One Utah congressman says the prospect of the United States taking itself down amid political, racial and economic divisiveness is greater than any threat coming from another nation.
www.ksl.com
I feel this is a great statement by Chris Stewart. The amount of negative comments about this article is truly frightening to me. Really starting to worry about the future of this nation.
“I worry a lot that we may destroy ourselves, that we may commit national suicide in a way,” Republican Rep. Chris Stewart said Monday.
National security is irrelevant if Americans don’t find a way to unite themselves, he said during a Sutherland Institute webinar titled “National Security: America’s Role in the World.” The country’s first responsibility, he said, is to keep itself strong.
“A healthy nation wouldn’t tear down its founding fathers and the statues of them. A healthy nation wouldn’t burn Bibles in the streets or the Koran or any other religious documents like that. A healthy nation wouldn’t have demonstrations where it’s OK to assault the police and to attack them with a laser that permanently blinds them, to see the riots and to excuse that as protesters when they’re not,” Stewart said.
Stewart lamented the “rewriting of history” on the premise that America was based upon evil as well as the destruction of the country’s founding principles and reputations of good men and women.
“Those things are in our face every day,” he said.
Some people, he added, want to take the country apart and start over again.
“Yes, there were mistakes made in the past. We have tried to do better, we can continue to get better,” Stewart said. “But doesn’t mean that our nation or our history or the traditions of freedom and democracy, those principles, are therefore so fatality flawed that they can’t be defended. It’s just not true.”
The United States has made strides toward overcoming the stain of slavery and racism, he said.
“We’re far better than we were before the Civil War. We’re clearly better than we were doing Jim Crow. We’re clearly better on racism than we were in the 1950s and 60s. We still have a ways to go. There’s no question about that,” he said.
Stewart said he found it “stunning” that people are embarrassed to stand or place their hand over their heart for the flag. He said it’s “amazing” that has become controversial.
Though imperfect, the United States has been the greatest force for good in the history of the world, “and that’s not an opinion. That’s a demonstrable fact,” he said, noting it has lifted billions of people out of poverty and stands as an example for freedom and economic prosperity.
Stewart said he doesn’t back away from the idea of American exceptionalism, though he added he’s been told by some that he can’t say that because it offends people.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re better people. It doesn’t mean that we’re some gift from God that made us better people,” he said. “The thing that makes America exceptional isn’t necessarily the people. It’s the founding principles. It’s the documents.”
The Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are the greatest documents every written on human rights, liberty and freedom, Stewart said.
Dozens of countries have tried to emulate the U.S. with their own constitutions, he said, adding some have been successful and some haven’t.
The United States is the glue that holds the world together,” Stewart said. “If we stumble, the rest of the world crumbles under our feet.”
thecrimereport.org
www.deseret.com
krdo.com
