This is refreshing

BRUCE R. McCONKIE
"It is our firm conviction as a people that the stars and stripes will be waving triumphantly in the breeze, as a symbol of the greatness and stability of the United States of America, when the Lord comes. This nation was established to be the Lord's base of operations in this final gospel dispensation. From it the gospel is to go to every other nation and people. The greater its influence among the nations of the world, the more rapidly the gospel spreads. But the Lord has told us that all nations, the United States included, shall cease to be when he comes" (The Millennial Messiah, 491).

EZRA TAFT BENSON
"We are fast approaching that moment prophesied by Joseph Smith when he said: 'Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction" (Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, July 19, 1840) (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 623 - 624).

JOSEPH SMITH
Words of James Burgess: "In the month of May 1843, several miles east of Nauvoo, the Nauvoo Legion was on parade and review, at the close of which Joseph Smith made some remarks upon our condition as a people and upon our future prospects, contrasting our present condition with our past trials and persecutions by the hands of our enemies; also upon the Constitution and government of the United States, stating that the time would come when the Constitution and government would hang by a brittle thread and would be ready to fall into other hands, but this people, the Latter-day Saints, will step forth and save it. . . .I, James Burgess, was present and testify to the above" (The Words of Joseph Smith, 279).

EZRA TAFT BENSON
"The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith there would be an attempt to overthrow the country by destroying the Constitution. Joseph Smith predicted that the time would come when the Constitution would hang, as it were, by a thread, and at that time 'this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction' (Journal of Discourses, 7:15). It is my conviction that the elders of Israel, widely spread over the nation, will at that crucial time successfully rally the righteous of our country and provide the necessary balance of strength to save the institutions of constitutional government" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 618-619)

HAROLD B. LEE
On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 11:49 AM, Daniel Kelly Ogden wrote:
There are some extraordinary and very timely thoughts from President Harold B. Lee (speaking in October 1973) circulating on the Internet. I looked into the quotation carefully and have confirmed that the words below are accurate; at the end I list the sources. Latter-day Saints and all Americans need this right now. (Someone might even want to forward this to Glenn Beck; he needs to see it!)

President Lee:
Men may fail in this country, earthquakes may come, seas may heave beyond their bounds, there may be great drought, disaster, and hardship, but this nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail.
This is the cradle of humanity, where life on this earth began in the Garden of Eden. This is the place of the New Jerusalem. . . . This is the place where the Savior will come to His temple.
We are living in a time of great crisis. The Country is torn with scandal and with criticism, with faultfinding and condemnation. There are those who have downgraded the image of this nation as probably never before in the history of the country.
I plead with you not to preach pessimism. Preach that this is the greatest country in all the world. . . . It is the nation that will stand despite whatever trials or crises it may yet have to pass through.
We must be on the optimistic side. This is a great nation; this is a great country; this is the most favored of all lands. While it is true that there are dangers and difficulties that lie ahead of us, we must not assume that we are going to stand by and watch the country go to ruin. We should not be heard to predict ills and calamities for the nation. On the contrary, we should be providing optimistic support for the nation.
You must remember . . . that this church is one of the most powerful agencies for the progress of the world, and we should . . . all sound with one voice. We must tell the world how we feel about this land and this nation and should bear our testimonies about the great mission and destiny that it has.
If we do this, we will help turn the tide of this great country and lessen the influence of the pessimists. We must be careful that we do not say or do anything that will further weaken the country. It is the negative, pessimistic comments about the nation that do as much harm as anything to the country today. We who carry these sacred responsibilities must preach the gospel of peace, and peace can only come by overcoming the things of the world. Now, we must be the dynamic force that will help turn the tide of fear and pessimism.
(Excerpts from a talk given at Ricks College Devotional Assembly, "Have Faith in America," October 26, 1973, and printed in two sources:Ye Are the Light of the World: Selected Sermons and Writings of Harold B. Lee, 340, 350-351, and The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, edited by Clyde J. Williams, 365-366.)

Next book

Discussing The Forsaken was very interesting -- thanks for your insights ladies! Jen Wall served a mission in Estonia in 1993, two years after the "Velvet Revolution" set them free from Russia. She remembers how when she first got there, the stores had just a few things in them, and were sometimes empty -- the people had plenty of (worthless) money, but nothing to buy with it. As her mission went on there was more and more food in the stores, with more selections. The prices were high, since it was all imported, but the young people were ecstatic -- though they had never seen bananas before and didn't know how to eat them. The “Five Year Plans” were supposed to end hunger and give everyone a job and health care, but food (and all other consumer goods) shortages, and the lines they produced, lasted the entire seventy year history of the Soviet Union.
That is just one tiny anecdote I thought I'd pass on that shines a light on the central problem of socialism -- basically, if you rely on the government to take care of you, it may, or may not, take care of you. Or it may keep you alive, but your living conditions are so poor (like in the Gulags) that you wish you were dead. Why would a bureaucrat care if you have good food and decent clothes. "We're trying to beat the Americans in the space race! We can't afford bananas for you!"
I'm writing an article on "socialization" for the LDS Eastern Home Educators conference (I promise this isn't a crazy tangent, but a link between our last book and our next book), and I just opened the book Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms by the noted educational historian Diane Ravitch, and read, in the chapter "On the Social Frontier" the following:
"It was odd that the Russian Revolution inspired (American) educators to want to build a new social order through the schools, because the schools in Russia had not created the Russian Revolution; nor did any of the progressive educators wonder how their own social ideals had been forged, since all of them were the products of subject-centered traditional education. Nonetheless, they shared the faith that progressive education would lead the way in building a new, collectivist social order. In the 1930s, few in the education profession questioned whether they should engage in the political education of their charges. Any educator who said his goal was to teach young people to master academic subjects risked being seen as a reactionary." (p.220) This fabulous book details the century-long fight between parents/local schools and the educational elite over whether the schools should be emphasizing academics to develop well-educated youth, or, as the elite wanted, teaching only job skills and "socialization" along with heavy indoctrination in the gospel of socialism.
We're NOT going to be reading this book (not now anyway), but here's the tie-in: the educrats who run the schools get to choose the values that our society will live by in twenty years, and right now, having mostly got their way in preaching socialism and denigrating western civilization, they are attacking capitalism through another route -- environmentalism. Both Lisa and Natalie said that they are actively involved in "un-indoctrinating" their kids from what they learn at school, and much of that has to do with "Saving the Planet" and "Going Green." Brother Nanto told me that little Paul is afraid of the dark and had been sleeping with a night light on, but lately had been insisting that they turn it off, since it was going to cause "global warming." SO SAD!
So (at last I get to it) the book that we are going to read next, in order to get lots of ammunition to fight the "watermelons" (green on the outside, red on the inside), is called The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism, by Christopher Horner. He is an old co-worker of my husband's from the days when he worked at the Competetive Enterprise Institute, and is a really sharp, hilarious guy -- I've met him. Here's a couple of interviews with him.

There are 18 copies of the book in the Fairfax system, two in the PWC system (but one is lost and the other checked out.) I have two copies that I have lent out already, but when I get them back, I can pass them on.