Mark Knows It All

This July 4 th , Independence Day, celebrates America’s 237 th birthday.  It also marks an equally momentous event in our nation’s history…the 150 th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg fought July 1-3, 1863.  The sleepy town of 7,800 people located in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania is being inundated with hundreds of thousands of Civil War aficionados who will re-enact several of the battles capped with a guided walk across the field where the failed Pickett’s Charge sounded what is widely believed to have been the death knell at Southern efforts at cessation.    It was the bloodiest battle in American history with upward of 51,000 casualties, north and south, consecrating the most sacred of American ground.  This in turn gave rise to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address which many view as the third most important statement of American principles after the Declaration and Constitution…   this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the

Barack Obama’s impassioned speech to Ohio State University graduates marked the high water point of his administration.  He implored the students to ignore those who would have them believe that government is evil and can’t be trusted.  He said that government was us and having faith in us is the same as having faith in government.  Anyone who knows human nature and history understands the fallacy of that argument.  Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  People are people.  One is never surprised by people’s benevolence and goodness.  One is never surprised by the evil that men do.  As he walked out of Ohio Stadium, one wonders whether that was his swan song…whether he knew about the scandals about to break and was making a last impassioned argument extolling his love of government. The fall of Obama’s credibility has been swift and dramatic.  Any scandal or two can be explained away.  But when a steady stream of all that was hidden spills out one after anot