Philosophy

In the 1995 movie An American President starring Annette Benning and Michael Douglas as President Andrew Shepherd, he tells us what it means to be an American President. If I may paraphrase his speech in order to give what, in my opinion, it means to be an American citizen.

For numerous years a number of individuals have been telling me that being a citizen of this country is to a certain extent about character. Although I have not been willing to engage in their attacks on me, I have been searching for truth for over 35 years, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being a citizen of this country is entirely about character.

I may not be a card carrying member of the ACLU, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t support its goals. The more important question is: Why doesn’t every American citizen support its goals.

Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights. So it naturally begs the question: Why would someone who claims to be a loyal citizen of the United States choose to reject upholding the Constitution? Now if you can answer that question then you’re smarter than I am because I didn’t understand it until a few years ago.

America isn’t easy! America is advanced citizenship. You have to want it bad, because it’s going to put up a fight. It’s going to say: You want free speech, let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil; whose standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you have spent a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

You want to claim that this land is the land of the free then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that and celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free and pledge allegiance to the Constitution.

I’ve listened to the liberals and conservatives for years and I was operating under the assumption that the reason they devote so much time and energy shouting at each other was because the liberals believed that the conservatives simply didn’t get it, and the conservatives believed that the liberals simply didn’t get it.

Well I was wrong. The conservative’s problem isn’t that the liberals don’t get it. Their problem is that they can’t sell it. The liberal’s problem isn’t that the conservatives don’t get it. Their problem is that they too can’t sell it.

We have serious problems to solve and we need serious people to solve them. Whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, neither the conservatives nor the liberals are the least bit interested in solving it. They are interested in two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it and telling you who to blame for it. That ladies and gentlemen is how you win elections.

They gather a group of middle-aged, middle class, middle income voters who remember with longing the easier times, and they talk to them about family and American values and character. Then they wave an old photo of an American war veteran and they scream at them about patriotism and tell them who is to blame for their problems.

They go on television and they tell them what laws we have to make. They lobby for laws that only chip away at our civil rights and liberties. They make laws that do not represent the true interests of public schools or the safety of our environment. If these extremists want a character debate then they better be careful when they come at me because I am way out of their league.

We have to write laws that make sense. For example, we have to make laws that will protect our environment and the individual from big business, and yet these same laws have to allow business the opportunity to grow.

We have to write laws that will address crime prevention, and we cannot address crime prevention unless we educate our children and get rid of assault weapons and handguns. I consider both ignorance and guns a threat to everyone’s security and I’m going to convince Americans that the key to peace is through the proper education of the citizenry and the outlawing of all guns.

We’ve got serious problems and we need serious people to solve them. If they want to talk about character and being an American citizen, then they better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If they want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when and I’ll show up.

This is a time for serious people and their 15 minutes are up. My name is Peter Jude Fagan and I am serious about defending the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

America is advanced citizenship. In order to be a loyal American you have to defend the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights because that is what this country is all about. That is what makes this country strong, particularly the Bill of Rights. The stronger the Bill of Rights then the stronger is the government.

One knows this to be true because who is going to support a government that does not grant them their basic God given rights? The more rights the government gives to the citizens then the more loyalty the citizens give back to the government.

In order to be a loyal American you have to defend another person’s right to proclaim that which you do not believe in. You have to defend another person’s right to exercise his right to do something that you don’t like doing. It isn’t easy to do this. It takes advanced citizenship to do it. It takes courage to do it.

The weak and the cowardly cannot do it. Those who hate America cannot do it. They are too bogged down in their own corruption and in their hate. They are too filled with their own selfishness and intolerance.

In order to be an advanced citizen you have to rise above your own personal feelings and prejudice. You have to grant everyone, including those who hold a different point of view, the right to pursue their own life style, regardless of how repulsive that life style may be to you.

In order to be an advanced citizen you have to grant those individuals whom you do not like the same rights and privileges that you yourself want to possess. This, in part, is loving one’s neighbor. It is the beginning of truth and justice.

