America First (a Saturday column) By: Jarrin Jackson
The best leaders I ever had in the Army never gambled with bad news. They embraced it and told us the truth – not to make us afraid, but prepared.
China’s coronavirus has ended America’s vacation from history.
Our vacation started in 1945 after we won WW2 and became one of the world’s superpowers.
Superpower status gave us the freedom to focus on domestic issues like gender equality & race. The “Pill” and the Civil Rights era were not national security issues in the least – they were behaviors of an inward looking country. In 1965, our immigration system was changed to allow war-torn families from Europe to reunite. It wasn’t long until a family-focused policy became dominated by cheap-labor-loving special interests. And instead of reuniting war-torn families, it incentivized 25% of Mexico to move to California.
Our vacation has had cheap goods and services – and those distracted us from seeing our manufacturing & other industries move to foreign markets; but we always enjoy those discounts at Wal-Mart! This vacation also distracted us from family and God. “No fault” divorce made it easy to break our vows. The Great Society made government responsible for helping the poor and the sick (and the annoying, am I right?). The “moral majority” made Christianity about winning elections instead of winning souls.
Our vacation has hollowed out our institutions – the family, churches, small businesses, and colleges.
We have a system of stock speculation, mass migration to replace the babies murdered in the womb, colleges that teach that men can give birth, and people whose faith is private and dim. Enter the China Virus.
In less than one week, America has seen how shallow the luxuries of our vacation are, and while some will die, many will get sick, and hundreds of millions will be hurt financially, this virus will be a refiner’s fire.
The China Virus will be the cure to our vacation. It will put our focus back on our families. It will force businesses to get lean. It will require government to put citizens first. It will muzzle social issues like LGBTQ. It will empower parents to control their kids’ education. It will strengthen our borders and limit immigration. It will turn people to God out of fear, not power.
America has an enemy. We can’t see it. We don’t understand it. While that’s bad news, it teaches us one incredible lesson: our normal is insufficient.
We HAVE to change. The changes that HAVE to be made all point to lives of responsibility, family, and faith.