StraightUpAmerican.com

Those who have forgotten need to be reminded, and those too young to know need to be taught.

Like so many others I try my hardest to keep up with the important issues and current events of the day. But, with all the demands that work, family and community place on our time it’s near to impossible to actually keep up. I sometimes suspect that we are all too busy to remain fully informed by design, but that’s a political conspiracy theory I’ll save for another day.

I’ve come to realize, though, that by trying to keep up with every issue I am not truly keeping up with any. While I may be somewhat familiar with the issues surrounding border security and immigration, terrorism and terrorists, tax reform, the economy, the environment, our health, our military conflicts, education, the oil spill in the gulf, and the ongoing tragedy of Lindsay Lohan, just to name a few, I can not hope to become and remain fully informed on all of them. So, what’s a voter to do?

I have decided that for the time being and for the foreseeable future I’m going to pick one as my primary issue. I’ll still follow the other important issues, of course, but my primary issue will be my focus. And, this primary issue is going to be tax reform, or more specifically the FairTax.

The November elections will soon be upon us and all the candidates will march about saying all the things they think we want to hear. Their position on most issues is predictable. No candidate is going to come out against border security, or for terrorism. Their positions on most issues will differ only by degrees and approach.

But, the issue of the FairTax is a line in the sand. The FairTax specifically proposes the abolishment of the federal income tax, and its replacement with a national consumption tax. American citizens, tourists, immigrants, anyone who spends money in America at the retail level will contribute to our national coffers. We determine how much tax we pay by how much we spend, and everyone pays the same percentage amount. The government’s ability to control the Country by manipulating the tax code goes away. And, any political candidate who supports handing the reins of the Country back over to the citizens of the Country by passing and enacting the FairTax is worthy of serious consideration.

I chose this as my primary issue because I am convinced that passing the FairTax plan is the single most important step we can take in preserving this republic of the United States of America. Our politicians and our government have become corrupt beyond reason and they will not correct themselves. Only by forcing them to relinquish their power to manipulate the flow of money can we hope to find equilibrium.

This is not to say that the other issues we face are not equally important, but I believe the FairTax is our best chance of returning our Country to prosperity through government by the people.

So, in the coming months we will be looking more closely at the FairTax plan and how it is meant to work. We will also look into the political candidates who support it or don’t support, as well as those who merely claim to support it as a bid for your vote.

If you want to learn more about the FairTax I urge you to visit the Americans for Fair Taxation Web site at www.FairTax.org.

Watch a Retired Marine wow the crowd with his rendition of the final verse of the Star Spangled Banner.

The Star Spangled Banner
1814
Words by Francis Scott Key, Music by John Stafford Smith

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep.
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the Star-Spangled Banner! O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the Star-Spangled Banner, in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: “In God is our Trust.”
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

The National Anthem Project

This Cold War-era cartoon uses humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism. The dangers that it points out are the same as those our freedoms face today except that now those dangers are in the halls of power right here in Washington, D.C. Give it a look and if it doesn’t give you pause then you’re just not paying attention.