Dear America, 

This will be my final letter. There is nothing left to say and much left to do. 

To frame the closing message, let us return to the man who was, in letters no. 6 and 7, formerly trapped by the witch’s illusion. Our hero, the alter ego of We the People. 

Since scurrying home, he has returned to daily life. Sure, he’s extremely paranoid, fully mistrustful, and a touch skittish—but he’s alive. He’s healing. His wife accepted him back and the villagers seem entirely oblivious to his ordeal. 

Or almost entirely… 

In quiet whispers out of his earshot, they gossip about him: “He glitches. The other day, we were having a discussion. About every two minutes, he would change from totally agreeing with me to berating my positions as idiotic. He’s barmy.” 

The man’s friends and family felt the effects of his split personality the most. 

He spent weeks convincing his closest confidante to confront a neighbor over watering rights. And then, during the trial, he gave testimony on behalf of the neighbor, costing his friend the verdict and a tidy sum of money. Afterward, our hero sincerely proclaimed to his friend that he would help him fight the negative outcome—stand with him against injustice forever. They are no longer friends. 

And his poor wife! She was doing her best to support him, but it was impossible. One day, he flung open their front door and welcomed all people into their home, friends and strangers alike. He went as far as to put signs in their small orchard advertising free shelter, food, and wine. 

“We have plenty,” he said. Even as his wife winced, knowing they had far too little in storage for winter, he continued babbling, “After all, we’re just one family in a big village. Oh, also my love, please lighten up on enforcing the house rules. Some of our guests don’t like them and would rather do things according to their own custom.” 

Just when their humble abode and tiny plot of land were overrun with people, our hero suddenly changed his mind and fervently demanded they all leave. Unfortunately for him and his family, though, the village judge determined he had no right to remove them because they had been invited onto the property. To this day, the squatters remain in his garden and at his kitchen table. 

Meanwhile, many prominent villagers perceived his actions as philanthropy and followed his lead. In his new state of mind, however, the man began hurling insults at them and scolding them for letting the whole neighborhood go to hell. His wife’s pleading was all that kept him from being booted from the town council. 

Shockingly, he never seemed to notice what he was doing. His two selves were blissfully unaware of each other. This went on for months until, finally, his wife had enough. She explained to him what had been going on. 

“I think you’re possessed,” she said to him flatly. “But you did this to yourself when you ran off with that woman. Figure out how to fix it, or we’re over.” 

Shocked at both the revelation of his multiple personalities and his wife’s harsh ultimatum, he sat in a stupor. Not knowing what else to do, he said a prayer and went to bed. 

The next day, he heard a knock on the door. Standing on his porch was the Man in the Blue Suit. 

So ends his tale for now… 

*** 

This story may seem absurd to the reader, but it reflects today’s America. To our friends, we must seem mercurial and unsteady. To our enemies, we must appear comically troubled and enticingly vulnerable, yet dangerously and violently unpredictable. Crazy or not, our sword is sharp and we wield it well. 

But we are no longer one people with one culture. 

If President Trump accomplishes nothing else, he will have achieved one thing: He has ensured that both cultural groups in the United States recognize that they are two, that they are of separate minds, and that they want drastically different, incompatible futures for America. 

By now it should be obvious to everyone that multiculturalism cannot cure the great divide in our society, because multiculturalism caused it. Multiculturalism is not a noble pivot to egalitarianism but the One Ring as Tolkien described it—the reordering of worldviews to grant supremacy to a new paradigm at the expense of all others. In short, it is a blueprint for replacing American Culture and resetting the American System. And its effects have been widespread and egregious. 

Since the New Deal, we have teetered weirdly on the edge of being a post-socialist state rather than a mixed economy. The executive branch frequently determines which industries and companies succeed or fail and which segments of the economy remain viable. The judges rewrite, countermand, and ultimately execute policies. The administrative state legislates while legislators debate how to spend our money and connive ways to leverage their position to make millions. The federal reserve determines with impunity the financial future of the entire nation. 

In a merit-based system built on free markets where state and local leaders were intended to do the lion’s share of governing, this all seems slightly antithetical to the intent of the system’s founders, does it not? 

We the People are caught in a doom spiral, where the severe malfunction of the American System caused by the degradation of American Culture is now preventing the culture from healing. 

In a now famous letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following words: 

[I]t may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. They are masters too of their own persons, and consequently may govern them as they please. But persons and property make the sum of the objects of government. The constitution and the laws of their predecessors extinguished then in their natural course, with those who gave them being. 

