This is the FCNB podcast network, our brains Masoda day that we won't was Maath and then we won't to say, oh we got it does? No one can take that Owen, don't day. This gonna be okay? Our prayers as day that we won't to say and then we won't to say, oh we got it does? No one can take that oway don't say this don't be okay. Happy Independence Day, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself with Kira Davis. And this is a great week for America. This is a week where we celebrate our independence, our hard, fought, hard one independence. And I was trying to think of what I wanted to do for today's episode. I didn't want to get into analyzing arguments or you know, breaking down some negative things that are going on, because here's the thing. I want us to feel positive about July fourth this year. There's so much negativity flying around out there, well deserved. We're in an election year. We just went through those horrible debates. I broke those debates down for you on the last show. And it's been a really, really testing period for our nation in the last decade, particularly and there's lots to complain about. I don't need to break it all down for you. You're thinking of five things right now, and I know you're scared. I know you're concerned, and I know you're worried. But I do think that there is value. And this is why we set a time, a side time as a nation to do these things like Thanksgiving and like July forth. This is why we do this because it does behoove us to set aside time as a corporate body to recognize and be grateful for the blessings of liberty and of this nation. It matters. That's biblical. Even God has set aside Holy days, right, These things matter when nations, When the Nation of Israel was struggling and needed victory, or needed freedom, or needed food, any kind of provision, the Lord would instruct them to set aside a time of worship, a time of sacrifice, a time of national fasting or mourning or something. There is actual real world value to a nation pausing for a moment and coming together and a spirit of in treatment or thankfulness or otherwise. And so I don't want us to get caught up in all the negativity of everything. I want us to think about this week all of the ways America has blessed us. And I know, for me, almost every good thing in my life has come to me as a result of being a citizen of this country. And so I am extremely grateful. I wasn't born here, but I chose to be here. I'm so grateful that my father was an American and that he helped me become an American. I'm so grateful. I'm ever grateful to him for that. He wasn't a great dad, but I will always be so grateful for the efforts he made to help me become an American. And that's my American dream, and that's my American story. So I want you to think about yours. So I want you this week to think about all of the wonderful things about this nation, about your community and why we love it and why it deserves to be preserved. But today I thought, okay, I'm going to go through I was reading through some presidential speeches. I was looking for inspiration for the holiday, and I came across George Washington's farewell address in seventeen ninety six. This is not a July fourth address, but as I was reading, I was struck by how relevant his messages still today to the America we see today. And it made me think about how when we're talking about this country and when we're having debates and arguments over what did our founding fathers mean? Particularly, is the Second Amendment all? They could never have foreseen machine guns or whatever, and therefore what they said then is invalid. We do not give the founding fathers of this nation enough credit for their pressience or intelligence. They understood, i would say, even more so than we do today. They understood how frail liberty is because they came right up against that frailty and they won their freedom against the world's lone superpower. They defeated the greatest navy on the face of the planet. That was how desperate they were for liberty. So they knew. We make the mistake of assuming that they lived in some kind of simpler time. It really wasn't. It was more divisive than than it is today. Crazy enough, they didn't have elections to depend on, they didn't have a constitution to depend on. They didn't even have a union to depend on. They were so very divided and yet found a way to come together in this singular cause of liberty. And when I was reading this address, I was thinking about how wow, he really predicted some of the dangers we would face as we moved forward into the future of this nation. And so he is speaking to things that are still very relevant today. So when I was reading it, I thought, I want to share these So I want to break this down. I don't want to belabor The point is July fourth week. I don't want this to be a long episode. But there are a couple of points that I thought that made my mind just kind of explode, and I thought, this is what we need to focus on. We need to remember why America is great, why she deserves to be defended ever and always, and what the threats are internally and externally. Those threats have not changed just because we have cell phones now, and you're going to hear that when I read some of the portions of this address to you. So this is George Washington's farewell address to the nation, given in seventeen ninety six, served I believe two terms. Now he's been offered the opportunity to be the emperor for life, which it's hilarious, but and George Washington talks about this in this address. Right, he actually mentions our sort of innate human need to appoint one person as kind of a savior, as the end all be all, as a protector, and that request to him