THE UTMOST GOOD FAITH OF THE PARTIES

By Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
© Copyright May 10, 2009 - All Rights Reserved

The late, uncommonly wise radio commentator Paul Harvey, had a saying that he used often in his 50 years of broadcasting and it went like this: "Self Government, without Self Discipline, Will Not Work." The adage applies to many aspects of our life, not only in dealing with each other, but more importantly, in our relationship with government.
In the end, we are judged by the standards we live by, good or bad and most of us are aware of what behavior is good or bad. If we allow ourselves to set standards for our own behavior that are less than we are able to achieve, we affect everyone around us, including our own children, who parrot what we say and do. The lines in a fairly popular western song, summed it up in another way. "..... you surround yourself with people who demand so little of you."
For over 30 years we have dealt with people who owned land, predominantly ranchers and farmers. We called them the salt of the Earth and we still do. They had a creed that most of them lived by that worked out to be: "..... my word is my bond" and they wondered why we needed all this paper work to consummate the purchase of their property. We had one landowner who said, "..... that's fine, you buy my property, give me a check and I'll give you a deed." Of course, in this complicated day of real estate transactions, title insurance and escrows, we said "..... it doesn't work that way any more sir, we have to go through escrow." We doubt, to this day, if he really understood and in a way, we regretted having to burst his bubble. To this landowner, life came in simple, uncomplicated, black and white terms and it was foreign to him to do it any other way. For those of us who grew up in the 1950's, when life was simple and uncomplicated, we have empathy for those who believed it should still be this way.
During those thirty years we would have people lament to us that the person they had a contract with, was violating the contract. They said: "..... he can't do that, we have a contract." We would have to explain to them that a contract is only as good as the "utmost good faith of the parties involved." If there was no good faith on one or both sides, well then the injured party would find themselves in the precarious and unpredictable hands of a lawyer and the courts and whatever their lawyer could prove against the other side's lawyer in a court of law, on the injured party's behalf ..... in most cases, a crap shoot at best.

Today, even though the American people have a contract (the U. S. Constitution) with the 545 people who lead this country, the leaders have egregiously, blatantly and with malice aforethought, violated that contract for the perpetuation of their power and for their own personal gain. The sad part is, both of us, on either side of that contract, have displayed bad faith. The leaders have violated the contract by passing laws in direct conflict with that contract and have acted in contradiction to its terms. The governed, on the other hand, have violated the same contract by not holding the leaders accountable to the terms of that contract, since again, a contract is only as good as "the utmost good faith of the parties."
As long as the ruling party to the contract continues to act in bad faith, without being held accountable by the good faith actions of the governed ..... as long as the governed turn their heads when the ruling party acts in bad faith, the contract (our U. S. Constitution) has no force or effect and the violations to that contract will grow exponentially, until such time as the protections offered by that contract are void. We are dangerously close to that point.
As free Americans, we find ourselves with our backs to the edge of a precipice and an intractable entity, national and international governments, money changers, power brokers and special interest groups, are pushing us ever closer to the edge. We either turn and fight the advancing enemy, or we succumb to the force of gravity in our irreversible plunge to the bottom of the canyon, where either death or slavery awaits us.

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When we were in Tucson, AZ a few years ago, at a restaurant, we walked up to a man in uniform and specifically thanked him for his service to our country. He thanked us and then said the day before, he had been spat on by two passer-bys, so our gratitude was doubly welcome. For one of our service men or women to be treated by an American in this fashion, is an unabashed insult and the height of ignorance and stupidity. So we are proposing a different way to thank our service men and women.
BUY A MEAL FOR OUR SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN: We would like to make an overture to our service men or women in America and abroad. Whenever you are at a restaurant and you see a service man and his family, or a group of service men or women having a meal, if you have the resources, may we be so bold as to suggest that you go over and pick up their tab and thank them for their service to this great country. Or do it anonymously from a grateful American, through the waiter. Without these brave men and women, we would not be arguing over the breadth of our freedom. There would be none. Let this be a start to an American tradition to last through the ages. Let all Americans show "the utmost good faith" to those individuals who stand on the front lines, between us and our enemies.
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And a happy and glorious Mother's Day to every American mother who stands on the front lines between the rest of us and their children. May we show each and every one of them "the utmost good faith" for their selfless service to humanity.