Posted on 06/25/2008 9:29:09 PM PDT by Uncle Ralph
[Heritage Lecture #1090 -- Delivered April 24, 2008]
... It is likewise an honor to be here tonight and to speak to you of responsibility, because I'm keenly aware of the fact that in this room tonight we have an entire army of crusaders for freedom. ... I admire you and thank you for the hard work that you do. You and your colleagues do this because you love and are dedicated to the simple idea of human liberty. You see it as your birthright, and you fight on its behalf. You understand that man precedes the state, and that the state, limited as it must be, exists for man, and not man for the state.
This is an idea with a long philosophical heritage and pedigree, but also an idea that must be fought for anew in every successive generation. We must renew that critical engagement, not just with regard to the how of freedom, but also, I think, with regard to the why --the more metaphysical questions. I fear that if freedom is lost on our watch, it will be lost because we have lost the memory of its roots, and have become fascinated only with its practicality and its efficiencies.
Efficiency, of course, is important. But remember this: The fact that one can accomplish something doesn't tell us whether that thing ought to have been accomplished. We have to look deeper, and my fear is that many today live off of the legacy of that heritage without refreshing, in each age, our grasp of why freedom was born. Let me illustrate it in this way. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at heritage.org ...
Ask Franklin, Madison, Washington, Adams, Jefferson...
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