reflects that, right, we had just come through this really scary and dangerous time where it looked there were times when it looked like all might be lost. You don't understand what these men had on the line. It's not just like you and me standing up for Freda when we get our social media accounts canceled, or maybe, worst case scenario, we lose our jobs. These were men who were looking at execution should they lose this war. They would be executed, and their families would be executed, and their land would be burned and the earth would be salted. It is not hyperbole to say that these men put their lives on the line, quite literally. So it is silly and naive and frankly ignorant to assume that they did not know the complications and the dangers that could lie ahead for us. They foresaw it and spoke to it. You're going to hear that in this address. And so this is the moment that George Washington is in as he says goodbye. No, I'm not going to indulge your need to give all power to one person. That is what we fought against. And I, by the way, I want to retire. I'm not going to read the first part of this, because that's basically what it is. It's all most of him saying eloquently because he was a prolific writer, him saying I didn't even want to hit, kind of saying what Donald Trump said the other night. I didn't even want to run for president. I didn't even really want to be president. But I felt it was my patriotic duty to help ease us in, to help guide us through this next part. It's a bumpy road from revolution to establishment, and I'm going to do my part to get us on this road. But I've done it, and now I want to retire. I want to go back to my farm. I want to go back to my family. I don't want to deal with this stuff anymore. But before I go, let me tell you what I'm leaving you with, and let me warn you what is to come and what you must guard against. This is the tone that George Washington sets up for us in the seventeen ninety six address. So there are a few paragraphs that really stuck out to me. So here's what stuck out to me. First, he talks about he talks about unity, about the importance of national unity. And again keep in mind, now this is a nation that has gone from the concept of colonies to the concept of being united under one flag. Now, that was very odd for them. You have to understand it. That would be like us now in twenty twenty four, someone snapping their fingers and saying, there are no longer states. You are all just Americans. There's no longer a Georgia or a California or a Montana. There are cities and towns, there are no longer states. That would be massively upsetting and confusing for us to have to go from one concept to another overnight. That's where they are right now. So he talks in this part about the necessity of unity and the superiority of our federal union and why that needs to be protected. So he says, the unity of government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. So she says, this is every good thing you have is because we are now unified. All right, moving on. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifice is employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth. As this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively, though often covertly and insidiously directed. It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness. That you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it, accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as a palladium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest, even a suspicion that it can, in any event be abandoned and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning, or every attempt to alienate any portion of our country, from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts. I love that he is saying, you are no longer little colonies. You now serve one common cause. Beware of those who would choose to weaken our bonds by dividing us. This is in speaking in seventeen ninety six. He could be speaking to us today. Aware of those from the inside right our own homegrown social justice rowyers, or from the outside China TikTok, social media, big tech, from wherever. Beware of those who would seek to prey upon your divisions and elevate those Our union is our power. Brilliant just speaking right into twenty twenty four. And then he says, it is your duty to guard this union jealously. And I love this. I loved how he says. He says, He says, discountenancing whatever may suggest, even a suspicion that it can be abandoned. So you shouldn't even forget about all. We should tolerate how people speak. No, you, George Washington is saying you should not tolerate people speaking poorly of our country. You should guard that jealously. This really reminds me it's very biblical, right, doesn't it guard that God says, you know you guard your heart jealously. I am a jealous God. You guard your heart. I guard you this way jealously, with a jealous love. You are mine, and I will not let anyone take That is how we are also supposed to view our country. Not to say, I'm not suggesting your country takes place over God, but that language, doesn't it reflect that you are to guard this notion of liberty and union with all jealousy. So now you're gonna let somebody talk bad about your wife, even though your wife can be a pain in the bud. Sometimes you're not letting other people talk bad about your wife. Don't be letting people talk bad about our country. Don't even entertain the suspicion. So that it goes on to describe how there are so many different parts of our country that depend on each other. So he says, the North in an unrestrained intercourse with the South, protected by the equal laws of common government, finds