America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great (23 page)

A great deal of bureaucracy has been added to our government in order to control corruption, but what about corruption
in
the government — how do we control that? I am aware of numerous patriotic, humanitarian Americans who have been severely abused by components of our justice system, including one of my closest friends.

His parents immigrated to America from Italy and were extremely hard-working, salt-of-the-earth-type people. During the race riots in the late 1960s, their pizza shop was actually protected by rioters when everything else was being looted or burned, because of the respect with which they were held in the community.

He was trained as an oral surgeon and had a thriving practice, but in 1992 he bought a building for $275,000, renovated it, and six months later it was valued at $1 million. Realizing his talent for real estate development, he quickly became one of the most successful developers in his state and went on to complete successful projects in several other states.

My friend has the most wonderful family with a loving and caring wife and extremely bright children, all of whom have stellar academic credentials and not the slightest hint of being spoiled rich kids. In fact, all of their children have been heavily involved in programs to assist poor families. Our families have vacationed together for years, including spending Christmas together. We have such similar values and principles that our bonding was natural.

As his real estate business increased, the available time he had for practicing oral surgery decreased, and he sold his practice to a colleague. Unfortunately, that colleague was later accused of Medicare fraud, but he did not have deep pockets — so the investigating agents came after my friend, even though he no longer owned the practice. They meticulously examined fifteen years of his practice records for evidence of fraud and were only able to uncover two questionable bills, amounting to a total of $180. My friend owns a spectacular home, a Manhattan penthouse, two Ferraris, and a European villa. However, given the fortune he amassed, he lives modestly compared to the lifestyle he could have had if he so desired. I believe the lead agent was either jealous of his success or incorrectly concluded that he had organized crime connections that produced his wealth.

Even though they were unable to uncover any fraud in his record, he was told that they would take him to trial as a co-defendant with the buyer of the practice and would convince jurors that he had knowledge or turned a “blind eye” to the other doctor’s activity. And that eventually he would end up in federal prison if he did not plead guilty to a federal offense in connection with the $180 discrepancy. Not wanting to put his family through so much trauma, he accepted their deal and was sentenced to a one-year house arrest and a $300,000 fine. I am convinced that the judge in the case knew my friend was innocent, and at sentencing made a point of saying “none” of his net worth and success in real estate had any connection to this case, and that he was confused. The result of all of this is that an outstanding American
citizen who did everything by the book — who is one of the most ethical people I know and an extremely generous humanitarian — is now a felon who cannot vote. He is giving serious consideration to moving to another country.

I know of other examples of severe government abuses, but I don’t want to give the impression that I think government is bad for us. We must, however, find a way to control excessive and inappropriate government intrusion into the lives of innocent, law-abiding citizens who currently have little or no defense against a bully that is supposed to protect us.

Recently, the United States Department of Justice decided to defend a Muslim teacher in Chicago who had less than one year of seniority and wanted to take off three weeks in the middle of the school term to participate in a religious activity. She was denied the time off but decided to take it anyway and was consequently fired. The lawsuit alleged that the school violated her right to freedom of religion.

This is a complex case with many legal nuances, and I certainly believe that freedom of religion is one of the important founding principles of our nation. However, making reasonable accommodations for one’s religious beliefs should be just that — reasonable! In this case, the religious requirement could have been satisfied at any time during one’s life, which means the teacher could have worked long enough to accumulate adequate time off and could have arranged far in advance for adequate coverage of her absence during the school term. Again, this is simply applying common sense, which seems to be rapidly disappearing from our society. Far too often, instead of looking for reasoned, rational approaches to our problems, we play the race card or the religion card or some other card in an attempt to evoke an emotional response. Have we become a nation moved more by emotion than logic when it comes to our governance and legal judgments? In this case, by forcing the school system to accommodate this teacher’s demand for special treatment to accommodate her religious beliefs, the Justice Department has created a slippery slope with no end to subsequent requests by others for special treatment.

