Here's what vast numbers of your grandparents and great grandparents, largely a nation of immigrants, experienced, believed and lived by example at the turn of the 20th century - They understood these truths applied to both themselves as individuals and to the greatness of the greatest of nations.
"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
- The Rev. William John Henry Boetcker, 1916
Their values, these values, among others were passed onto their children, who described later as America's "greatest generation" during the Second World War fought, sacrificed and died to secure our freedoms from world wide tyranny and despotism .
In some fashion or other many of these ideas, if not all of them, sound yet familiar. Their timeless appeal and relevance and truth still resonate intuitively with many people today.
But will their legacy survive and endure or fall - before the same progressive socialism, despotism and tyranny those earlier immigrants sought refuge from in America ?
"The people will save their government. If the government itself will allow them." - A. Lincoln
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