By George B. Hightower, M.D., retired Lieutenant Commander for the U.S. Navy Reserve, 2026 Candidate for Lieutenant Governor
This weekend America celebrated its 250th anniversary, celebrating the longest tenured single document constitution in world history.
Our forefathers fought and died for freedom from the oppressive tyranny of a monarchy that believed that the liberties of its citizens rests in the hands of men.
Many of us who have served in the U.S. military have witnessed first-hand the price paid for that freedom. Your life is changed forever when holding a comrade as he gives the last “full measure of devotion.”
We celebrate the greatness of our military and rightfully so. The valor of those who willingly lay down their lives are honored as they should be. Often, however, we behave as if freedom is maintained only by those who possess more bullets and bigger bombs. We treat freedom as if it were purely a political construct. Our founding fathers thought differently.
In the battle for American independence, the Continental army was generally outnumbered and outgunned. General George Washington frequently attributed the survival of the Continental Army and the success of the American Revolution to “divine intervention.”
In a July 1755 letter to John Augustine Washington, George Washington wrote: “By the All-Powerful Dispensations of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation; for I had four bullets through my coat, and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side of me!”
In June of 1783, after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington was preparing to resign his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army. In a circular sent to the governors of the newly formed 13 states he urged national unity and closed with this earnest prayer for the fledgling nation:
“I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, Humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks (sic) of the Devine (sic) Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. ”
This prayer is read daily during the wreath laying ceremony at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon gravesite. So convinced was General Washington of our need to follow Christ’s example, he proclaimed: “without humble imitation of [Christ’s] example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
In October of 1798, John Adams, now the newly elected 2nd President of the United States, echoed the sentiments of General Washington. He wrote: “Because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Our founding fathers taught that with the freedom for which they bled and died comes great responsibility.
In our current society, lawlessness and defiance of common-sense moralities are encouraged, even championed. In the quest for equal justice, legislators feel compelled to pass more and more laws. History teaches that externally dictated constraints will not suffice to curb human passion or avarice. Absent individual self-control, growing central control results in curbed liberties.
Our forefathers fought, bled, and died to free every American from the shackles of oppression. Freedom was maintained, they realized, by the self-government of each individual and the imitation of their Creator in love, justice, mercy, humility.
Our founding fathers understood that a government of, for, and by the people begins at home and only Christ-like imitation would ensure a future happy nation.
This op-ed was voluntarily submitted by 2026 Candidate for Lt. Governor George Hightower and not solicited by Must Read Alaska. All candidates running for elected office are welcome and encouraged to submit articles for publication. Must Read Alaska unequivocally supports the election of a conservative candidate to the Office of Governor but does not endorse a particular candidate.