This is an important case, because not only do the rights of the teacher have to be considered, but if one wishes to be fair, the rights of the children being taught and the rights of the school who planned on having a teacher for the entire school year have to be considered. I understand the attorney general’s desire to make sure that the teacher’s rights are not trampled, but if our government is to be successful, it cannot have a myopic view of cases with such profound ramifications.

That same myopic view by our Justice Department resulted in the dismissal of three of the defendants in a voter intimidation case against the new Black Panther party in Philadelphia. The case was widely publicized because the incident was captured on film and distributed on YouTube, showing them verbally abusing voters and brandishing weapons. Would the Justice Department recognize such activity as voter intimidation if the perpetrators wore white sheets and burned crosses? I have a feeling that we may find out the answer to that question sooner rather than later if we continue to tolerate legal myopia justified by emotionally based, politically correct prejudices.

I am not accusing anyone of anything other than failing to look at the big picture when dealing with important legal matters. Some will say that I am advocating a conservative approach to the two cases we just discussed, but I would strongly disagree and would say that this is neither a conservative nor liberal view, but rather a practical and logical one. If we can just tone down the rhetoric and discuss things like rational human beings, applying justice equally and not based on some political philosophy, we will validate that phrase at the end of our Pledge of Allegiance, which advocates “justice for all.”

We could write an entire book on the concept of “liberty for all” found in our Pledge of Allegiance, but I will concentrate on one related problem that threatens to severely derail our entire system of government. We frequently hear the question, why do many of the brightest and most accomplished people in our society refuse to run for public office? The answer is simple; they do not enter political contests because they know that their lives will be scrutinized and privacy and consideration for their family will be nonexistent. If some unsavory incident from the person’s past is uncovered — or even suspected in the case of someone that the biased media does not like — a feeding frenzy occurs.

I do not believe this was the result our forefathers envisioned when they fought so hard to establish freedom of the press. Such freedom should be coupled with common decency and not serve as a license to be obnoxious and inconsiderate of fellow citizens one disagrees with politically. I do not believe that the press should be restricted, but it would be very helpful if our leaders would provide consistent commentary about the role of the press in politics. It is quite immature to favor the press that agrees with a leader’s political philosophies and shun the press that is critical of a leader’s positions.

Everyone has made mistakes in the past that they would prefer to keep private. If criminal activity went unpunished or there is a character defect relevant to the public position being sought, full disclosure and discussion is warranted, but if — as in most cases — it is just a juicy tidbit, the media should resist the urge to exploit it and concentrate on issues relevant to the job. I personally would be skeptical of someone who had never made mistakes, because they would probably have difficulty identifying with the rest of us. I realize that I’m asking a lot of the media, who now have twenty-four-hour news cycles and have to find a way to fill the time. There are numerous positive and uplifting stories about incredible people in this nation and throughout the world that could easily fill the time and provide inspiration. By the same token, it is totally irresponsible for the media to ignore glaring warning signs from a candidate’s past just because they agree with his political philosophy. We should certainly not be surprised, however, when our children are mean and unfair to one another if we continue to provide them with such examples of hostility toward those with whom we disagree.

When it comes to liberty and justice for all, the Bible makes it clear that we have a responsibility to be kind to the poor among us. As the famous old Chinese proverb points out, it is better to teach a poor man how to fish than to give him a fish. America did not become a great nation by encouraging people to feel sorry for themselves and seek handouts from others.

If we really want to eradicate poverty, we should allocate significant resources and personnel toward providing education and opportunity for the poor. And if we are to provide assistance to our able-bodied citizens, it should be attached to a requirement for work or acquisition of education and/or skills. Not only will this improve self-esteem, it will prepare those individuals to participate in an increasingly sophisticated workforce. Work projects could also contribute to the maintenance of our national infrastructure and beautification, if the right kinds of jobs are assigned as a requirement for benefits.

