# “I’m not sure what this ping list is”
It is simply some of the people on FR whom I respect. (There are many, and I did not manage to capture every last one of them!)
I wrote down names because my poor little pea brain isn’t up to the task of remembering all the specifics of some of the creative handles people have! Ie, is that name capitalized or is there a space? Which spelling did they use? You know, that kind of thing. As you are very likely aware, there is no way to look up other FReeper handles on our web site. It is not a ping list per say. I do not often initiate an article, much less a vanity, so I decided to write to people on FReeRepublic whom I hoped might be interested.
#”But “4” is only true if you do “5”. Ignorant voting is probably worse than not voting at all. Ignorant voting is not the same as mistaken voting that’s done in good faith. But voting just to vote without an without an idea of what and why you’re voting for something is basically useless IMO.”
Well taken. That is a good point. Since these are steps, I can see that the 4th step does hinge on education, so the 5th step should come before the 4th one.
#I appreciate your explaining how the 1st and 6th steps would rub you the wrong way. I understand now. What I was forgetting was the perverted lens through which the progressives view commitment and devotion to a cause. They continually demand that we give up everything to the State and sacrifice ourselves for others. They do NOT want people to be personally accountable. (This could explain why we have such a litigious society. No one wants to be accountable for their own actions.)
What has happened is that they constantly demand and seek to persuade the “Little Red Hens” and the “Ants” to support the “Unworking Eaters” and “Grasshoppers” perpetually in their self indulgent lifestyles. All too often they ARE successful in that persuasion.
I was coming at it in the way that I choose to believe our Founders and early patriots approached their cause. The key word here, in my mind, is “accountability.” Those soldiers with bleeding feet in the snow at Valley Forge and marching to cross the Delaware with Washington were not committed to the State, or to a prince. They were loyal to a great leader, but they took personal accountability for their lives and they knew that their lives and the lives of their families and neighbors could and would be so much better if they gave the full measure. That is true, noble sacrifice. It is true selflessness, and not the giving of one’s self in order for that giving to be misused.
Kennedy’s words, in this regard IMHO could be taken either way. One who DOES love America, DOES look to see what can be done as a good free citizen to further our nation. Those who are on the side of the “Grasshoppers” can see it as a good statement which could easily dupe the “Ants” into being forthcoming.
Thank you for your comments and for making me think!
Many like myself love America because it is "US" (U.S.). America is "US". Kennedy's choice is off the radar of freedom-loving Americans. The question is not either what can country do for me or what can I do for country. It's how do I want to live my life as I choose with a grateful heart that I live in a country that allows me to do so. That choice may very well be "public service" but it is a FREE, not coerced, choice hopefully made for the right reasons.
Kennedy's focus centered on "country" (he wasn't around long enough to show the full display of his ambivalent and double-minded socialism but his bothers, especially Ted Kennedy, showed all what the Kennedy's were really all about).
Americans' focus is not obligations to country but rather freedom to build individual lives and families as they see fit.
:-)