This could preserve that being till it ceased to be itself, and no longer. Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right. It may be said that the succeeding generation exercising in fact the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the constitution or law had been expressly limited to 19 years only. In the first place, this objection admits the right, in proposing an equivalent. But the power of repeal is not an equivalent. It might be indeed if every form of government were so perfectly contrived that the will of the majority could always be obtained fairly and without impediment. But this is true of no form. The people cannot assemble themselves. Their representation is unequal and vicious. Various checks are opposed to every legislative proposition. Factions get possession of the public councils. Bribery corrupts them. Personal interests lead them astray from the general interests of their constituents… 

This principle that the earth belongs to the living, and not to the dead, is of very extensive application and consequences. [Jefferson to James Madison, September 6, 1789, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-12-02-0248] 

Jefferson’s point rings true today. The constraints of tradition and the rigidity of legislative precedent can inhibit cultural renewal and progress. In a very boiled down way of thinking, Rome began to crumble when it replaced cultural fundamentals, morality, and ethics with laws. Yet, tradition also helps a culture stay on course, and this was one of the major rebuttals Madison made in a subsequent letter. [Madison to Jefferson, February 4, 1790, Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/01-13-02-0020.] 

My take on the exchange between Jefferson and Madison is this: If a culture transfers fundamental beliefs, knowledge, and skills to each new generation—and if the living learn from the dead and allow the past to guide them—then laws fall into their proper place as mere guides and curbs built for the specific context of each era. In other words, as long as We the People remain “enlightened” and have a robust understanding of history, natural law, objective morality, and our shared cultural purpose as Americans, we can have faith we will govern ourselves justly and in a way that is aligned with our traditions.

So, what are these fundamentals? I think the Founders included many of them in the Bill of Rights. 

• Vocation, vocation, vocation. See CuRe All Letters No. 3, 4, and 12. 
  • Consider mandatory civics examinations for natural born citizens prior to granting voting eligibility. Why are only naturalized citizens required to know civics?
• Know how to effectively and safely arm and defend yourself and your family. Do so prudently. 
  • Consider mandatory military service, like the Swiss model. 
  • Understand the criticality of an armed citizenry in repelling enemies, both foreign and domestic. 
  • Understand that state militias largely sourced their equipment from private citizens, who legally purchased, possessed, and maintained it.
• Secure the sanctity of your domicile, in both the physical and digital domains (i.e., safe internet access, privacy, etc.). 
• Thoroughly understand your obligations, rights, and protections under the law at the Federal, State, and local levels. 
  • Understand that, when it comes to daily life, the states continue to wield enormous influence. And rightly so. 
  • Understand that, by the letter of our Founding Documents, the Supreme Court overstepped in passing Roe v Wade, not by overturning it. They legislated from the bench, much as federal district court judges are doing today. 

While I am sure there are many more “cultural fundamentals,” I do not wish to spend an abundance of time listing them all. The important ones have all been discussed in these letters already anyway. All but one. 

And that is: Trust the future to the children and teach them to be truly American. Trust and teach. 

Children are the vehicle by which God allows the light of our American Culture to draw in all those individuals throughout the world that share our beliefs and purpose. 

There are Americans and Christians—both alive and waiting to be born—in every corner of this world. Many simply have not arrived on our shores yet. We must do our part to ensure these souls have hope and sanctuary, now and in the future. For in this world, people who truly, firmly believe what we believe are uncommon, misunderstood, and outcasted. 

We must not give in to despair. There will always be strife, conflict, and cause for worry. The Devil never sleeps, and we will never defeat him. There will always be enemies plotting our downfall. Nature will always be fearsome and, in ways, mysterious to us. None of us are here long enough to really understand anything but the most basic things. So let us cling to that as an ideal. 

America is imperfect. It is perhaps the greatest product of Western Civilization that never achieved its full promise. Shadows swirl in the light that We the People shine on the world. Yet, because the light comes from God, we know it will reach those it needs to. And they will find their way home by its glow even though we have obscured it with our darkness. 

In the truest sense, if we shine the true light of our culture into the world, the tired, hungry, and poor—the meek—who are already our brethren in belief and spirit will join us, restore and shape our culture with us, and pass the future to our sons and daughters. 

As the rainbow is of many hues, so will we be. And—just as the rainbow is one phenomenon representing one promise made by the one, true God—we will be one people with one culture pursuing a common purpose. 

Here’s to the future we will build with our will, with our minds, with our hands, and with our sweat and toil. We, the future dead, must leave something for the future living to conserve, restore, and develop. 

We the People, throughout all eras and geographies, must join together. 

May our future be brighter than our past, America, 

Finch Fries