If they have to work anyway, many people will put real effort into finding the kind of job they want as opposed to collecting unemployment benefits and being assigned to work they consider undesirable. Some conservatives would say that we should leave such people on their own to sink or swim because we cannot afford to keep supporting them, while some liberals would say that these people already have enough problems and that it would be unfair to require anything of them that would add to their stress. I reject
both of those positions and simply say the application of logic once again will prove most helpful in the long run to our fellow citizens experiencing financial misfortune.

Every citizen of the United States should be expected to contribute to its welfare, which requires a fair system of taxation. We currently do not have such a system, because our tax code is so complex that those with good tax attorneys or accountants can find numerous loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. For instance, one well-known celebrity owns a very expensive mansion on a large piece of property in the Northeast, but pays very little in the way of property taxes because he raises honey bees on the property, which provides a little-known but gigantic tax benefit. I could go on for hours with similar examples, but the point is that given our country’s financial crisis, the creation of a new and fairer tax system is urgently needed. The cries of “tax the rich” in the face of such a hypocritical tax code is, frankly, quite laughable. I do not believe that the rich are unpatriotic because they take advantage of loopholes, but I think we as a nation are smart enough to come up with a system of taxation that eliminates the need for slick accountants and lawyers, and that allows everyone to contribute proportionately to the financial health of the nation — just as God designed for us in the concept of the tithe.

Although I have pointed out many problems that we currently face as a nation, I have also made it clear that the principles upon which our government was founded are solid. In order to take advantage of the ingenious document known as the United States Constitution, we need outstanding, nonpartisan leadership with a vision that can unite the various political factions into a positive driving force, inspiring us and creating an atmosphere in which liberty and justice do flourish, allowing all to succeed.

I
T IS A TESTIMONY TO ALL
that is good about America and the opportunities available here that a friend of mine was able to start out as a short order cook in a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant and, from there, through hard work and carefully observing the values that lead to success, established his own national chain of fast-food restaurants. As with any good rags-to-riches story, however, his life wasn’t always easy.

Born to an unwed mother he never knew, he was adopted after six weeks. His adoptive mother died when he was five, and his father went in search of work around the country. From his family, my friend learned the value of hard work and perseverance, and in his early thirties, this young entrepreneur was given the opportunity to use his restaurant experience to take over four Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants in need of help in Columbus, Ohio. He was able to completely turn around those restaurants, and four years later he sold them back to KFC, making approximately $1.5 million. That was just the beginning of his success, as he went on to found his own national fast-food chain.

“Only in America,” he was once quoted as saying, “would a guy like me, from humble beginnings and without a high school diploma, become successful. America gave me a chance to live the life I want and work to make my dreams come true. We should never take our freedoms for granted, and we should seize every opportunity presented to us.”
¹

His name of course is Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, and my wife and I were among his first houseguests after he built his dream home in Fort Lauderdale prior to suffering a fatal heart attack. The effect that he
has had on America has been overwhelmingly positive. Adopted himself, he went on to found the “Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.” He claims his decision to drop out of high school was his biggest regret, and so not only did he go on to get his GED at around age sixty, he started the Dave Thomas Education Center to help other adults complete their GED.

Dave Thomas’s success is not rare in our country because of the freedoms we enjoy, and like him and so many others, I am incredibly thankful to call America home. I have been privileged to travel the world and visit all of its major societies, but to be born in a land of opportunity for anyone willing to work hard is an unfathomable blessing that should never be taken for granted. As I learned growing up, even with all the economic turmoil that surrounds us today, entrepreneurial opportunities still exist for anyone who is willing to work hard and think innovatively.

The more stories I read about the success of people who applied themselves to make their lives better, the more motivated I am to be one of them. Knowledge really is power, and when I became a voracious reader, my confidence and grades improved accordingly. I needed little in the way of pep talks by adults, and today it is my strong belief that if you can just get children to believe in themselves and understand that when they achieve academically, they are the ultimate beneficiaries, they will do what is necessary to become a successful contributor rather than a drain on society.

