Personally, I had the opportunity to spend some time with family over the past several days, and that helped to rejuvenate me.  We should be thankful for times like these, because we will not always have them.  In fact, at the rate that America is falling we may not have too many July 4th celebrations left.

Just about every major decision that our leaders make is self-destructive, and if we stay on the road that we are currently on our nation is not going to survive.  So let us hope for some sort of a great awakening to happen soon, because the clock is ticking.

In a recent article, Jeff Lukens pointed out that when nations finally die they tend to do so "with surprising speed"…

When nations die, they do so with surprising speed. Ernest Hemingway made a similar observation when a person in his novel was asked how he went bankrupt, and his reply was, "Gradually, then suddenly."

Nations are built upon classical values — perseverance, self-reliance, and honor. A great nation is one whose values have made it unusually prosperous. In its latter days, the nation becomes hollowed out and burdened with a costly, top-heavy government. The middle class is expected to provide generosity to the masses. Over time, traditional values fade away, and everyone seeks to live off everyone else.

The United States shows aspects of a once great power past its prime. It is socially and politically divided, aware of the necessity for changes, unable or unwilling to make them, and losing the conviction in the shared goals that earlier invigorated it.

Sadly, he is quite right. Our core values have been fading away for decades, and at this point most Americans realize that something has gone horribly wrong.

In fact, a recent Gallup poll discovered that a whopping 87 percent of us rate the overall state of America's moral values as either "poor" or "only fair"…

A record-high 50% of Americans rate the overall state of moral values in the U.S. as "poor," and another 37% say it is "only fair." Just 1% think the state of moral values is "excellent" and 12% "good."