Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Are you satisfied with the direction America is traveling today? Every generation determines the road on which they will take it. We now find ourselves at a fork in that road and must make a critical decision. Which route will we choose? Unlike the lovable New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra who would say "when you get to a fork in the road take it," the decisions we make in November will determine the survival of our nation as we know it.

One direction leads to loss of freedoms and eventually slavery caused by socialism and communism. The other leads to God-given freedom and opportunity. Common sense says that everyone will choose the road to freedom, but if that were the case, why do we find ourselves in the situation we are in today? In the last election, our people embraced big federal government control with a promise of hope and change. Progressives have been promoting big government for over a hundred years but recently it has escalated to a whole new level.

When our founding fathers wrote the Constitution they were very concerned about an all-powerful federal government and the harm it could cause. That is why very limited power was given to it. They specifically gave power to the people and to the states. Progressives proclaim that the Constitution is a living document and must change with the times. That has no truth in it. Provisions were made within it for amendments as needed.

Today we find that legislators either bypass or completely ignore the Constitution. For example Congressman Phil Hare, Illinois Democrat, told an assembled crowd of critics of the health care bill "I don’t worry about the Constitution." Congressman Alcee Hastings, Florida Democrat, said "we make the rules as we go along." Let us hope that our people awake from their slumber and realize that this government is usurping our rights and moving us toward a socialist/communist state and eventually toward a one-world government or what has been referred to by the last four administrations (both parties) as the new world order, controlled by the United Nations.

That process is already beginning and it must be stopped by an informed citizenry. The choice is ours. The quality of our lives and those of future generations depend on it. This country is the last great hope for the world. Consider this: if we lose our freedoms what country could we depend on to help restore them? Our founders understood that our freedoms are given us by God and no one has the right to take them away. The founders also understood that the Constitution could only survive in a moral society that honors godly principles. We need to return to those and pray that He will preserve the greatest country ever known.

If you share these thoughts, and you live in either Gloucester or Mathews, may I suggest that you join the Peninsula Patriots. This is a group of patriots who love their country and seek to preserve our United States Constitution. The time for action is now. To do less will be a tragedy.

DeWitt Edwards

Mathews, Va.