What Can You Do to Restore Liberty? Is Freedom Part of your Life Mission?
Do you ever look around you, look at what is happening in our country and in the world, and wish there were something you could do? Do you ever feel hopeless or helpless as you watch liberty and moral values crumble around you? I believe that God sent the Founding Fathers of our country at that time to fulfill a mission that would bring liberty to this land. God sent you to earth at this time and place. He has given you talents and abilities. He has a plan for you and your life just as He had a plan and work for the founders to do. It was not chance, but Providence, that brought two men, Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene, together. The two became friends and had placed in their hearts a burning desire to read all that they could about military arts and strategy. This was a very unlikely subject for the Quaker raised Nathanael Greene to want to study. It was also very convenient that Henry Knox owned a prosperous bookstore that allowed them access to the kinds of books they would need to study. The two poured over books on military arts for hours. These two men played a major part in helping George Washington to win the war. They were inspired to learn and were ready when needed to fulfill a purpose.
If each us is put here at this time and place to fulfill a mission, what can we do to be ready? What can we learn from history? This series of articles will explore what it will take for liberty to win in this Fourth Turning. It will also hopefully inspire you to find out what your personal mission is and help you to start on the path that you need to take.
What can we learn from the past?
Cincinnatus was a consul in the ancient Roman Republic. He was very well educated and wise. After his term as consul, he retired to his farm. He was so respected and loved by the Roman people, that they often came to his farm for advice. During this time, a barbarian army gathered with an aim to take Rome. They burned and plundered every village in their path on their march to Rome. The Roman senate and consuls gathered their army and sent it to stop the barbarians. Some time later, a small, rag-tag group of blood stained survivors returned telling how the Roman army had been trapped on all sides in a mountain pass and defeated by the barbarians. The Romans now had no army and the barbarians were on their way. Someone in the senate cried, “we need Cincinnatus!” An envoy was sent to Cincinnatus’ farm asking him to save Rome. They promised that if he saved them, he would be king. Cincinnatus gathered an army mostly made up of inexperienced young men because that was all there was left. Calling upon his education and leadership skills, Cincinnatus was able to use military strategy and lead his army to victory. Upon his victorius return, Cincinnatus was, as promised, given the offer to be king. Cincinnatus replied, “I give the power back to the senate, it is their job to make the laws”. He then returned to his farm.
In a time much later in Roman history, Julius Caesar started his power play to take over the Roman Republic. Cicero and others in the senate called for a Cincinnatus. No Cincinnatus stepped forward. There was none to be found. After Julius Casar was assassinated, his nephew Octavius (later called Augustus) took up where Julius had left off. He formed a triumverate, that killed anyone with power to stand in his way. Mark Antony, part of Octavius’ triumverate, celebrated with glee when he learned that his arch enemy, the statesman and senator Cicero had been killed by the triumverate’s death squad. Cicero was well educated and very vocal in trying to save the rupublic. With his death, and the deaths of others like minded, the republic failed.
What does the story of Cincinnatus and of Cicero have to do with you today? George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers were the Cincinnatuses of America. They fought for liberty from Britan. Instead of taking power for themselves, they studied government and human nature and then wrote a constitution that gave us a republic and left the power in the hands of the people. Today, our American Republic and the Constituiton are in jeopardy. We need to study what liberty looks like. We need to have the education to be the Ciceroes and Cincinnatuses of our time. “But,” you say, “I am no Cicero or Cincinnatus or George Washington. I am just a regular man or woman. I am not great like them.” Perhaps that is what those men thought of themselves. That is probably what made them great. The difference, is that they had the education to give them the ability to do what they did. Again you say, “but I don’t have that kind of education.” Many of the founding fathers and people of that time were self-educated, look at the example of Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene. It is not too late. Start now. One of the best places to start is The Five Thousand Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen.
Dr. Oliver DeMille states that in order for freedom to win in the United States, we need 30% of the population which is about 70 million people who have the kind of education and thinking and reasoning skills that we have been discussing. Perhaps your mission is to be one of those 70 million people that ensure freedom wins. If there are enough Ciceroes, freedom wins!
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