in the productions of the latter great additional resources of maritime and commercial enterprise. So this is a whole section here where he talks about this is what the North can get from the South, and the South can get from the North, and here's how the West can help the East, and vice versa. And we all have the work divided geographically, and these parts of America are very different, but yet under our flag they unite to help us prosper and grow. That these are helps to each other. And so he points us out because I'm going to read this next part too. Then he goes on to talk about how people will seek to use those geographical divisions to create moral division, and that will create party division. Now he is saying, I don't know a whole lot about this time in American history, but what I think is happening is that we're seeing the party system right spring up. Factions as he refers to them, pop up in the political atmosphere. And he is saying he's not saying that the parties themselves are wrong, but the factionizing of those parties is wrong. And I imagine also what they're seeing at this time is because this country is coming out of this geographically divided time that he's saying, your party can't be connected to your geographical area. That is just a huge danger because then one geographical area could become superior to another. We cannot do that. But I think it's very interesting how he speaks of division here. So he says, while then every part of our country feels an immediate and particular interest in union, all the parts combined in the united massive means and efforts cannot fail to find greater strength, greater resource proportionate, greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of their piece by foreign nations. And what is of inestimable value they must derive from union, an exemption from those broils and wars between themselves which so frequently afflict neighboring countries not tied together by the same governments. Your union ought to be considered as a main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought to endear you to the preservation of the other. And here's the line he says. I won't read the whole paragraph, but in the next paragraph there is this line, and I love it. Says there will always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those who, in any quarter may endeavor to weaken its bands. That's right, So yes, you should don't tell me. Don't tell me Joe Biden loves his country, right, don't tell me Politician X loves his country if he's actively doing things that weaken the bands of this union. Right, If you're a president who's not protecting this border, then I don't find that to be patriotic. You're not patriotic just because you wear an American flag pin on your lapel. And I like that. I like the strength. You know. In a way, I can't help but connect this to biblical themes. And this makes me. This reminds me of the Lord's warning that he will spit the lukewarm out from his mouth. He will turn his head and spit you out. It's such strong language, and I really believe, as I'm reading this now, George Washington is saying, no, you can't be lukewarm about America. You cannot. She must be defended with all passion and patriotism. This next portion he talks about again, I want you to think about it's twenty twenty four. Now, imagine he's speaking to us in twenty twenty four, because it could be I'll interpret this a little bit in advance, just a little bit, but basically, what he says in this next paragraph is there are those among us who would exploit our differences as a country, as citizens of this country, right it be it geographical or these days, in this case related to race, or ethnicity or sexuality, that there are those who would seek to ex exploit those differences to weaken our bonds. Here we go, he says, in contemplating the causes which may disturb our union, it occurs as a matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western. Whence, designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and vieuse. One of the expedients of party to acquire influences, To acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of the other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations. They tend to render alien to each other, those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. So even though he's talking about a geographical division, because that's what was looming large for them at that time. I do believe it speaks to the current division we have now, which is ideological division. And he is saying that when some people will purposely, purposefully misrepresent that the thoughts and opinions and feelings of others, and that creates divisions, and we must guard against that that by dividing Americans up like that. Right, when we divide Americans up by how you vote, who you sleep with, the color of your skin, et cetera, et cetera, they quote tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection. So George Washington is saying, and I believe the truth of this statement should be very obvious. If we love our country, and if we demand that patriotism be the norm, we will be bound by fraternal bonds. Right, America is a fraternal bond. And so the more you can tell, that's why all of this is such a concerted effort. It's not an accident. Everybody, we cannot know, we cannot be be teaching Oh, this is tolerant history. No, we must teach history from the point of view of America being a victor. We have to That's how patriotism is created, and patriotism is what will create these eternal bonds. I believe ultimately that bond must be faith based. It must be based on religion. But because of what America is, the way we we work outside of those bonds, if