OK.
I’ll admit it.
There are probably two things that will keep me in Virginia: the beach and Williamsburg. (And, perhaps, “Bearing Drift”…but that’s just crazy talk.)
Today, my family and I did our yearly ritual: outlet shopping at the “Colonial Capital”.
I cannot begin to describe the deals. I even picked up a pair of UV/polarized shades for $10. (maybe I’ll finally be cool…perhaps, not).
But perhaps the best part of the excursion was what my significant other and significant little one did way past everyone’s bedtime.
Long after Merchant’s Square had turned their last deadbolt, we sojourned after dinner into the colonial city. Each little house and each little window had a candle. In front of the governor’s mansion burned cauldrons welcoming guests for an evening of dancing and dining. And, the streets were as silent as the crunch of our footsteps on pea-gravel.
This got me to thinking (uh-oh, here it comes).
In this beautiful city of liberty, where a man (and woman’s) virtue is tied to self-sufficiency, individual ingenuity, and personal accountability, why (and where) have we strayed so far?
What would George Wythe think of today’s debate of an automobile bailout?
Where would Thomas Jefferson stand on foreign interventionism to keep fuel prices low?
How would Patrick Henry react to Indians in Bangalore servicing questions about our computers that are built in China?
In the peaceful, quiet, and chilly streets of the colonial corner that helped give birth to the greatest republic and most powerful nation ever conceived by mankind’s virtues, I wondered where it was all coming apart?
Are we at an end, where “experts” in Washington DC dictate to us which companies are worth the investment and which companies are doomed too fail?
Are we at an end where “experts” in Washington DC dictate to us which doctors are worth treating us and which ones we shouldn’t bother paying?
Are we at an end where “experts” in Washington DC dictate to us which radio personalities we should listen to and which ones should be sent off the air?
Are we at an end where “experts” in Washington DC dictate to us which how workers should vote, vice allowing them the privacy of their convictions?
I walked the streets of Williamsburg tonight – a city that has captured a life long past our modern imaginations and I saw liberty. But, tonight, in my home that is equipped with all the modern conveniences of two-hundred plus years of ingenuity and competition, typing on my computer and communicating with you, my friends, in an instant, I see the end of our forefathers’ great experiment.
I see the end of liberty. The end of personal accountability. The explosion of big government. The advent of authoritarianism.
But, I always hope. Becuase, every year, we go to Williamsburg…
