"You say you want a revolution. Well, you know..."

"You say you want a revolution. Well, you know..."  So sang the Beatles back in 1968.

But the fact is that few "revolutions" work out well, or work out at all. That's a historical fact.

It shouldn't surprise us. Few ideas work out. Few last. What is old is not better because it is old. But it is often better because it has been tested. That's why it is still around. In simple terms "it worked."

The American revolution did work. Some see that as a near miracle -- one suggesting divine favor. Others see it as the one in a million that came together because a certain, rare, group of brilliant, imaginative, bold, studious, history-knowing men were together at the right time -- and that was "miracle" enough.

To say the American revolution "worked" is not hype. It is not partisan. Nor is it blind acceptance. Simply put, it did. It accomplished what it set out to accomplish and benefited -- this in very real ways -- more people than any other single act of man.

But that is not to say that it does not have enemies. Nor those who for any number of reason wish to see it undone.

Nor does it suggest that it is the end all/be all of human progress.

On the other hand this can be said: Those trying to bring it down today -- including those who say they are trying to "improve it" be it via "fundamental change" from within, or from without via riots and destruction, have shown no reason whatever why they should be either believed or trusted.

Few "brilliant" ideas pass the test of time and experience. And the ideas being put forth today are not even that. They are built on shallow thinking, almost childish word play, ignored contradictions -- and to the extent they have been tested -- and some have been tested! -- they have proved devastating to those upon whom that test has been conducted.

Anyone honest and wishing to see can find this out. Historically it is so. Internationally it is even now proving so. And even domestically one need just look at the places where its "ideas" have been tried and look at the results.

Human beings can for a time rationalize anything that offers them a seeming advantage. But a look at American prosperity and how it has proven open and advantageous to such a wide range of people demonstrates that the central truths of the American Revolution STILL are the best hope for, not only "mankind," but for each of us as individuals.

"Life." "Liberty" "The pursuit of happiness" -- each come to the degree that an individual personally applies the life principles that first led to the American Revolution, and then to its lasting success.

These principles may be considered 'old hat,' "bourgeois," "middle class" or any of a hundred other names put upon it. But 'cut to the proverbial chase' and one finds that their truths still are just that: Truths.

That hard work pays.
That free people are the most productive people.
That personal responsibility is required.
The dependency fails.
That the 'old fashioned" moral values are constant.

That all the above especially matters in youth -- when it must be taught.

That parents can pass these principles and modes of thinking and living along by word and example, but that no other method of teaching them is nearly as reliable.

That denying traditional moral values, and calling debased things by fancy new names, does not change their long term effects.

That the so-called "Judeo-Christian ethic" builds better, happier, lives for both individual people, and for communities, than any other tried method.

That short cuts to contentment --- be they high or low, practiced by the rich or the poor -- that ignores all the above simply do not work.

America -- the one given to us by our forebears -- does work. Is working.

Cut out the clamor. Look about you. The above is as true today as it ever was.

That is not a "belief." It is a fact.



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