What Will You Tell Your Children?

By Louis Beam

What will you tell your children when the long dark night of state tyranny descends upon America? Will you tell them the truth? Or will you pretend to them that you did not know?

You have allowed yourself to be fooled for many years. That is why America is in the political, religious, moral, and social decay it is in. It was easier for you to watch television than to bring the POW's home from Vietnam. It was easier to attend sporting events then to replace your corrupt congressmen or president with an honest one. It was easier to vote for the lesser of two evils or not at all rather than to work for those who you were told did not have a chance of winning. It was easier for you to be politically correct, jeer, and make sarcastic comments about "patriots," gun owners," and "religious right wingers" than to join with fellow countryman who were concerned about your homeland. It was easier to believe lies than to search out the truth.

Because you have taken the easy way out, life will not be easy henceforward, not for you, your children, and those you have made fun of.

You have betrayed not only your countrymen, but the past, present, and future. Your ancestors passed on to you the sacred torch of liberty. You personally, by inaction, have allowed it to be almost extinguished. The present moment, this brief time you were given here on earth, was your moment, your chance to give meaning to your life, to make a difference, to leave this earth a better place than you had found it. Instead, the future you have bequeathed to your children, will be because of your complacence and inaction, an ugly one of little happiness, safety, and freedom. All of this so you could take the easy way out.

It was easier for you, oh weak man, to do nothing rather than to do anything. You thereby leave your children nothing of value. Nothing lasting. You bequeath to them a hollow existence, the toy of tyrants, the slave of evil men. What will you tell your children?

Future generations shall curse your name, your grave, and your memory. But worse yet, what will you tell your children when they ask you why the long dark night has descended upon them?