God has opened many doors of opportunity throughout my lifetime, but I believe the greatest of those doors was allowing me to be born in the United States of America.

Growing up, I heard many complaints from those around me about poverty, but visiting such places as India, Egypt, and Africa has provided me with perspective on what poverty really is. Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people in the world live on less than two dollars a day. Many of those living in poverty in this country, in fact, would be considered quite wealthy by poor people in other countries. Also, here in the US, there is no caste system to determine one’s social status, so there are many opportunities for people to escape poverty without resorting to a life of crime. You are much more likely to be judged in this nation by your knowledge and the way you express yourself than you are by your pedigree. I’m not sure we realize how good we have it on this point.

As I mentioned earlier in the book, racial identity has also become significantly
less important in many segments of American society today, which is quite astonishing considering how strong racism was when I was a child. Considering the fact that prejudice is borne out of ignorance, I feel very optimistic about the future of race relations and diversity in America — something that in many countries around the world is worsening. This land was originally occupied by Native Americans, who were largely destroyed by European diseases to which they had no immunity. Hispanic populations then became the majority, followed by people of European ancestry. If you throw in the effects of slavery, East Indian and Asian immigration, and our lack of southern border controls today, you have a formula for perhaps the greatest human diversity on earth right here in the United States. That diversity, however, is a strength, because every group brings its own particular set of strengths to the table, and all have made very substantial contributions to the growth and development of our country. It is essential that we recognize these differences as the blessings they are.

When you look around the world — particularly at the Middle East right now — violent political turmoil is everywhere. Regime change in other parts of the world is often accompanied by bloodshed and severe upheaval. In 2008, our country experienced a radical political change of direction without firing a single bullet or taking a single prisoner. The ability to make such monumental changes without civil war is a mighty testament not only to our founders, but also to our current political leaders in all parties. If, in the future, our political leaders begin advocating violence to get their way, we should abandon them in droves and do everything possible to diminish their influence. Our system of representative government allows the people to periodically dismiss those elected officials who no longer represent their views. It is perhaps the most important civic duty of every citizen to inform themselves about the issues of the day and cast educated votes for people who truly represent their views. One should never vote for someone simply because they recognize their name or because of party designation. It is better to vote for no one at all than to cast an arbitrary vote. If all citizens take this duty seriously, there will be far less chance of our lifestyle and that of our children being hijacked by smooth-talking politicians.

Have you ever thought about how fortunate we are to have the right to privacy in such a technologically advanced society? Since 9/11 it has become increasingly important to monitor all suspicious activity in an attempt to prevent further terrorist attacks. One of the results of this monitoring has been the
discovery of some unsavory habits and characteristics of many otherwise outstanding citizens. To its credit, our government has not disclosed those findings or prosecuted the involved individuals because we still respect the right of all of our citizens to privacy as long as they are not infringing upon the rights of others. I realize that many “holier than thou” conservatives and even some liberals think we should use all gathered information about people they don’t care for, to discredit them. If and when this begins to happen, our country will become a nightmare akin to George Orwell’s novel
1984
. We must jealously guard every American citizen’s right to live as they please, again as long as they are not interfering with the rights of other Americans to do the same.

As a Bible-believing Christian, you might imagine that I would not be a proponent of gay marriage. I believe God loves homosexuals as much as he loves everyone, but if we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire. I don’t believe this to be a political view, but rather a logical and reasoned view with long-term benefits to family structure and the propagation of humankind. When children grow up in an environment with loving parents who provide security, they are free to be happy and playful and eager to learn. God obviously knew what he was doing when he ordained the traditional family, and we should not denigrate it in order to uplift some alternative.

