Imagine

I was helping my daughter with some Social Studies homework. She was answering some questions about the Declaration of Independence. In the process, I actually read the Declaration. It is, of course, a stirring document from beginning to end. I was particularly struck by the last line. It reads as follows:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor".

Contrast this with the opening lines of John Lennon's well-known song, "Imagine".

"Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or to die for. No religion, too".

It strikes me that we have reached a point in the United States when more people are drawn to Lennon's vision than to the sentiments of the Founders. What is important enough to fight for, to die for? Yesterday's headlines spoke of the cost of the "surge" in Iraq as being 3 times greater than initially estimated. War critics regularly speak of the loss of "life and treasure" in Iraq. The Iraq War and the whole war on terror seem to be just too hard for many Americans.

The Founding Fathers pledged their lives, wealth and honor to the cause of liberty; the right of free people to be governed only by their consent. Many of them did, in fact, forfeit their lives and property. Obviously, it was a great and just cause. Just as obviously, reasonable people can differ on whether the Iraq War and the war on terror are great and just causes. But when I listen to many anti-war critics, the feeling I get is that they do not believe any cause is sufficiently important to fight for.

As I've noted in previous posts, I am worried that America has become a decadent society. We seem more concerned with our hi-tech toys and creature comforts than with any abstract ideas like combatting terrorism or spreading democracy.

We in the West may think Lennon's Utopian vision is attainable. Unfortunately, hard-nosed totalitarian leaders in China and Russia and radical Islamists in the Middle East have different notions. There are ideas and goals they are still willing to kill for. Willing or not, we in the West may die at their hands unless we show there are things we would still fight about.