new and expand our sense of community.rnCommandment I: The future is not something we inherit, butrnsomething we create. Too many Americans believe that God isrnan American who will watch over us no matter how hedonistic,rnselfish, myopic, or inefficient we become. This is a dangerousrnhubris. No great nation in history has ever withstood the ravagesrnof time. Toynbee warned us that all great nations rise andrnfall, and that the “autopsy of history is that all great nationsrncommit suicide.” Because God will not automatically savernAmerica, with God’s help, we must save ourselves.rnThere is an Amazon legend about a priest speaking withrnGod about heaven and hell. “I will show you hell,” said God.rnThey went into a room which had a delicious beef stew on therntable, around which sat people who looked desperately famished.rnThey held spoons with long handles which reached intornthe pot, but because the spoons were too long, they could notrnget the stew into their mouths. Their suffering was terrible.rn”Now, I will show you heaven,” said God. They then went intornan identical room with the same savory stew on the table,rnaround which sat people with identical spoons and handles, butrnthey were well nourished and joyous. The priest was baffledrnuntil God said, “Quite simply, you see, these people havernlearned to feed each other.”rnWe can create chaos, as in Bosnia, or we can create community.rnThe decision is up to us.rnCommandment II: A great community needs great leadersrnand great citizens. How do wc expect to build communityrnwhen 30 percent of our births (67 percent of black births) are illegitimate,rnand when we know that illegitimacy is a “leading indicator”rnof almost every social pathology (e.g., juvenile delinquency,rncrime, spousal abuse, drug abuse, etc.)? How do wernhold the urban centers of this nation together when 70 percentrnof the students in public school come from families that qualifyrnfor the “free lunch” program and the wealthy live in “gatedrncommunities”? What should we expect in the 21st century afterrnmy generation has witnessed a 560 percent increase in violentrncrime, a 419 percent increase in illegitimate births, a 400rnpercent increase in divorce rates, a 300 percent increase in childrenrnliving in single-parent homes, and a drop of 80 points inrnSAT scores?rnCommandment III: A community must have economic stability.rnEconomic instability preceded Lenin’s Russia, Mussolini’srnItaly, and Hitler’s Germany. My generation has lied about ourrncountry’s deficit by borrowing from various federal trust funds,rnmasked the true extent of our debt, and run up a staggeringrntrade deficit. Look at the figures: the federal debt that we admitrnto has been growing steadily both in actual numbers and asrna percentage of our GDP. When I was elected to my secondrnterm as governor of Colorado in 1979, the federal debt was SIrntrillion and the GDP $3 trillion. When I left office in 1987, thernfederal debt was $2 trillion and the GDP $4 trillion. Today, thernfederal debt is $5 trillion and the GDP $7 trillion. This is badrnenough, but when the “unfunded” liabilities for programs thatrnwe have enjoyed (like military pensions, federal civil service retirement,rnand Social Security) are added into the mix, the actualrncosts that our children and great grandchildren will have tornpay are between $14 and $17 trillion, if not more. The traderndeficit gives people outside the United States a claim on our assets.rnIt is essentially an lOU for goods we imported in excess ofrnthose we exported.rnNever has a generation of Americans so prespent our children’srnmoney and mortgaged their future. We are the most fiscallyrnirresponsible generation in our nation’s history, and tornmany thoughtful people, there will come a day of reckoning forrnour irresponsible actions.rnCommandment IV: A community must generate tolerancernand yet set limits on that tolerance. Tolerance is a word easy tornsay—hard to apply. But what a community should and shouldrnnot tolerate often depends on context. It is your right to readrnyour Bible, your Koran, your Torah, but it is not your right tornforce these readings on others. We can tolerate almost anyrnidea, and the community should be alive with argument.rnWhat should be taught in public schools is a thornier issue.rnWe are entitled to believe in creationism, for example, but arernwe entitled to teach it as fact in the public schools? I suggestrnnot.rnThe standards for teaching and tolerance are not coterminous.rnIt may be that you deeply believe that it is the trees movingrnthat makes the wind. This is your prerogative, but you cannotrnteach it to my kids in public institutions. Science andrnrational thought have put to rest certain arguments, and knowledgernmust move forward if we are to survive in a competitivernworid. We can tolerate many private beliefs but should standrnstrong against institutionalizing nonscience and falsehood intornour school system.rnCommandment V: A community can be a Joseph’s coat ofrnmany colors and creeds, but it must have more things in commonrnthan differences. “Diversity” is a word sweeping Americarnand, in particular, our college campuses. I am suspicious of thern”eulogization” of that word. I recently traveled around thernworld and in no place, with the possible exception of Hawaii,rndid I see “diversity” working. The people of the world’s mostrndiverse regions are mostly engaged in hating and killing one another.rnA peaceful and stable society built on “diversity” isrnmuch harder to achieve than most Americans acknowledge,rnand I am sobered by how much unity it takes. Dorf’s World Historyrntell us that “the Greeks believed that they belonged to thernsame race; they possessed a common language and literature,rnand they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part inrnthe Olympic games in honor of Zeus, and all Greeks veneratedrnthe shrine of Apollo at Delphi. A common enemy, Persia,rnthreatened their liberty. Yet all of these bonds together werernnot strong enough to overcome two factors. .. local patriotismrnand geographical conditions which nurtured political divisions.”rnThe Los Angeles Times, whose market area is now a seethingrnland of ethnic tensions, warns, “If ethnicity begins to replacerncitizenship as the basis of statehood, chaos would ensue.” Butrnthis is exactly the situation today. I lispanie students demand arnseparate education, at which the Mexican, not American, flagrnis flown. There is more talk of “reclaiming” the Southwest forrnMexico than there is of allegiance to America. Is this just arnpassing phase? The history of multiple cultures living togetherrnwithout assimilation is not encouraging. The United Statesrnruns the very great risk of creating a “Hispanic Quebec” if werndo not develop and apply the right social ties. As BenjaminrnSchwarz said recently in the Atlantic Monthly, “The apparentrnsuccess of our own multi-ethnic and multicultural experimentrnmight have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony.rn28/CHRONICLESrnrnrn