A few years ago, Cunegonde and I visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While walking the length of a Saturn-V rocket like the ones that put a man on the moon...
...I had an unhappy thought: This is a museum, no different from the ones in old Europe, a display of lost glory. This is where we tell the world, and remind ourselves, "We once did great things."
*************************************************************************
Freedom in the World is a yearly survey and report by U.S.-based Freedom House that attempts to measure the degree of political freedom and civil rights in every nation around the world. Their reports for 2010, 2011, and 2012 include rankings for 193 countries, including several you have almost certainly never heard of (Kiribati, Palau, Vanuatu, anyone?).
According to the PewResearch Center’s report of January, 2011, 46 countries have Muslim-majority populations. Of those 46 countries:
- Twenty-nine - 63% - are designated “Not Free.”
- Fifteen - 33% - are designated “Partly Free.”
- Only two – 4% - (Mali and Indonesia) are designated “Free.”
Another seven countries are 33% or more Muslim. Of those seven:
- Three - 43% - are designated “Not Free.”
- Four - 57% - are designated “Partly Free.”
- None are designated “Free.”
So in all:
- Fifty-three countries - 27% of the world’s total - have either Muslim majorities or large Muslim minorities.
- Of those 53 countries, 32 - 60% - are designated by Freedom House as “Not Free.”
- Nineteen - 36% - are designated as only “Partly Free.”
- Only two - 4% - are designated as “Free.”
Some more statistics: Freedom House designates 49 total countries as “Not Free.” So 59% (29 out of 49) of the countries in the world that are “Not Free” have Muslim majorities, while almost two-thirds of the world’s “Not Free” countries have either Muslim majorities or large Muslim minorities.
Do you spot a pattern here?
*************************************************************************
From John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Kennedy was speaking to our enemies – most notably the Soviet Union – and to our friends. He was telling everyone that our friends could rely on us, that our enemies should fear us, and that all should respect us.
Ronald Reagan redeemed Kennedy’s pledge, supporting the survival and the success of liberty in small weak countries like Grenada and Nicaragua, and against large hostile ones like the Soviet Union.
How times have changed. Kennedy also said we were going to send a man to the moon and bring him back. Today we can’t even afford to send him into low earth orbit, and we will not do so again soon. Reagan demanded of a nuclear-armed adversary, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! Today we have a president who apologizes to the mob of a third-world country in a vain, shameful attempt to calm their fury at our very existence.
Today, almost two-thirds of the world’s non-free countries have one thing in common – a large population that adheres to a death-cult masquerading as a great religion. We once had presidents who would oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty. No longer. Our enemies no longer fear us, our friends no longer believe they can rely on us, and neither respect us.
Once, we did great things. Once, we could proclaim for all to hear that we would stand strong for freedom throughout the world and that we would send a man to the moon, and no one doubted us. Today we can do neither because we have bankrupted ourselves. Kennedy challenged us to ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. Today he would be laughed at by a childish people who increasingly demand that government take more and better care of them.
We once did great things. Sic transit gloria mundi.
