Two men were the pillars of Western Civilization

If we actually talk with each other things get better. We find that we might not hate each other as much as we thought!

Respect all cultures? Really? There are things that are right and things that are wrong. You don't have to respect people when they are doing what is wrong!

Our government was the first to be founded on the principle of your right to the pursuit of happiness!

The two men who are the pillars of western civilization are Socrates and Jesus: a gay guy and a Jew! They both lived in a time when the smartest, most sophisticated people believed there was no such thing as truth. Moral truth was relative. Both Socrates and Jesus believed there was such a thing as truth, but you couldn't quite put it into words. So they both found a technique to move people to the truth. Socrates, who came first, would go out and look for young people. Young people are the most certain of what they believe because they know the least! Socrates would hammer them with questions until they would start to question whether they were as close to the truth as they thought they were. Jesus spoke in parables and did miracles and said, "I am the truth!" Both were murdered by the government for speech the government didn't like. After they were murdered by the government they took over the western world!

Socrates had a student named Plato, and Plato had a student named Aristotle. Aristotle had a student named Alexander the Great who conquered a huge swath of the world and brought with him Greek culture, the Hellenic world. Rome then conquered the Hellenic world and adopted the Hellenic philosophy and thought. Then, Rome became Christian and the Roman Catholic Church became the birthplace of western civilization!

Are you unhappy because of some injustice, or because you suck? When you are who you say you are, you have integrity and you start to have joy! Virtue is choosing the good because you love the good. In order to choose the good, you need to be free to choose the good because you love the good. The problem is, if you can choose the good, you can choose the bad!

Our founding fathers tried to construct a government that would allow people to be free, but would not force them to do even what they (the Founders) knew was right! So they created tension between branches of government. All of our Founders said our Constitution was built for a religious and moral people. Religions are think tanks for figuring out virtue. The Founders protected religion from the government. If you are seeking virtue, you gain integrity and happiness.

You have the God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and no one will ever have a better idea for the foundation of a nation! If you have the right to life, I have the right to life. Same with liberty. Same with happiness.

What is your identity? What is America? A plot of ground? No, America is an idea. It is a melting pot of cultures who came to America. You get something from American culture for coming here, and we get something from the culture you brought here.