Danger Sign: Liberty Practiced Here

This battle we are engaged in with the Democrats to retain some semblance of freedom tells me that the generations have made a lot of assumptions about American’s ability to appreciate what they were born in to.  When enthrallment of personality wins out over disenthrallment of liberty, you know that voters do not comprehend their inheritance.

It makes you want to erect a warning as big as the Statue of Liberty in every state with some timeless message about how to not vote idiotically.  Communicating the big lessons of life is difficult, especially when the intended audience is a future generation.

Take, for instance, the attempts at warning future humans about the existence of dangerous levels of radiation.  The original radiation warning symbol could be interpreted as either, “emissions danger!” or “45 RPM record adapters sold here.”

In 2007, the United Nations augmented that universal symbol with squiggly arrows, a skull and crossbones, and a man running in the direction of an arrow, all within a black triangle.  Looks like a dinner bell calling hungry people to a barbecue if you ask me.

The challenge of conveying the big message has always been hard to do.  We are still trying to figure out the meaning of the Sphinx, Stonehenge, and the Chinese Terra Cotta Army.  But I am pretty sure that the statues of Easter Island were a warning to visitors that the locals were unattractive.

In 1977, two identical spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, were launched to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.  After completing the primary mission, their trajectories have taken them well beyond the Solar System and into deep space.  Both units are still functioning and continue to communicate scientific information to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

With a dilettante interest in UFOs, then President Jimmy Carter participated in developing the first truly universal message, included on board each of the Voyager Spacecraft.  Both Voyagers contain a gold plated phonograph record with cartridge and needle all ready to play by whomever should run across it in the outermost layer of the heliosphere.

According to NASA, the record contains “115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim.”

This should ensure an alien attack against an unsuspecting generation of earthlings.

About six-hundred years ago, Japanese residents placed a series of stone markers carved with the message, “High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants. Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."  While the stones were included in Japanese elementary school studies, the appreciation for them had been lost, with regrettable results one year ago.

Movies like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code fantasize about symbology handed down in hidden and mysterious ways to reveal special forces at work.  OK, fun.  But, Hollywood’s imagination does not live up to the reality.

The National Monument to the Forefathers, placed near where the Mayflower landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was erected as an eternal admonition to Americans over 100 years ago.  A documentary that attempts to capture the substance of the statue’s symbology is scheduled for release this month (Seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monumental:_In_Search_of_America's_National_Treasure).

Another foretelling of caution comes in the form of American currency, which is itself a fascinating study.  Jewish conservative commentator Dennis Prager presents a succinct lesson of national founding principles conveyed to us daily on every American coin; See http://www.prageruniversity.com/Political-Science/The-American-Trinity.html.  For a comprehensive view on the symbology of American dollar bills, check out David Barton’s “The American Heritage Series” at http://shop.wallbuilders.com/The-American-Heritage-Series-10-DVD-Boxed-Set.

I figure that the universal “NO” (a red circle with a slash through it) over the image of Barack Obama will not be enough to warn American voters of the tsunami on the way if they surrender to a second term.  Perhaps what I am looking for is the Twitter version of John Wayne rocking back to one side and grouching, “You do that again and you’re dead where you stand.”