Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

August 7, 2007

Merle Haggard's song ?America First,? which was released over a year ago, contains some nearly prophetic lines:

?Our highways and bridges are falling apart ? who's blessed, and who has been cursed? There's things to be done all over the world, but let's rebuild America first.?

Those lines came readily to mind last week following the lethal collapse of the I-35 bridge spanning the Mississippi River.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates the cost of repairing our nation's rotting infrastructure ? such as roads and bridges -- to be at least $1.6 trillion. That's not all that much more than recent authoritative estimates regarding the final cost of the needless war in Iraq.

Political liberals would say Washington should spend more on bridges and less on bombs. In fact, Washington should spend dramatically less on everything, and let states and local communities keep resources where they can be used to repair the damage done to our country through decades of centralized statism.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.