Where is John Galt When You Need Him?

In Ayn Rand’s highly successful novel, Atlas Shrugged, the characters ask the question “Who is John Galt?” not because they wanted the answer or believed he existed, but rather as the unknowable and a statement of their own sense of hopelessness.

The people felt victimized by a government sworn to protect them.

The real question is, “Where is John Galt?” Where are the men of intelligence and integrity who seek to serve the country and not pander to power barons?

Our founding fathers had hopes for the nation never before dreamed of in the history of mankind. They pledged their lives and their fortunes to insure America would offer opportunity to men and women who had the courage to accept the gift of freedom and guard it well.

Jean Jacque Rousseau, not exactly the poster child for the religious right, said, “Everything is good when it leaves the hands of the Creator—everything degenerates in the hands of men.” Unlike Europe where they believed authority was given to kings and passed down to the citizens, the architects of our republic believed rights and power came from God to the people who loaned it to those who governed.

We are a nation who has lost its soul.

Like a country of teenagers who want all the privileges and none of the responsibilities, we clamor for government to do more. Would our founding fathers look down on us today and find us worthy of the sacrifices they made?

At Valley Forge and Concorde Square, at Gettysburg and Guadalcanal, the freedom fighters marched down the pages of history to keep America free for Americans.

Will we like Rome be destroyed by our differences, or can we come together through our heritage and history which has been trampled under for the sake of political gain? God and morality have become grist for the media mill. They fan the flames of discontent with gender-wars and race-wars. Are we to follow in the steps of Rome who became so divided and so diverse no one could govern her?

This is America—and we are Americans.

Our fight is not with Republicans and Democrats. It’s with us. It’s with the demands we make on the government to take care of us. When you take from producers to give to non-producers, the producers stop producing. Jobs disappear.

If big government and more welfare programs held the answer to our needs, Russia and Cuba would be the greatest nations on earth. It hasn’t worked for them and it won’t work for us.

No government has the ability to filter morality through its own corruption. No government has the power to legislate virtue. It can be demonstrated by them, but morality and virtue come from learning right from wrong, making moral choices, and placing great value on it by doing what’s right.

In his famous commencement address at Harvard University on June 6th, 1978, Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “The defense of individual rights has reached such extremes as to make society as a whole defenseless against certain individuals. It is time, in the West, to defend not so much human rights as human obligations.”

In its infancy America held to the belief that a strong America was one that worked hard and honored God. Today the message seems to be work as little as possible and don’t mention God.
The cost has been our greatness.

Morally strong civilizations have prospered, whereas corruption has always been their demise.
Men must be free to dream their own dreams, and not dictated to by the government. But they must understand the cost is self-discipline through right choices.

Maybe there aren’t any John Galts to save us. Perhaps it’s up to us to save ourselves.

The quote borrowed by John F. Kennedy for his State of the Union address resonates still, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” Don’t confuse that with reckless spending by congress. That’s a big part of the problem. It’s about personal responsibility.
We’ll take back our alabaster cities and clean them up. We’ll once again breathe the air of freedom over the fruited plains, and say to our healthy in body neighbor, “I’ll give you a hand up, but not a hand out.” We’ll deal with the morally corrupt on both sides of the aisle and find men of truth and integrity to lead.

We’ll stop telling people how oppressed they are and tell them what an opportunity they have. The message should be that each one of us is important and has a job to do that will make life better for ourselves and others—not because there’s a gun to our head, but because that’s who we are, a responsible nation who cares for those really in need and demands effort from those able to exchange work for a paycheck. We’ll be proud of who we are.

Perhaps then, collectively and individually, silently and aloud, we’ll be able to say again, “God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her…” Amen.