we have to, is by creating a fraternal, a patriotic fraternal bond. And that's what Washington is saying here. Yeah, we have to create patriots and we have to be unapologetically patriotic. So it's not gonna be with this never ending national conversation about race. It's not gonna be. It's not gonna come to us with this never ending conversation on intersectionality. That's not how we will come together as a nation. Believe it or not. It will not unify this nation. To expand our bonds of fraternity. We must narrow our bonds of fraternity and make this club exclusive. Can I get an amen out there? It's anybody listening? Is anybody hearing me? I need tambourine? All right, let's move on. Okay, here's more another another admonition to being steadfast to the defense of freedom and the Constitution. He says, toward the preservation of your government and the permanency of your present, happy state. It is requisite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however species the pretexts. Listen to this, everybody listen. One method of assault may be to effect in the forms of the Constitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. What a forewarning, all the way from seventeen ninety six. People pervert the constitution, twist the constitution, make one brand of government stronger than it's supposed to be. Hello, Scotis, I'll be the leftists would not be nearly so desperate during every ruling if they would let the Supreme Court occupy the space that it's supposed to, which is being the third and weakest brands of government. Instead, they've made it the most important branch of government. And George Washington says it right here. The reason is to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. I'm going to push forward in this and I want to point out this part because this won't because this won't come as a surprise to many of you out there who already listened to the show, or who already are fans of American history. But I do think that this part is worth reiterating. This is actually a common thought among our founding fathers. But in this section, George Washington talks about how our liberty, and our particular brand of liberty, requires a moral people. So let's read this. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports in vain. Would that man claim the tribute of patriotism? Who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, These firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life? If the sense of religious obligation desert the os which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice, and let us, with caution, indulge the supposition that can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail an exclusion of religious principles. And I think when we think about what's happening right now in our society, this is an especially prescient warning. We've just seen Louisiana demand that it be manded or make it mandatory, that the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms. And there are even a lot of conservatives who are saying, well, no, this is going too far, and we're just doing what the left would do. What we hate about the left. But you know what, there is there's no neutrality when it comes to this stuff. There isn't We have seen that we tried to be neutral, that was our compromise, and then what happened. Now our classrooms are adorned in foreign flags, pride flags, all of these strange They have their own version of the Ten Commandments that they put up in classrooms. We're seeing all of this invade the classrooms. So we can't defend our particular brand of liberty if we can't defend the core principles that allow for that liberty. And so we must be a religious nation. We must be a religious people. Now that doesn't mean we will all share the same faith or the same religion. There's aha has been. This is a Judeo Christian foundation, right, so there have always been different sects of Christianity, Judaism, and then of course the more multicultural we become, the more religions we're inviting in. But there's never until recently been an argument about what the base religion of our country is and what the core values are, what our constitution is based on. We've codified that language into our constitution. There's never been a question about that, and so I do think that we need to defend that, even if you aren't a believing Christian. Ben Shapiro says this all the time too, But I do think you have to defend the Christian foundation of this nation. And I'm not saying that we've always lived out our Christian values, or please don't misunderstand me or intentionally mishear me. What I'm saying is the core values, the basis is this agreed upon framework that comes out of Judeo Christian values. We cannot defend liberty if we can't discuss and defend the root of liberty, which is the creator. So he's telling us back then, and we're living out the results of allowing that to be bled out of the public square. We didn't do ourselves any favors with I don't care if you're an unbeliever or not, if you're an atheist or not, or if you're not a Christian. All you have to do is look around us. And we didn't do It's not that we did it wrong, if we've just done it better. That's what communists say. Well, this isn't the real form of communism. No, there's no better way to do it. It hasn't helped to remove God from public places. It has not helped. He goes on to talk about okay, let's move towards the end. He spends a lot of time talking about really how America needs to be taking on a more isolationist mindset, and I kind of understand his point of view. At this point, they had just been the subjects of a foreign entity for so long that was hostile, and so yeah, they don't want to