A Memo to Fareed Zakaria: You got it wrong, Sir!

In his new book, "The Post American World, "Mr Fareed Zakaria, an analyst in the past on ABC and currently with CNN, says his book isn't about the decline of America but about the rise of everyone else. He talks about a new era we are entering, a post American age, where the US will no longer have preeminence in geopolitical politics, dominate the global economy nor overwhelm cultures. He sees places like China, Brazil, Russia, India and others as the great story of our time. He says those nations will reshape the way the world thinks and does business. The tallest buildings, the biggest dams, the largest selling movies and the most advanced cell phones are being built outside the United States.

The economic growth and political influence of these other nations will create difficulty and diminish America's position in the world according to Mr. Zakaria.

Now let me say up front that Mr. Zakaria is probably smarter than I am. He was raised as the son of an Islamic scholar in his native India and has attended Yale and Harvard Universities. So he is no doubt better educated than I am.

But, I believe, he misses the point of what America is really about.

While money and prosperity are important, America isn't the "city on a hill" to the rest of the world just because of economic capability and opulent wealth. Furthermore, in the truest since of the grand historical narrative, America isn't replete with time and time again reaching out to help others in need just because we, in the past or present, happen to build the most quality products. America is who she is because of where she has come from and what she represents to a world as the very essence of liberty and dignity that is the foundation, the hallmark if you will, of our American way of life.

Additionally, I will say The Constitution of the United States remains that very instrument where not only Americans but others from around the world look too for guidance and hope in an otherwise depleted human condition.

Allow me to say at this point that my mom and dad didn't have a whole lot. But both of them, especially my mother, pointed me in the direction of the foundation of life. That foundation was the Christian faith. And as integral as that foundation of faith has been in my own life it has likewise served the United States for 233 years. Mr. Zakaria and others from a background not dissimilar to his, perhaps can't grasp that concept.

Again, what we have here is a stark contrast in cultures and values.

Now, I am not saying that the Divine Perspective is always pro-American. America and American leaders certianly have made their (our) share of mistakes. And closer to home I am not saying God (or Jesus) is Republican or Democrat, for that matter, either.

But what I am saying is that unlike Mr Zakaria's native India, and most other countries around the globe, the US was founded by God fearing men and women who took their directions from the Judeo-Christian ethos as the core of their being. We see it transmitted to us in practically every public document and many architectural structures from that era. And contrary to what the revisionist historians may try to write the fact is that the founding fathers, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and others clearly understood where our source of life and authority came from. In later years, other Americans, Lincoln and Reagan for example, got hold of these facts also.

They were all liberators:

Liberating ourselves from the over-arching despots (i.e., the King of England) over 200 years ago; Have you read the third section of the Declaration of Independence?

Liberating those very souls who we held in slavery simply because of their skin color: Have you ever read the "Gettysburg Address"?

Liberating those around the world oppressed by totalitarianism: Does, "Mr Gorbachev, please tear down this wall!" ring a bell?

Bigger than any paycheck or any technological/engineering masterpiece comes the most basic human need--freedom. Freedom to express himself or herself, "....with certian inalienable rights as endowed by their creator," as He designed each to do.

Perhaps the American leaders mentioned above were also students of the biblical comments of the Apostle Paul who wrote:

"It was for freedom that Christ came so do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery"(Galatians 5:1)

In speaking with Sean Hannity last week Mr. Zakaria arrogantly stated,

" I am an American because I chose to be, you are an American by accident."

Well, Mr. Zakria, welcome to America, sir!

But we weren't born here by accident.

In fact, if being "accidentally" born in America wasn't all that it is cracked up to be why did the founding fathers require that the President of the United States had to be a "natural born American citizen?"(US Constitution Article II Section 1)

Privilege? Maybe?

But I think it was something more common sense and even more basic than that! I believe that Washington, Jefferson, Adams and the others knew what the rest of the world was like. And how they think! And I really believe they knew to be born here imbibes one with a voracious loyalty unlike any other place a person may eventually find themselves living. Certainly, I am not saying those who have moved here can't love America as I can. I believe they can. I have met several who do!

However, Mr. Zakaria's sanctimonious "choice" speaks to the arrogance of the heart it comes from!

He and others like him really hold a deep contempt against this nation. They think that many Americans are naive, don't know what the rest of the world is like, and think we should come to reality. Well, frankly, reality--the world as it was was what the founders were trying to avoid--to get away from. They came to this country originally to escape religious persecution from "reality." So their sons, daughters, grand children and great grand children didn't grow up in a world worrying about where the next government "reality" was coming from.

And while I take issue with the comments of Mr. Zakria and others who purport his view, I will, in the same breathe, acknowledge that he has the right to say it. And only in a free America--consecrated in blood, sweat and the ardours of the American Ideologues who framed these concepts over 200 years ago--that freedom of speech is still the reality, even today!

And that is the memo!