Hi Mr. Emerson,
My name is Josh. Nice to meet you. I live in the South Bay not too far from your shop.
To answer your question, I actually spend all day "helping the overall cause of my fellow man." I am a doctor for a non-profit health care organization in Los Angeles. We provide care 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, for all the people in Los Angeles that are suffering from a physical or mental disease. We treat everyone in Los Angeles of all colors, creeds, and religions whether they have money or a green card. I do that every day because I enjoy helping people. That doesn't make me a "guardian shepherd"... it just makes me a human being who thinks they world would be a better place if we reached out and helped each other. I am also a father and a soccer coach. I do those things because I enjoy them, not because it affords me the title of "Guardian Shepherd."
I will say that one benefit of my job is interacting with every type of resident in Los Angeles imaginable. They have taught me that there is no ideal "American Dream". The traditional idea of the American Dream is no more valid than any other. You live YOUR version of "the American dream every day of your life." America has always been a country in a constant state of flux. The "traditional" America of the 1950s that main-stream conservatives wants to "protect" was very different from the American dream of 1900. When America was being inundated by European immigrants in the early 20th century it was the fire and brimstone preachers that were warning against the apocalyptic demise of our way of life. Now, in the 21st century as we are being inundated by South American immigrants and our position as a world economic and political super power is being challenged, it is the fire and brimstone neo-conservative warning against the apocalyptic demise of our way of life. Same story, different actors...
Wrapping oneself in an American flag, quoting the founding fathers, and carrying a gun is not going to save "America". Inclusiveness is the only chance you have in the 21st century; our country is only going to get more diverse. If you want people to truly listen your message you need to be approachable in your words and your actions. If you present yourself as and armed, angry traditionalist you will literally go extinct. Its ironic, but the conservative who pines for an unchanging "traditional" America is in thought and action no different than the liberal who worships the idea of an unchanging climate.
Specifically, in response to your article I will say this:
You make many assumptions about our founding fathers. You place their actions and their motive on a pedestal of righteousness. You believe that our independence was declared and our country founded for the pure purpose of "throwing off oppression." You think the civil war was fought purely to "preserve the union and abolish slavery." You list a long string of wars we have fought (and are still fighting) and say what we fought them simply because "we heard the call for help."
To this I will simply say that I believe your reading and interpretation of American history is idealistic, simple, and trite. The world is a complex place filled with complex people and it always has been.
You blame politicians, intellectual "elites", and the media for re-writing history into a "hyper-critical, self-loathing portrayal of a country and a way of life that they feel we should feel guilty for creating." And yet I wonder, how much of that re-written history have you actually read?
My only words to you would be to branch out and read that same history that challenges your notion of "America" to the core. This doesn't make you less of a patriot. In fact, I think it makes you more of a patriot. You can only truly love something if you see it for all it is; the good and the bad.
I challenge you to read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". It is a seminal work that is often quoted by those pesky intellectuals that you so despise. You will hate it, you will throw it; he is a devout liberal and questions all facets of the American story. He has a bias but there are some fundamental truths to this story that you have not heard that will challenge the pedestal upon which you place those founding fathers. I challenge you to read this book and then reanalyze the American history you once knew and see how you have changed.
Later on you pose this question: "We have watched our debt running rampant, strapping us financially and causing us to cut the budgets of the military and defense infrastructure, severely limiting our ability to project power to places where there are those who truly need our strength to say alive. Our word is no longer held in the high esteem it once was. It would seem that there has been a conscious effort by those now in power to, put America in its place as if she deserved to be punished for her greatness prosperity and her might. Our enemies no longer fear us. Our allies no longer respect us. How could this possibly be?"
My answer to you is simple. You can't answer that question because you are looking at "America" through rose colored glasses while eating apple pie and quoting Patrick Henry. Expand your idea of the American experience. Read histories that challenge the notion of traditional America. Read an autobiography of a slave in colonial America, a woman in the 1800s, black man in the 50s, a gay man in the 80s, or an illegal immigrant in current times. Read about the Native American experience. Read official histories from other countries during the revolutionary war, the civil war, or the Iraq war and see how they view our actions. That pesky intellectual elites have an old saying, "knowledge will set you free". Sounds pretty radical to me
All the best,
Josh