Great things come by change: part 4

If great men like Benjamin Franklin had not changed their minds at some point, the great world we have today would never have come to fruition.

There are times when we must all look at ourselves, bite our pride, and make changes in our opinion. I’m sure this wasn’t easy for Franklin, but not any easier was it for Ronald Reagan. King John was utterly forced to change, but that’s how things had to be done back then. I mean, no one is going to simply give up that much power without being forced to do it.

Actually, this is why most wars occur. Some people will not change unless they are forced to change. Hitler in WWII is a good example. He was a ruthless dictator who had no reservations whatsoever about taking away the God given rights of people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and exchanging it with death or fear in order to obtain his objectives.

A man like this will not change on his own accord.

Many people forget that, for hundreds of years, the people of Germany were raised to be a unified fighting machine. From the time Germans were born they were trained to fight. They knew no other way of life. They, like the Spartans of earlier times, were not trained in the arts of love and respect for life, but to hate and fear.

While other nations of Europe were prospering in Democracy and Capitalism and learning how to get along with other nations in a smaller world, the Germans were planning how they might take advantage of this for their own benefit. Then Hitler came along.

If it weren’t for men like FDR and Churchill, we might have been forced to live by the old German way. Instead, the Germans lost WWII and were forced to give up their rogue ways and join the rest of the West as a prospering and free nation, and the people of Germany have never been happier.

While most nations of the West have respect for their people, there are still many rogue nations out their where people live in fear, and are taught to hate and envy people who live in more prosperous nations like America and Europe and Israel.

Instead of allowing people to enjoy their God given freedoms and creating a market suitable to success, the rulers of these nations inculcate fear and hate of richer nations. Instead of teaching their people how to create their own businesses and become rich themselves, instead of teaching them to love and respect people of other religions, they are taught to hate and destroy those who do not live as they do.

Japan and Germany were once like this, but once their rulers decided to take their hate and fear to other nations in WWII, they were forced to change. Now nations like Iran, Syria and North Korea are among the most feared nations of the world. They cannot stand to see a nation like Israel prospering, and they can only hope the insurgencies in Iraq succeed so the people in Iraq aren’t allowed to live in freedom and happiness.

This behavior, in essence, has created an environment for terrorism. Since the people are forced to live in poverty, there are no taxes to collect for the totalitarian regimes to get rich, so they allow groups like Al Qaeda to surreptitiously live among them to plan and plot how to make the rest of the world unhappy too.

The only way to stop this was to force change. The West had to change its way of dealing with terrorists, and countries that harbor terrorists had to be stopped. Thus, the post 9-11 world was set in motion.

In the 1920s, Winston Churchill warned Europe of what Germany was up to, and nobody listened until a great war broke out and millions of people died. On September 11, 2001, 3,000 people died and the sleeping giant that is America woke up to see that these terrorists were on the surge.

And now America is falling back to sleep. George Bush seems to be the only one willing to take on the fight, while even people in his own nation turn against him. An old saying states that people have short memories, and thus six years without a terrorist attack on our territory seems like a lifetime ago to most.

I suppose, in this way, George Bush has succeeded: Americans no longer live in fear. And, when people do not live in fear, they see no need to fight a war. Bush, like Churchill before him, has not taken his eye off the enemy. The difference between Churchill in 1920 and Bush in 2007 is that Bush is in charge of the military.

So, as long as the world has a vigilant leader in office, the terrorists will remain on defence where they belong.

While we may not normally need to go to war, we must never put our guard down. We must accept that there will always be rulers of nations out their who want to destroy what we have in America. And, while the odds are against a hero like Ben Franklin or Ronald Reagan arising in one of those nations, change is still needed.

How the people of Japan ran their country was none of our concern until they killed our men for their cause. Same thing with Germany.

And if the Muslim world wants to treat its people poorly, all the power to them. But the moment they decided to force us to change from Christians to Muslims by killing innocent people and causing fear, we had no choice but to respond.

In rare instances like this, war is a must. Why? Because evil people do not give up great power and wealth unless they are forced to do so. Just ask King John.

So, I’m sure some of you are asking yourself right about now, "So, why don’t you ask Bush to change his stance on this war? Isn’t he simply being stubborn?"

Bush has changed. He has opened his eyes wide to the dangers of terrorism. He has lead all Americans into a post-9-11 world.

Bush was re-elected in 2004 to win the war on terror. He cannot stop protecting Americans just because Americans feel safe, or just because someone criticizes him, or just because some poll comes out saying Americans no longer support him.

He said right after 9-11 it was going to be a long war, and opinions in every war change from day to day. Lincoln’s war was very unpopular until just before the election of 1864. Even FDR lost control of the House and Senate during his 6th year in office (just like Bush.) But he didn’t stop doing what he thought was best for America because of this.

My hope is that some day the entire world can enjoy a surging economy as America is today. I hope for a world where there is plenty of food available for everyone, and happiness galore.

I pray for a world where the biggest stresser for people is how they are going to change themselves by losing weight or responding to the latest gossip about them.

I pray for a world where everyone has a chance to enjoy fantasy sports, writing for fun, spending time with their children and enjoying every moment of life as I do.

This is why I appreciate men like Reagan and FDR and Franklin. What I, we, enjoy today is because of men like these, and the millions who suffered and died before us, and the many who changed for the benefit of mankind.

Change may not always be great, but great things come by change. Sometimes we have no choice but to change, other times we simply look at the man or woman in the mirror.