Wrong place for this stuff.

Right you are (and the others who said the same thing). I was guilty myself of chiming in... I love a good political debate, but this is the wrong place. What we need here is a separate forum for us long-winded opinionated types to have at it without getting the rest of you guys riled up!