by Diane Robertson
I started keeping a personal blog in the early days when blogging was still popular in 2007. I was a young mother with 5 small children and they were and are the topic of that blog. Those 5 young children aren’t so small anymore. Five more little ones have followed with one more due just days from now. My children expect me to write about them, post pictures and keep a record of our lives. The blog has become a part of our family culture. It is a place we go to read about our past and discuss our future.
As we read about our lives back in 2007 and 2008, I have been impressed by how much the world has changed. The changes began in 2009 with a new President of the United States. And it has not just been changes in the government.
It is true that the government is bigger and more corrupt, but society has changed too. People embrace and participate in various sexual and alternative family lifestyles that were barely mentioned in most circles. Maybe because social media has become huge and a part of every day, or maybe for other reasons, people in general are more rude, more inclined to use foul language and generally meaner.
In 2008, I sent my kids to the public schools and had few worries about what they were being taught. If I had not withdrawn my kids from the public school system, I would have to worry about whether or not they would be told to choose their gender or whether they could grow up to marry someone of the same sex—even in kindergarten.
In 2008, we could afford health insurance and it paid for what it said it would. More people had jobs. Small businesses were thriving and could employ full time with benefits. People were freer to buy and sell, and to speak and worship.
Indeed, things have changed for everyone. Again, we are at another cross road. Choices were made last spring and people have cast their votes. Soon we will better understand what our future holds.
I am not optimistic about it—not even a little. I have seen the changes one man at the head of a nation can make even within a family. I can look to the past and see that unless we fight and work, and speak and refuse to give in we will lose even more. The children I have written about every week and the friends they have enjoyed will not know the freedom and prosperity that I have known. If I am too afraid to speak up or even if I allow my children to keep me too busy to accomplish what it takes to preserve freedom, I will have failed them. I once said to a group a college students: “My 10 children need me more than anyone else in the world. But they also need me to be fighting for them and the world they are going to inherit. It is a delicate balance and both have serious consequences.”
In our homes, we need to diligently teach our children sound principles of freedom and economy. In the public square, we need to fearlessly speak up about freedom and the rights of the family. Without enough concerned parents and citizens doing their duty, all will be lost.