get involved in the affairs of other nations, especially other nations on a continent far away, and so he's saying, look, it's good to be friendly, it's good to have allies, but we cannot link ourselves intimately with other nations, kind of like what the UK ended up doing with the European Union and then backing out because of Brexit, because you realize you can't see. Basically what he's advocating for is an America. Hearst mindset, right, can't You can't put your country first if you've got to hold it in the same level of esteem as another country. Your nation has to be first. It seems like everyone else in the world understands this, except the American left wing. But he talks about that. But I do want to close it out because I don't want this to be a long episode. But I do want to move to the end here. When he really begins to close out his thoughts and he says that he says, with me, A predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time in our country, to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency which is necessary to give it humanly speaking, the commands of its own fortunes. Love that part because what he's saying is, look, my job here is done. I wasn't I he was. This guy is just a reluctant He's been a reluctant warrior the whole way. He didn't really want to lead the the the Revolution. He didn't really want to. He tried to quit often. He didn't really want to be president, and that he didn't want to be president again. This is a man who really longed to settle into family life and to settle back into his American dream. But he also had a sense of a higher sense of duty. And this is why I think he has gone down. Is one of the greatest men to call himself an American, and he deserves that title, I do believe. But it is because you know, you should never trust a man who seeks power. That is the man you should you should keep at arm's lane. And in that respect, I'm grateful for this man who was who was humble enough to know that he didn't deserve power, any kind of power, but also faithful enough to understand that there is, oh is a higher cause, and that he has a responsibility to that higher cause. So I just liked that part where he says, yeah, you know, I didn't necessarily want to do this, but I owed my country, you know, the smoothest path possible to really get going and get established as a nation. And thank god he did that, because those early years gave us, gave us the base to move forward from, and then of course we became one of the most powerful nations on earth, and I really do believe we can attribute much of that to President George Washington. And then it goes on to say, though we're reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error. I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors, whatever they may be. I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. And I love that too, because now you think about modern politicians all the time, when, especially when they're campaigning, they always get asked that inevitable question, what would you have done different in your career? What do you think you've done wrong in your presidency? And it's not a sincere question, it's a gotcha question. But I love that George Washington answers the question that nobody asked him, which is to say, yeah, I want you to know. I know I'm a flawed human being, and I perhaps may have made some mistakes, but everything I did was with good intentions, and anything that was a bad idea, I pray that the Almighty make it right. And I love that. I think that's a great attitude for our politicians to have. I wish more had that. And you know, I don't think George Washington was a man that most people liked. I don't think he was a likea bull man. I think he was deeply respected and a very respectable, respectable man, which is obvious in how he was asked to be Emperor of the nation and how he was begged to run for president and remain president. So clearly people respected him and for good reason. But I don't think he was a likable man. And yet I think that he was the right man for the time. Most great men are quite unlikable, and that's why I think you should be aware of the likable politician. I really do. I think you should beware. I can't believe more there are so many people in my life who I think are so intelligent and yet can't seem to make that truth work for them when it comes to their politicians. They're so wise in so many other areas, but they'll fall for the beautiful lie every time. But beware of the wily serpent who tickles your ears and says the things you want to hear, and speaks the way you think a beautiful person should speak. Most of the great, most, not all, the most of the great and decent and just men who have affected history have been quite unlikable. Something to be said for that. Well, thank you to General and President George Washington for your service, Sir, for your leadership and your humility when it counted, And thank you for leaving us with these words and these warnings that they're incredibly prescient. They are still relevant today. Our forefathers knew they were smarter than we were, they knew what we'd come up against, and they left us with the tools we would need to survive pressing times. So it's time to get out our tool belts. Everybody. Happy Independence Day. May God bless you and God bless America. Our braiders allsoda that we won't with math, then we won't to say, oh we got it? Does no one get tag that owen gonna be okay? Our braiders all that we won't with math, and then we won't to say, oh we got it? Does no one get take that owen don't be okay. This has been a presentation of the f c B podcast Network, where Real Talk lives. Visitors online at fcbpodcasts dot com.
