Thursday; June 18

Often, when people think about the Lees of Virginia their minds go back to General Robert E. Lee; however, the Lees had been influences in the Commonwealth many years before it.  One of the influential members of the family was Richard Henry Lee.  He is often remembered for his eulogy of President George Washington, but he had other things to say as well.  The other day I came across a quote of his that noted, “It is certainly true that a popular government cannot flourish without the virtue in the people.”.  I am going to be honest with you, I would imagine that this quote from the 18th Century probably carried a different meaning than it would today; but I was struck by the sentiment of personal responsibility.  It is easy to blame “government” or “society” for what is going wrong in today’s world, but we – as individuals – cannot abdicate our personal responsibility to be good people.   For our country and our society to be successful we must all be willing to stand up for what is right and do what is appropriate.  We cannot blanketly blame some faceless influence for our troubles, we must be willing to invest our own personal virtue to make sure that we will be the best we can be!

Let’s be honest with ourselves.  Are we willing to be caring, just, law-abiding citizens?  If not, there isn’t much a government or a society can do to fix our failures.

Think About It!


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