Basic HTML Version
by
Gorner Ted Armstrong
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This isn't
real/y an article. lt's a sermon
-
in print.
/f
it were an
article, 1 would complete/y
redo it, changing many of the
shorter phrases, smoothing
out some of the expressions,
and making it flow more like
an artic/e. But, frank/y, 1 feel it
would remove some of the
feeling that comes through. So
/'m leaving it like it i s - a
nearly unedited speech 1 gave
at one of my personal appear-
ance campaigns.
W
E noN'T
like being told that
Uncle Sam is sick. Some–
how it doesn't sound
right. We look at our pulsating
economy and at our enormous
stockpi les of weapons of every vari–
ety and Ameríca seems strong. We
líke to think that the American
dream is still the world's dream.
Yet in the back of most of our
minds is the nagging thought that
today something is really wrong
with the American way of li fe. It's
frustrating, and it seems unpatriotic.
We don't know what todo about it.
We would like to ignore it.
But we don't solve problems by
pretending the problems don't exist.
And we aren't going to save our
2
beloved country untíl we are wílling
to acknowledge out interna) sick–
ness.
1 love good old Uncle Sam. 1
think we all do. But it 's not loving
America less to acknowledge its
problems and the potential for even
greater problems.
Jt is loving my country - which
gave me my birth, which gives me
the precious rights of freedom of
speech, freedom of religio"' free–
dom of the press, freedom to be an
individual - to bope that we will
acknowledge our sickness and heal
it and go on to fulfiU the promise of
the greatness we. could have.
We like to cop out by sayíng it's
only a few people who are causing
America's problems. l t's the drug
pushers, criminals out there, it's the
corrupt politicians in huge bureau–
cratíc segments of government, or
maybe ít's the establishment.
And especíally we don't líke
being told that rnaybe "we" are
ruining our country collectively -
aU ofus, a líttle bit ata time. Slowly,
insistently, continuously, on a day–
to-day and a week-to-week basis,
we
are ruining our country. Our politi–
cians speak sweet words. " Let's talk
about what's right with America.
I'm tired of all this bad-mouthing of
our country," they tell us.
They talk about the Statue of Lib-
erty, Mount Rushmore, and maybe
Niagara Falls, or Yosemite. They
talk about mountains and rivers and
valleys and the golden fields of wav–
ing grain. But they don ' t stand up
and say that America is sick. They
don' t point to our racism, immoral–
ity, unemployment, blighted cíties,
or the other social upheavals in our
midst.
lt's Time for a Checkup
If Uncle Sam were a member of
our immediate family- a very won–
derful, warm, friendly, and beloved
old relative - we would be deeply
concerned about exactly what was
wrong witb him , and wbat cure was
necessary.
We would send Uncle to special–
ists. We would have them check his
heart, his círculatory system, his di–
gestive system, and his skeletal sys–
tem.
Wha t would the report from the
doctors be? lf Uncle's condition
were to refiect America's condition
today, the report would be shocking.
We would want to do something -
drastically and quickly.
I say this because
J
believe in the
depths of my being that this country
is síck. and that the disease could be
diagnosed as caocer ·of practically
everything.
Unitedly. we all ought to realize
PLAIN TRUTH September 1973