However, I have no problem whatsoever with allowing gay people to live as they please, as long as they don’t try to impose their lifestyle on everyone else. Marriage is a very sacred institution and should not be degraded by allowing every other type of relationship to be made equivalent to it. If gays or non-gays wish to have some type of legal binding relationship that helps with the adjudication of property rights and other legal matters, I certainly have no problem with that, but to equate that with marriage is going further than necessary. Likewise, I have no problem with Muslims or other religious groups who want to practice their religion in their homes, which may be vastly different from traditional Judeo-Christian religion, as long as they don’t try to impose that on others or violate our laws. I could go on with other examples for quite some time, but I hope I have conveyed the wonderful freedom we enjoy as citizens of a government that protects the right to privacy.

I was recently watching a National Geographic special about baboons, and one of the things that shocked me was the fact that dominant female baboons who lose their babies often forcibly abduct the babies of subordinate females. Unfortunately, in many societies around the world, the strong prey upon the
weak like this. I am not naïve enough to believe that the same thing would not happen in our country if our police and military, backed by a moral government, were not available at a moment’s notice to stop such barbarous activity. We take for granted our ability to accumulate material goods and have them protected by the government, but this is by no means a universal right.

I have lived the vast majority of my life in the state of Maryland, but it is a wonderful feeling to know that I can move to Texas next week or Alaska or Hawaii or anyplace else I decide to live. Not only can I choose in which state I want to reside, but I don’t have to learn a new language or new customs. There are many parts of the world where chronic unemployment is the rule rather than the exception, and if I am unemployed and a new factory with thousands of job openings is announced in Idaho, I can quickly move there to take advantage of that opportunity. This means that if my priority is having a job rather than enjoying a location, I can almost always have a job. In my lifetime, I have held numerous jobs, from high school and college laboratory assistant to bank teller, to mailroom clerk, to assembly line worker, to radiology technician, to encyclopedia salesman, to student policeman, to Hollywood extra. Through all of these jobs, I have acquired knowledge and different skills, which are all very helpful to me today. In many societies, a person is pigeonholed into a single track, and basically has to spend their entire life working in that particular area. Here in the United States, however, we can go anywhere we want, take any job offered to us, and pursue the occupation of our choosing.

I also feel blessed to live in a country where I can openly choose and express my faith without fear of persecution. There are several places in the world today where conversion to Christianity will result in persecution or even execution. It is very sad that civilization has not advanced in some parts of the world to the point of being able to tolerate different ideas. In this country, we must guard against a tendency to require monolithic thought as imposed by political correctness. This is an insidious evil that robs people of their God-given desire to think for themselves. It is tyrannical and cruel, not even sparing young children in school. We must never forget that our nation was founded by people trying to escape religious intolerance and tyranny. Whenever we see these monsters raising their heads we should quickly slay them again.

When disasters occur in other countries, who is first on the scene with massive aid? The United States, of course. It does not matter whether the mishap befalls a friend or an enemy, we are always there. It doesn’t matter whether
it’s a very poor country such as Haiti or a very rich country such as Japan, we are still always there. Our compassion for and aid to other countries is unprecedented in the history of the world. Our compassion extends not only to food and material help during natural disasters, but during the recent Libyan civil war, we joined a multinational effort to prevent mass slaughter of the insurgents. Whether we can continue to be so generous in face of massive budgetary deficits remains to be seen, but we can certainly take pride in the historical humanitarian efforts of our nation.

When I was eight years old, I told my mother that I wanted to be a doctor.

“Benny,” she said, “you can be anything in this world you want to be.”

Although it was an arduous road filled with obstacles and grueling hours, I was able to realize my dream because of the generous freedoms we enjoy here in our nation. It is this ability of anyone to achieve their dreams that is perhaps the greatest thing about America.

There are few places in the world where people enjoy the level of freedom we have in America. Here you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to start a new career or move to a new location. You are free to associate with whomever you please, and you are free to speak your mind if you decide not to allow yourself to be constrained by political correctness. If you have a fabulous idea, you are free to put as much time and effort into it as you like, and if that idea results in a financial windfall, you are entitled to spend your money to your heart’s desire — after you have paid your taxes, of course. You can worship however you choose without fear of persecution. Even the poorest people in our society live like kings compared to billions of desperately poor people throughout the world.