~~~Without Vision, The People Perish~~~

What America needs is men and women of vision. Listening to the whining and short-sighted sophistry of today’s pundits is tiresome. The moral attention span of this nation shrinks under the burden of convenience. Sacrificing today for tomorrow’s greater good is a lost art. We are the “Gallup Generation:” a people whose vision is obstructed by the avalanche of polls dumped on us by the media. The depth of truth about a thing is concealed by the blizzard of these instant snapshots we call polls, which, like flakes of snow, no two can ever be the same.

Vision is the ability to see beyond one’s next step. Vision requires looking towards the horizon and the journey’s end. Whether the topic is Social Security, same-sex marriage, abortion, or religion, a growing number of Americans are sacrificing common sense for political correctness. We need people of vision to step to the public square and stand for what is right. Twenty-five years ago I predicted that abortion-on-demand would have adverse affects on our society unintended by its proponents. Every sort of immoral thrill seeker has exploited the wounded soul of a nation that demonstrates such little respect for the lives of the unborn. Economically, an entire generation of unborn, potentially productive citizens, more than a million a year on average, has been erased from the work force at precisely the time we need them—as the baby boomers prepare for retirement and the crumbling Social Security system. Where were the people of vision when this choice was being made?

Thank God for our founding fathers, who sacrificed their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor because they envisioned a nation of men and women with inalienable rights. Thank God for Abraham Lincoln, who subjected this country to the bloodshed of a civil war because he envisioned a nation with freedom for all. Nobody having a root canal would consider the procedure favorably if polled while the dentist’s drill was still grinding against their teeth. Ask them in a couple weeks, when the healing has taken place and a steak dinner sizzles on the table before them, and they will assure you that the procedure was worth it after all.

The “Gallup Generation” has few and precious men and women of vision. They consider religion as a fairy tale to be dismissed by the enlightened. They imagine religion is the mother of most atrocities our world has experienced, but they fail to see the truth: The one absolute common denominator in the wickedness of this world is the human factor, not religion. Some of religion, which is devised by men, leaves much to be desired, but the world would not be a better place without Mother Theresa, charitable giving to feed the poor, The Beatitudes, and prayer. The true cowards of faith claim to believe in God but not the religion from which they learned Him. Considering themselves an enlightened anomaly since they overcame the brainwashing of childhood, they instead become the most extreme examples of what they despise: misplaced, errant faith devoid of absolutes.

Polls are supposed to tell us how to vote, who to trust, what to wear, where to go, when to stop, and why we don’t. There are polls to tell us which polls to believe. Why is there no more vision in this generation? We can no longer see truth for the exceptions to the rule. We can on longer see the purpose in temporary sacrifice for the permanent good. We can no longer see the beauty of faith for the timbers of religion. We can’t see the Garden for all of the trees.