It happens to everyone now and then. Something pops inside your head and you don’t know how or why you remembered it. This time it was Lucilla’s speech from Gladiator, echoing over and over. “Is Rome worth one good man’s life? We believed it once. Make us believe it again. He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him.” Of course, all along you knew why it was on your mind. You were thinking of your home — America — nostalgically, patriotically, emotionally — a divinely inspired country, preserved and defended with the blood, sweat and tears of patriots who loved her and love her still. On November 6, 2012, you went to the polls assured that Americans would not, could not, give Barack Obama a second term. The evidence of his failure and the country’s decline was so profound, you knew Americans would come to their senses and reject any further erosion of their shining city. You were wrong. Instead, they rejected their country — Her founding principles, Her heart and Her soul. For the first time in a lifetime, you considered the unthinkable — that the majority of Americans might neither love nor respect the precepts and articles of faith that created and sustained the American miracle. Four years later, that concern was upheld with the final blast of an abuse you will now name Tyranny’s Perfect Storm. Prior to this week, Congress repeatedly shirked its duty in the face of Executive overreach. Prior to this week, the Supreme Court shirked its duty by repeatedly legislating from the bench. Prior to this week, America’s Media Establishment continually betrayed its most sacred obligation to defend the Truth. Prior to this week, the Democrat Party endorsed the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton, an individual who for decades has sown the seeds of deceit, duplicity and dishonor. And most oppressively, this week, the final killer wind blew, when the FBI shirked its solemn duty and trampled the Rule Of Law. This week the FBI ripped the blindfold from the face of Lady Justice to tell all Americans that Justice is not blind — that our elected officials — the people in power — the people we empower with a sacred trust — are above the Law. This week, you bade goodbye to the Rule of Law, the last line of defense against totalitarianism. America’s Founders knew the risks, if not the likelihood, of government corruption. Some predicted it. In the clearest language, they endorsed the people’s right to throw off the shackles of tyranny:

. . . . when a long trail of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

You entertain a fantasy. It’s November 8, 2016. In the heartland, America’s great coliseum soars, every seat filled, every eye fixed on the arena floor. There, Lady Justice stands, head raised to the heavens. Her right hand grips a broad sword; her left arm raised high  holds the Scales of Justice. Her strong voice reverberates amid the concrete canyons and beyond: “Is America worth good men’s lives? We believed it once. Make us believe it again. They were soldiers of the United States. Honor them.” Will Americans come together to stand at the gate? You desperately want to believe.

America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.