Honor & Virtue

This morning as I sat in the back of the basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, in the midst of a grieving citizenry, waiting for the funeral mass of Officer Patrick McDonald to begin, I could not help but wonder why? I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking that, there must have been thousands of men and women thinking the same thing at the very same moment, and yet I'm convinced that none of us came up with a suitable answer.

I'm a very pragmatic person. When I look to solve a problem I need the background, I need to know the root before I can begin to formulate an answer. In searching for the root of this problem it occurred to me that the very root of this problem is also at the root of this year's contentious presidential campaign and its a problem that stretches to the very root of our democratic system.

Richard Henry Lee, a Delegate to the Continental Congress from Virginia, the delegate who proposed the resolution leading to the vote on independence, wrote, "a popular government cannot flourish without virtue in the people."

In 1779, the father of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams, wrote, "A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued..."

In support of our Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers pledged, "to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor."

The works of our founders are filled with talk of honor and virtue. To our founders they were intangible values held above all others, yet they are values our current culture takes completely for granted.

Honor and virtue are not just words - they can and should mean something more. Whether in a community, tired of the violence taking place in its streets or on the campaign trail, stumping for votes - honor and virtue are values that can and should triumph over even the most insurmountable obstacles.

A person in possession of these characteristics would never lie to his fellow man, would never withhold information after witnessing a crime, would never ask the government to do for him what he is fully capable of doing himself. In fact, a person in possession of these characteristics has little need for government - he supplies his own; guided by his own moral compass, committed to justice and freed from an obligation to anything but the truth.

By the time Mayor Nutter took the podium this morning I had already formed most of these thoughts, but he helped to reinforce them. His tone was somber, resigned, defeated - he captured adequately what we were all feeling. He begged the forgiveness of a people he saw himself as failing but it seemed to me that his frustrations ran deeper. No single mayor can stem this tide, no one politician can save our nation. No amount of government spending will solve these crises. The despondence in his voice came not from his inability to act but from the knowledge that, until such honor and virtue takes hold in our communities no government program can bring them peace.

The foundations of conservatism are strong - until we start taking responsibility for our own actions, until we recapture our honor and virtue our nation will continue to suffer wanton acts of violence like the one that killed Officer McDonald, massive financial scandals like the one rocking our nation's economic system, and leaders who insist on lying to us in order to win control of our votes and pocketbooks.

There can be no bailout package for the soul of our nation.