This comment was so relevant I wanted to elevate it to a primary post. Barney Barnes was my Chief of Staff at the Sheriff’s Office (every sheriff needs a Barney), but also very learned in ethical and historical principles. Enjoy his post…
Dr. Benjamin Rush was among the most accomplished and distinguished of our Founding Fathers. Dr Rush once quipped…I have alternately been called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat.
A most remarkable man indeed, he served in Continental Army as Surgeon General after having signed the Declaration of Independence. He also assisted Benjamin Franklin in writing the Pennsylvania Constitution and in establishing the very first American anti-slave society. These two “Benjamins” were quite a dynamic duo. While Franklin founded the first hospital Rush established the first free medical clinic.
Benjamin Rush is one of many Founders who cause me to pause and muse in wonderment at the quality and quanity of the fruit of their lives. He certainly understood the center piece that individual virtue must occupy for a “self governed” people to retain their individual liberties.
As a principle promoter of the American Sunday School Union he walked his talk just as he had done as a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He knew all too well that young people must have these values infused into them in order for the Republic to survive.
He stated his case well in a 1798 work “Essays”…I know there is an objection among many people to teaching children doctrines of any kind, because they are liable to be controverted. But let us not be wiser than our Maker. If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into all the world would not have been necessary.
Americans everywhere would be well served in reviewing, and perhaps learning for the first time, the great reservoir of truth from which our Founders drank…inspiring, refreshing, and compelling them all.
Keep your powder dry,
Barney
“[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”
The essence of integrity is “being who you represent yourself to be.” In the conclusion of the presentation on Character-based Law Enforcement from the 2005 International Association of Character Cities Conference, I use the lesson of the Centurion from Capernaum (Matthew chapter 8) to illustrate the power of being a man (or woman) of integrity who is not only in authority, but is under authority. Many of you have heard it before, but the lesson is so central to understanding the message of Police Dynamics that it bears repeating again.
Police officers are the centurions of today. Those who enforce the law must also obey the law. Those who are in authority must also be under authority.
Humility vs. Arrogance
Acknowledging that achievement results from the investment of others in my life
The older I get the more I realize I am mostly the product of what God has placed in me and what others have invested in my life. I am grateful to those whose character has left a lasting impression on me…
Download the full list of the 49 character qualities and their definitions from the Character Training Institute.
The theory of limited government contends that all power exercised by the government is derived from the people. The people delegate to government those powers that they would otherwise exercise individually to protect their lives, liberties, and properties. The “limit” on government is what is delegated. Whatever power the people have delegated, the government can legitimately exercise. It may not exercise powers not delegated. In this way, no citizen is subject to power that he has not (in theory) consented to. While written constitutions and representative elections are never unanimous, the will of the majority of the people substitutes for unanimous consent.
From the article: But Don’t Libyans Have a Right to Freedom Too?
Although I haven’t read it, you may also want to check out his book, A Return to Common Sense: Reawakening Liberty in the Inhabitants of America.
“There is also in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong. A love of truth and a veneration of virtue.” John Adams
“The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.”
–George Washington, First Inaugural Address, 1789
Here is a video clip from a presentation entitled Character-based Law Enforcement that I presented at the 2005 International Association of Character Cities Conference. In it, I trace part of the Path of Destruction that Renegade Police Officers often find themselves on. Starting with the power of the tongue and the impact of our words, we explore other predictable patterns of behavior such as immorality, divorce, domestic violence, and death by suicide as it relates to the profession of law enforcement..
Sheriff Ray Nash
