Ernest J Jones
Vietnam Veteran
If only I could write a song to be heard across our nation,
I’d write about those gallant men who forged the Declaration;
Of how they challenged England’s king and pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their Sacred Honor to prove God, not man, was Sovereign;
We have not enough such as those today.
They stood by their sure belief that rights were pre-ordained
by God, and man had not the right to subject them to change;
That governments are justly instituted among men
to secure Divinely-ordained rights, but not to limit them;
We need quite a few such as those today.
They listed eighteen reasons as just cause for separation,
and led those who preferred to fight than live in subjugation;
Today our federal government is guilty of at least
nine of those eighteen and on the taxpayer does feast;
Who would such as those lead today?
Some sacrificed their lives and others lost their worldly fortunes,
but Patriots to the core none betrayed their Sacred Honor,
And helped bring forth upon God’s earth a Republic, bright and new,
with rights and power of the people rather than a few;
Where would such as those stand today?
Look ’round us at the government which we now have in power;
Is it kin to the limited one which they formed in their hour?
Did those men champion government such a noble institution
as to give it power of deciding rights or income distribution?
What would such as those think of government today?
The more we ask of government the more it moves to do,
but with each law a Freedom is lost and soon there’s none for you;
The more we ask of government the more it moves to spend;
Ask too much and the die is cast, it will own us in the end;
What would such as those ask of government today?
Millions of lives were lost to war in the twentieth century,
but governments hold a higher score against their own citizenry;
Did those men see from history what would surely come to be
when people vested government with too much authority?
What would such as those do with government today?
We have them still in history books if the books are not too new,
for their record is being re-written to deny us what they knew;
Their thundering words of Liberty and limited government
that changed the course of history some now hold in contempt;
Could such as those be elected today?
A generation hence, or two, our children will look back
as government oppresses them with eighty percent tax,
They’ll see the chance their parents had to turn the ship of state
back to the Constitution for by then it’s much too late;
And wish we’d had such as those today.
When laws of God are all replaced with federal regulation
and government has squeezed from life all self-determination;
When man’s law tells them when and where and how and if they may,
decides what they may have, or not, and plans for them each day;
They’ll wish we had been such as those.
