OP-ED: What you can do for your country

  by George Radanovich

   In his January 20, 1961 inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy gave what historian Thurston Clarke describe as a speech "....acknowledged to have been the greatest oration of any twentieth-century politician."

   It included the infamous line "Ask not
what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  In this speech Kennedy described our rights as coming not from the state, but from the hand of God.

   His famous speech provides a stark contrast to the rhetoric we hear from today's presidential candidates pandering to a society that seems to demand that all rights come from government, not God.

   In fact, there is no consideration of what God might want from us.  His remarks expose the frightful condition of our country's culture and shows how far our politicians have fallen from a higher standard.

   Kennedy inspired the nation, but he also left us with more questions than answers.

   Economist Milton Friedman criticized it, saying that it implied that government was the patron, and the citizen, the servant.

   As if the proper response was a stint in the Peace Corps or the Green Berets. Was God's work really another government program to serve the state?

   For whatever reason, Kennedy provided no examples of what we can do for our country.  To be more clear, and to answer critics, a list would have been helpful.

   But, at the heart of this speech is another line that might shed light on Kennedy's clarion call, "...let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own."  Clearly this statement reflects President Kennedy's belief in God and a higher cause for Americans.

 According to the traditions of the largest religions of the world, we will some day love God and one another so perfectly that there will not be a need for religions or governments.

   We will be free and we will govern ourselves.  These same religions, including Kennedy's, tell us that there are only a few things we are directed to do on this Earth.

   These directives produce happiness and promote self-government: worshipping God, loving our neighbor as ourselves, being the dedicated father and mother of children and working hard.

   Having the ability to carry out these directives are our basic rights, and building the institutions that produce this happiness in God's work on Earth.

   For now though, in this epic and historic struggle between good and evil, our job, God's work is to strive for this unobtainable perfect freedom for every man and woman.

   Freedom loving governments help create order out of chaos and self-government instead of tyranny and oppression.

   However, achieving self-government and expanding freedom requires strong cultural institutions that support these directives and facilitate happiness for everyone.

   The best predictor of a self-governing citizen is a close relationship between a child and his/her biological or adopted parents.

   American journalist George Will said, "Family structure is a primary predicator of an individual's life chances and family disintegration is the principal cause of the intergenerational transmission of poverty."

   The stronger this relationship is, the better chances of self-government and free living.

   the condition of the institution responsible for the production of self-government, though, is appalling.

   Today, children in father-absent hoes are two to three times more likely to be victims of child and sexual abuses, do drugs, experience educational, health, emotional and behavior problems, become teen parents and engage in criminal behavior. 

   The news gets even worse. Children in father-absent homes are twice as likely to end up in jail. Sixty-three percent of youth who commit suicide come from father-absent homes.

   Seventy-one percent of high school dropouts come from father-absent homes.  Nearly 75 percent of children raised in homes without fathers will experience poverty before the age of eleven, compared to 20 percent of those raised in two-parent homes.

   Tonight 40 percent of all American children will go to sleep in father-absent homes.

   What can you do for our country?  Reclaim your rights and worship God, love your neighbor as yourself, devote yourself to your children and work. 

   Do god's work here on Earth by building a culture that makes there pursuits available for every American.

   It is a long-term commitment that begins by strengthening the relationship between men, women and their children.

  President Kennedy closed his famous speech by saying, "With a good conscience our only reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth and lead the land we love..." Judging by the rhetoric of today's presidential candidates in both parties, we are way off the mark.