I frequently hear liberals criticizing conservatives and conservatives condemning liberals. I hear those citizens on the political right saying: America love it or leave it. Then I turn around and hear those citizens on the political left saying: America change it or lose it.

The problem is that the conservatives are not listening to the liberals, and they in turn are not listening to the conservatives. Both the conservatives and the liberals are looking at the same problems but from two different points of view. Both also have an insight into the solutions to our problems. But, as I said, neither side is listening to the other side.

I say: America, love it or leave it. But if you love it enough to stay here then you better change it because if you don’t then you are going lose it.

Our laws must protect the environment or our children will face disaster in the future. There is only a limited amount of resources and a limited amount of space on this “spaceship” we call Earth. We cannot have big business (A.K.A. mega-corporations) destroying our forests, poisoning our waterways and polluting our air. We cannot allow big business to continue disregarding the rights of the individual. We must put checks on them or all of us – including big business – will be left without a future.

The problem is that without these mega-corporations we would not have many of the modern conveniences that we enjoy today. Without big business we would not have the technology we have today. Therefore, we must allow big business the opportunity to prosper and to grow.

But at the same time we cannot allow them to destroy our environment or trample on the rights of the individual. Nor can we allow the mega-corporations to become victims to every quack lawyer seeking to make a quick dollar with some frivolous lawsuit. Our laws must also protect the mega-corporations from this type of legalized theft.

I am not trying to walk a fence here with some kind of middle of the road philosophy that appeals to everyone. To find the solutions to our problems we have to look at both the whole picture and the individual parts. We have to look to the future and the hear and now. We have to defend the rights of the small and weak as well as the big and strong.

In my bedroom I have a photomontage of Yoda from the Star Wars movies. The mosaic is made up of thousands of little pictures from several of the Star Wars movies. When you stand back, away from it, the only thing you can see is Yoda. It is only when you get up close that you can see the small individual pictures. (I am here reminded of Rom.12:4-5 and 1Cor.10:17.)

Well, our laws have to do the same thing. Our laws have to see the whole picture as well as the individual parts. They have to protect the rights of the individual as well as the rights of the group. Our laws have to protect the environment as well as business, the small proprietor as well as the mega-corporation, the political left as well as the political right.

Our laws have to protect the rich and the poor, the big and the small, the strong and the weak, the important and the unimportant. This is what I meant by stating that we have serious problems and we need serious people to solve them. This is not an easy task and each and every one of us is going to have to give a little in order to solve these problems. To have anything less is to invite eventual destruction.

Nor I am trying to walk a fence here by advocating a compromise. As I have said elsewhere: Sometimes our laws must follow the liberal path; sometimes our laws must follow the conservative path and sometimes our laws must be a compromise. But our laws must never allow the extreme left or the extreme right to prevail.

Finding the correct solutions to our problems can only come through intelligent, logical debate with those who hold a different point of view. Those doing the debate must also be totally truthful in stating their goals. There can be no hidden agenda or objectives. These latter are the most important and lasting points because without honesty in the discussions then the only thing that will be accomplished is chaos.

The liberals and conservatives are constantly arguing over which road to take because they are not being totally objective and honest with each other in their stated goals. This is ludicrous! By being totally honest with ourselves and with our neighbor, the correct path to follow will open before us and we will find the peace for which we are searching.

Many will disagree with this. But I am not the first to proclaim that we can have a paradise here on earth if only we are totally truthful in everything we do. This is what the prophet Baruch meant when he said that we would have peace forever if we only obeyed the law of God (Bar.3:12-13). This is what Jesus Christ meant when He said that the truth will set you free (Jn.8:32). This is the philosophy I outlined in God’s Mystery Tour in the on-line manuscript Alpha Omega.

Following this philosophy, together we can build a world without contamination, without corruption and without crime. By following truth tempered with wisdom and justice tempered mercy and being logical and rational in all our actions we will have peace on earth.

An American Citizen