Writing for a reaction. That has become increasingly evident to me as I scroll down my Facebook page. I can’t bring myself to believe that so many folks can be so delusional, so confused and so biased about everything in general. Surely these statements are being presented just for the reaction they may create, they can’t be serious. It’s what I grew up knowing as, stirring the pot. When you stir the pot it brings everything from the bottom to the top. The objective being to combine the ingredients to create something new.

The real issue with stirring the pot is in what ingredients you are attempting to add to the recipe. Yes, there are some things that just don’t belong in that pot! And yes, that includes the great mixing (melting) pot we call America. You can not add anti-American sentiments, ideology, or theology contrary to the American dream and expect a good result. You do have to discriminate when choosing those ingredients.

What is being created ? What is America? You have to look at what created this country in the first place. What was the motivation? Was it taxation without representation? Was it “government overreach” as we would term that today? They were the predominate factors, no denying that. Wealth and power! Capitalism and a Constitutional Republic. Those are the main ingredients.

Over time unions were formed, laws were written and rewritten, democratic principles incorporated into the recipe began taking the forefront and a socialist attitude has developed. It needs to be remembered that some ingredients were removed as well. The institution of slavery was one of those ingredients that was incompatible with our ideals. It took our nation 89 years to remove that. We were founded on the principle of freedom, freedom from government overreach. We called it independence! Not independence for a nation, personal independence is what the dream is all about.

Can you have an independent nation? No, not today you can’t, we are an interglobal community. Most of us think in terms of NATO. NATO only has 32 nations as members. There are 195 nations in the world. Are the other 163 nations independent? They are from NATO but not from the global community. Japan was perhaps the last great nation to remain isolated from the rest of the world, truly independent. There is a tribe living on an island called the Sentinelse that remain completely isolated from the outside world. They are protected by the Indian government against anyone attempting to contact them. Yes, they are independent!

I wandered off a bit there but my point is, independence is an individual thing. You can’t incorporate socialist programs into that and expect to be independent. It is that independence that inspired America. Now it’s true that no man is an island unto himself, just as John Donne wrote, we do need each other. It’s also true each of us have independent wants and needs. The issue becomes, in any society, controlling the wants of others. It is wants that create wars! We justify that by calling it a need. We need what the other person has. The enigma is this: to be truly independent you can’t depend upon others, or a government, but you need a government to enforce your independence.

This is what was declared: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That defines independence. The declaration of Independence. It isn’t a legally binding document. It is what it is titled, a declaration of independence! We get to choose the ingredients. That is also plainly stated with these words, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” Individuals are the ingredients of a nation. If those individuals are incompatible they may be abolished! Yeah, we get to choose.

There are some things that just don’t belong in the recipe! Don’t try to add them in! Too many cooks spoil the broth.