I did a little online investigation into the fall of the Roman Empire. I truly believe that many times mans biggest trouble in life is the inability to learn from history. We keep making the same mistakes over and over again. We all look back on our founding fathers with a certain amount of fondness. Why not? They had enough of the King of England telling them how to live their lives and decided to change things. That is good. Unfortunately the next generations will often hold onto the faults and failures of their predecessors and not the virtues they exhibited.

   I am sure you are asking how I got from the Roman Empire to the United States of America and I will address that but let us look at what happened.  Scholar Edward Gibbon placed the blame of the Roman Empire on what he called “loss of civic virtue.  This being, the cultivation of habits of personal living that are claimed to be import for the success of the community.  This is the behavior between persons of groups that conforms to a social mode.

            Here in our country you may call it patriotism. 

            Much of what History tells us is that history itself was created by the positive or negative character of the leader.  Here in the United States that is our president and the members of congress. 

            The Roman Empire became split about three hundred years after the death of Christ and was ruled in portions, each given to one of three brothers.  From there on things got out of hand.  They waged wars in places where the Roman military leaders did not even think they had a chance to win.

            This plus the fact that people who were thinking of the coming of a Heavenly kingdom did not any longer care about the joys of this world which is only temporary anyway.  They simply lost their allegiance to these leaders who were not offering much of a future.

            One may describe Heaven as a state of communion with God; everlasting bliss or any place beyond the sky conceived of as domains of divine beings in various religions.

            This created complacency.  I believe in God but I honestly think complacency is not what we were created for.  I believe we must live this life to its fullest and that means if you see those in need you help them.  If you see a problem you try to fix it and you enjoy the challenge of doing it.  This is how we grow spiritually.

 

            Now back to the Roman Empire.  They fell because they simply got too full of themselves and became separated by their own wants and greed.  Our nation is dangerously close to this same problem.  We almost split ourselves apart a hundred years ago.  If this had happened the chance of our surviving as a nation would not be good.

            Today, it is politics that splits us apart.  Republicans hate Democrats and vise versa.  We desperately need to remember that we are all members of what at once was if not still is the greatest country on the Earth.  As great as it is it can be no better than the people.  Our selfishness can split us and drive us in the same direction as the Romans.

            Research before you vote again.  Please do not let the complication of research cause you to throw up your hands in disgust and simply say, “Oh well, it doesn’t matter, anyway.”

            Know that we need to choose leaders who have integrity.  Whichever party you are a member of, remember that America can only stand if we stand together.  The alternative is that one more nation has risen and fallen.